Ask Kelly Oudenhoven about her family’s dairy farm and you will likely hear her talk about caring for children, marveling at their unique personalities, and noticing the similar mannerisms of daughters, moms and grandmothers.
She’s describing the cows.
The journey of milk from Larrand Dairy in De Pere to the Festival Foods grocery stores in Green Bay begins with those loved and well-cared for cows. DBA teamed up with the grocer and BelGioioso Cheese to create a video showcasing that journey.
Kelly and her husband, Keith, and her father-in-law, Larry, who owns the four-generation, 450-cow farm, happily allowed us to shine a spotlight on the first part of the process.
At BelGioioso, we met Gianni Toffolon, a master cheesemaker from Italy who has worked at the company for 30 years, and we observed part of the cheesemaking process. At our final stop, the video features the Festival team ensuing that the nutritious, locally produced food is all set for shoppers.
The goal of the video is to give customers an inside look at where the dairy foods they pick up for their families come from. People are hyper-interested in how their food is produced these days. They want it to be safe, healthy and responsibly made. At the same time, though, only a fraction of people have a connection to a farm. That’s a recipe for misunderstanding and misconceptions.
When it comes to understanding the need to connect with customers, the Oudenhovens get it. They host farm tours and Kelly is involved in a number of promotional efforts, including Outagamie County Farm Bureau and Outagamie County Dairy Promotion.
“People think about farmers as trustworthy, but they don’t necessarily know our practices,” Kelly said. “We need to be transparent and not assume customers know what we are doing on the farm.”
BelGioioso and Festival Foods get it, too.
“Now, more than ever, guests of Festival Foods are asking about the farms where
their food is grown,” Amy Bailey, com-munications manager for the Wisconsin-based grocer, said. “Our company is always looking for opportunities to highlight the great relationships we have with local processors as well as the farmers who supply them.”
Circling back to the start of the journey, it’s all about the cows for Kelly. As she stood in a cool freestall barn watching her animals chewing on their feed, she said, “I just love seeing them so peaceful and content.”
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Ask Kelly Oudenhoven about her family’s dairy farm and you will likely hear her talk about caring for children, marveling at their unique personalities, and noticing the similar mannerisms of daughters, moms and grandmothers. 
At BelGioioso, we met Gianni Toffolon, a master cheesemaker from Italy who has worked at the company for 30 years, and we observed part of the cheesemaking process. At our final stop, the video features the Festival team ensuing that the nutritious, locally produced food is all set for shoppers. 
“Now, more than ever, guests of Festival Foods are asking about the farms where 
