The milkman really delivers

July/August 2022 California Bountiful magazine

Residents find dairy products on their doorsteps every week

Story by Linda DuBois
Photos by Derek Hackett

Ginger and Don Anderson really like milk. The Westminster couple drink it with every meal and in between, going through eight half-gallons per week.

"Milk is our beverage," says Ginger Anderson. "We don't drink coffee and we don't drink sodas."

Pat and Ric Jones of Fountain Valley are also big milk drinkers and use it to make ice cream.

To keep enough on hand, neither couple needs to keep running to the store. Every week for more than 40 years, they've had farm-fresh milk delivered to their doorsteps.

Both women grew up on home-delivered milk and wanted that same farm-fresh flavor for their own families. The Joneses started milk delivery when their two children were little but decided to keep the service after becoming empty nesters. "My son actually continued on when he moved out and started his own family," Pat Jones says.

While it would cost a little less to buy their milk from the grocery store, the families say paying more to get it delivered is worth every penny.

"It's much fresher and tastier and you can always rely on it being there at your door when you need it," Anderson says. "And have you ever tried to lug eight half-gallons of milk home from the store?"

Both families say they also appreciate their milkman, Jorge Gayo, who reliably delivers their orders in the early morning every Tuesday.

"He always follows directions and he's the nicest man. We just love our Jorge!" Anderson exclaims.

Modern-day milkmen

Gayo is a member of the Independent Dairy Drivers cooperative in Anaheim, formed in 2001 with 26 milkmen. It now delivers milk and a few other products to between 1,500 and 2,000 homes throughout Orange County.

The milk goes from the farm to the doorstep within a couple of days, often within 24 hours, says Gary Yoches, a retired driver and the Independent Dairy Drivers president. Each morning, right after the cows are milked, the milk heads to Alta Dena Dairy in City of Industry. There it is tested for purity, pasteurized, bottled and usually trucked to the Independent Dairy Drivers facility that night. Drivers then pick up and deliver the milk to homes before 6 a.m.

Households all have standing orders but can call and change them before delivery day. The drivers also load their vans with a little extra milk and other products such as ice cream, yogurt, butter, cheese, eggs and juice so residents can request additions with a note on the door.

Gayo has been delivering milk since 1991 when he was hired by Yoches to help him out after he'd broken his ankle.

Now, Gayo does home deliveries Mondays and Tuesdays, supplementing with wholesale deliveries to small markets two other days.

He arrives at the Independent Dairy Drivers lot by 12:30 a.m. In the dark of the night, he spends about an hour loading and organizing products into the van so he can quickly find what he needs at each of his 50 to 60 stops.

At each home, he jumps out of the van, grabs the milk and walks—or runs—to the porch. Some residents have an ice chest waiting, but others rely on the chilly Orange County nights to keep their milk cool until they're up. Sometimes Gayo will find hot coffee or a tip waiting for him.

The hours aren't easy, Gayo acknowledges, but he says the job has its advantages. The neighborhoods are quiet, peaceful and free of traffic at night. Plus, the physical demands keep him fit—something he fully realized his first day back after a two-month vacation to the Philippines.

"My legs felt so heavy. I said to Gary, 'What's wrong with me? I can't run anymore!'" he says with a laugh. "The exercise is the No. 1 reason I've kept going at this for 31 years straight."

A long partnership

Some Independent Dairy Drivers have been delivering to homes for almost 50 years and have maintained a longtime relationship with Alta Dena Dairy. The dairy was founded in 1945 by the Stueve family, which bottled and delivered milk and operated a drive-thru store. By 1953, Alta Dena had grown into the largest dairy in California.

The milkmen worked well with the family, Yoches says, but the Stueves eventually sold Alta Dena to a company that wanted to shut down the Orange County facility where drivers parked the trucks and loaded the milk. That meant Orange County drivers would have to add an extra 80-mile roundtrip to pick up the milk at Alta Dena in Los Angeles County.

So, the milkmen decided to band together and pool their money to build their own loading dock. This was the impetus for what would later evolve into the Independent Dairy Drivers. The co-op gives the independent drivers better buying power to offer customers competitive pricing, Yoches says. It also funds shared resources, including a salesman who goes door to door to find new customers.

After another ownership change, Alta Dena was purchased by the Dairy Farmers of America, a cooperative of more than 12,500 family farmers.

A win-win

Terry Dana, group vice president at Dairy Farmers of America, says Alta Dena is thrilled to continue the traditions of its founders.

"We've got these old pictures of drivers standing by their trucks. The Dairy Drivers have been able to maintain that heritage," Dana says, adding that home-delivery customers get personal "white tablecloth" service and never face supply-chain delays.

Alta Dena supplier Ronnie LaBrucherie, owner of LaBrucherie Brothers LLC, a 150-cow dairy in Ontario, says he had no idea milkmen still existed when he started the business with his brother 12 years ago.

"I think that it's great that consumers are getting our milk as fresh as it can be and right on their doorsteps," he says. "To me, that's just awesome."

Linda DuBois

This isn't your grandmother's milkman

Gary Yoches, the president of the Independent Dairy Drivers cooperative, says a lot has changed since he started delivering milk in 1975.

"The person that I bought my route from had a ring of about 40 front-door keys for people's houses," says Yoches, who still fills in as an occasional driver. "So, 3, 4 o'clock in the morning, I'd open up the front door, walk in and look and see what milk they had in the fridge. … I'd put in what they needed and just lock the door when I left."

While he has fond memories of those early days, he notes entering every house was time-consuming—and precarious. "Often," he recalls, "there were dogs that would be unhappy that you were there."

He delivered mostly raw milk until it was banned in the 1980s, and a lot more people today request gallon-sized jugs rather than half-gallon.

But some things haven't changed.

"Over the years, a lot of people have been very, very kind and thoughtful," Yoches says. "Back when I had a big route, I ran with another guy. About once a month, this one lady would leave us hot, fresh cinnamon rolls wrapped in tin foil. We would really have a great night that night!"