Whitehouse Communications co-founded the School & Nursery Milk Alliance (SNMA) with Cool Milk to be the voice of those campaigning to safeguard current school and nursery milk provision and promote it across the country. Following the EU referendum, the firm identified the immediate risk of an end to milk provision in schools and led a campaign that secured two governments’ commitment to cover the cost of lost EU funding for school milk, until a new, more domestically appropriate scheme can be devised and implemented. The UK Government also successfully applied to remain in the EU scheme for the academic year 2019/2020.
The challenge
The School & Nursery Milk Alliance (SNMA) is a UK campaigning coalition brought together to safeguard school and nursery milk provision and to promote it across the country. Its members span school milk providers such as Muller, campaigning organisations including Dairy UK and the National Farmers Union, and 10,500 schools and education setting organisations.
Whitehouse Communications co-founded the alliance with Cool Milk in response to the threat that the UK’s exit from the EU posed to school and nursery milk provision. School milk had been supported by EU funding that would be lost as the UK left the EU, creating an immediate risk that established provision could end. The alliance was formed to secure government commitment to cover the funding gap, both through continued participation in the EU scheme in the short term and through a new domestic replacement in the longer term, and to build public and political consensus behind school milk as a national priority.
Our approach
Whitehouse Communications co-founded the alliance with Cool Milk and led its campaigning and media strategy, drawing member organisations, campaigning bodies and 10,500 schools and education setting organisations into a single coordinated voice for school milk.
The work focused on:
- Rapidly identifying the risk to school milk provision immediately after the EU referendum result was known, and building the political case for the Government to recognise the importance of school milk and give children and farmers alike certainty going forward.
- Convening a coalition of school milk providers such as Muller, campaigning organisations including Dairy UK and the National Farmers Union, and 10,500 schools and education setting organisations under the SNMA banner, and coordinating their voice into a single campaign narrative.
- Running a targeted media campaign in the trade press to build awareness of the funding threat and the alliance’s response, including securing a story in Farmers’ Guardian that carried a quote from the SNMA’s spokesperson, Dr Hilary Jones.
- Hosting monthly SNMA awards for schools that teach children about environmental sustainability and the benefits of milk, building sustained engagement with the education sector alongside the political campaign.
The outcome
The campaign secured two governments’ commitment to cover the cost of lost EU funding for school milk until a new, more domestically appropriate scheme can be devised and implemented, regardless of the outcome of Brexit negotiations. The UK Government also successfully applied to remain in the EU scheme for the academic year 2019/2020, providing continuity of milk provision during the transition period.
By convening more than 10,500 schools and education setting organisations, major providers and campaigning bodies under a single alliance, Whitehouse Communications built the SNMA into a recognised voice for school and nursery milk provision in the UK and a durable partner for government on the future of the scheme.
