That Time Domino's Pizza Stepped Up To Help Save American Dairy Farmers

So last week we had the pizza draft and I gave people that story about how Dominos turned America into a pizza nation by inventing the corrugated pizza box. It made delivery of pizza viable and cheese with sauce on dough spread across this nation like manifest destiny. A huge contribution to the culture. And to waistlines but that is a different conversation. 

Another little fact I learned from a farmer that reached out to me via DM...Domino's stepped up to help the American Dairy Industry. After the Great Recession in 2008 the price for milk and all dairy products were in the shitter. When margins are already razors thin for farmers having their commodity price take a big hit means that you lose your business. That is what was happening when Domino's partnered with the industry 

This past month I attended a local promotion event in which our local State and Region, ADA North East, handed out pizza to farmers as a thank you for their support and to help bring awareness to the strength of the Domino’s partnership.  I had the privilege of talking to the franchise owner that delivered the pizza. We talked about our businesses, our similar challenges and the value of our partnership. He got it and his respect for us as dairy farmers was evident. It was refreshing to know that the respect that started at the top of both DMI and Domino’s has permeated through to the franchisees.

We need their help this fall, and they are stepping up in big advertising ways that we will see in the upcoming months. And this is an investment Domino’s is making on their own not because they have to but because they WANT to as they see value in us as farmers. They see value in our industry and they see greater return in using MORE CHEESE!

Dominos saw the situation and decided to add as much as 40% more cheese to drive demand for dairy prices and prop up these farmers in a time of need. The Dairy Farmers helped with the advertising, Dominos helped with the price points, and everybody won because Dominos actually sold more pizzas with the extra cheese branding. 

A heart-warming, artery clogging story. I love it. Everyone knows I love cheese and I can't imagine a world where all these small dairy farms across the country died and were just bought up by Bill Gates so he could raise the price of my burrata and mozz. That would be an unthinkable catastrophe. Thank god for the good people at Dominos.