Idaho dairy families meet pizzeria customers

By Sean Ellis

Idaho Farm Bureau Federation

KUNA – Customers at a new pizza restaurant in Kuna got a chance to meet a group of Idaho dairy families and pet a calf that will soon make some of the 15 billion pounds of milk produced annually in Idaho.

The Oct. 24 event, sponsored by Dairy West, which represents the state’s 490 dairy operations, was held to celebrate the opening of Smoky Mountain Pizzeria Grill’s newest restaurant.

The pizza chain uses only Idaho cheese on all its pizzas, company wide. It also features individual dairy families on its menu and pizza delivery boxes.

The event was “a way to return the favor to Smoky Mountain and put a pretty cool event on for their customers,” said Kuna dairyman John Wind.

Wind and his family were one of a dozen dairy families from the area that showed up for the event, which featured a one-month old Jersey calf that turned into a kid magnet.

Wind said as society’s disconnect from farm to table has grown wider in recent years, people are getting more interested in knowing where their food came from and how it was produced.

“I think an event like this is creating that reality for people to know how their food gets from farm to table,” he said. “It allows people to put a face to the product.”

Dairy West has partnered with Smoky Mountain for the past several years on events that help connect the restaurant’s customers directly with dairy families. In past years, some of the chain’s delivery customers have been stunned to open their doors and see a cow and dairyman staring at them.

Meridian dairyman Clint Jackson, who has supplied the cows during those surprise pizza deliveries, said the events are an opportunity “to try to help people connect with where their food comes from.”

“We want the community to realize that we’re their neighbors and we care about the community and that agriculture is still such a big part of the Idaho economy and Idaho’s communities,” he said. “Whenever they’re buying their milk or ordering their pizza, they’re helping support local families and we appreciate that.”

The Jackson dairy has held open houses for the public the past several years but not everybody can attend that event, Jackson said.

“So tonight, we’re bringing a little bit of the dairy out to the people,” he said.

Wind has also held open houses for the public on his dairy and said he welcomes the chance to share his operation’s story with people.

“I’m super passionate about it because if I don’t tell my story somebody else will and there are a lot of misconceptions about agriculture out there,” he said. “We want people to know that our product was made with love and good animal husbandry.”

By showing up at the pizzeria and mingling with customers, dairymen have a fun opportunity to show them that the cheese they are eating was made by real people in their own community, Wind said.

“The cheese wasn’t created with a little bit of pixie dust,” he said. “A lot of blood, sweat and tears go into it; a lot of hard work and passion and commitment go into putting a quality product on the table that American consumers feel comfortable about eating.”

Smoky Mountain Chief Operating Officer John Ryan said the company decided from the beginning to source as much local food as possible and it started with using only Idaho cheese on its pizzas and promoting the dairy families that make the milk for that cheese.

“We just believe in all things community and all things local,” he said. “In the first couple of years (of working with Dairy West), I learned so much about the hard-working dairy families in our own back yard whose children are going to school with our kids. What a great bunch of people.”

Dairy West CEO Karianne Fallow said the organization does a lot of consumer insight studies and knowing where their food comes from is a key element in consumers’ decision-making process.

“So this is an opportunity to both support Smoky Mountain and to celebrate our Idaho dairy farmers and tell their story,” she said.