Downtown Buffalo, New York’s Explore & More – The Ralph C. Wilson Children’s Museum has added a captivating new addition to its fourth floor. The “Moo-ve The Milk” exhibit is a hands-on display that takes children and their families through the journey of milk from cow to grocery store, making dairy education as fun as it is informative.
Kendra Lamb, a dairy farmer from Oakfield, New York, and president of Milk For Health, said the exhibit builds on the museum’s popular ”Farm to Fork” exhibit, a longstanding partnership between Milk For Health, Upstate Niagara Cooperative Inc. (UNC Dairy) and Explore & More.
“We helped sponsor Betty Lou Moo, which is a free-standing cow that children can hand milk. In addition to the cow, they also have a farmer's market and play kitchen on the floor,” Lamb says. “It’s been an incredibly popular exhibit since the children's museum started, but a couple of years ago we started conversations about adding on to it to really highlight the gap between when the milk comes out of the cow and how it gets to the grocery store. It has been a couple years in the making, but it's been really exciting to see it all come into fruition.”
The exhibit’s inspiration stems from a growing disconnect between consumers and the origins of their food.
“As dairy farmers, we recognize the challenge of being further removed from consumers. They are less likely to have a family member that was a farmer themselves and the trend has obviously continued over time,” Lamb says. “So the idea was to show consumers where their food comes from, how it is processed and help them feel trust in how their food is produced.”
Designing the exhibit was a multiyear, combined effort. Lamb described a committee made up of Milk For Health board members, representatives from UNC Dairy and the museum’s team.
“This truly was a great example of a collaboration that went very well,” Lamb says. “Each of us had our own areas of expertise that we brought to the table but overall was a very collaborative effort.”
One of the biggest challenges was creating a realistic Jersey cow model.
“The models for a cow did not look like what our modern dairy cows look like. We wanted consumers to understand that a healthy dairy cow is not fat and that it’s normal,” Lamb says. “It was important to us to get it right. So we were able to make modifications to the cow to make her more dairy, and we're happy with how it turned out from the model that initially came to us.”
The exhibit guides children through the modern dairy process with immersive, interactive stations. It begins with a life-size cow and a milking machine that allows kids to attach vacuum cups to the udder. Lights indicate when the machine is correctly placed and milk visibly fills jar containers. Kids can even race the machine against hand milking to see the efficiency difference.
From there, children connect a magnetic hose to a simulated milk truck, following the milk path through pasteurization into a bottling station where they can label it as 1%, 2% or whole milk. A visually engaging Plinko-style display illustrates the different colored milk caps and explains fat percentages, emphasizing that even whole milk is nearly 97% fat-free. By the end of the process, children see a finished bottle of milk, ready for the breakfast table.
Beyond the mechanics, the “Moo-ve The Milk” exhibit is designed to reach entire families.
“It's experiential learning, it's hands-on and the decision-makers of the household are there with their children learning together,” Lamb says. “It’s part of a multifaceted approach to educating consumers about dairy, nutrition and the local farms that produce it.”
The reactions from visitors have been overwhelmingly positive. “When the elevator doors opened and the board members saw the exhibit for the first time, I think it was awesome,” Lamb says. “We're just thrilled with how great it looks and how eye-grabbing it is. The colors are fantastic, the graphics are incredible, and we’re happy with how it all turned out.”
Image courtesy of Upstate Niagara Cooperative, Inc. (UNC Dairy)
“I'm most proud that it exhibits all the hard work our farmers do and it really calls out what our producers do to produce a healthy, wholesome product for consumers,” says Kevin Ellis, CEO, UNC Dairy. “There's a lot of pride that goes into farming and it shows through this exhibit.”
According to Lamb, the exhibit may be one of a kind. “As far as we understand from our friends at Explore & More, they could not find any other exhibit like this at any other children's museum in the U.S.,” Lamb says. “So this is completely unique.”
Future plans include integrating the cooking galley located on the backside of the exhibit, allowing children and families to enjoy dairy-focused activities like making yogurt parfaits. Lamb also highlighted opportunities for local farm families to come volunteer, interact with children and share firsthand knowledge about dairy production at the exhibit.
“There's a lot of opportunities to do more events where we encourage folks to interact with the exhibit and continue to tie in dairy messaging through the cooking galley,” Lamb says.
Lamb’s own connection to farming runs deep. Her family farm, Lamb Farms, operates four milking locations across New York and Ohio, with three in New York supplying milk to UNC Dairy. She works with calves and leads farm tours, while her husband and brother-in-law continue a family legacy stretching back 15 generations.
“It’s been incredible to see kids’ reactions. Watching their awe and curiosity as they learn about milk is a point of pride for us,” Lamb says. “Obviously, we’re going to continue to innovate and come up with new ways to reach consumers, but it was really satisfying to see the way the kids were enjoying the exhibit and knowing we were able to be a part of bringing this to Buffalo.”
