NASHUA -- Carly Mennega rushed to the vending machine to grab a couple drinks for classmates before art class at Nashua-Plainfield High School.

But instead of Cokes, the junior's crisp dollar bills bought chocolate milk. Her timing was perfect: A line quickly formed to use the machine bought by a local family and painted like the Holsteins they milk.

Coke and a Snickers are slowly being replaced by flavored milk, string cheese, pudding and yogurt as the snacks of choice here, as well as several other Northeast Iowa schools. Pop still outsells milk 4 to 1 at N-P, but that could change as health-conscious kids snub sugar and choose dairy treats.

"I thought the idea was good. I like to buy healthier things," said Mennega. The 16-year-old usually buys yogurt for desert after lunch. "It's new and everyone wants to try it."

Dairy vending machines are popping up in schools across the state, and they're quickly becoming popular. So popular, schools like Sumner and Central of Elkader have trouble keeping them filled.

Farmers, dairy associations and schools are buying or leasing machines to promote milk and make a little money.

The Sumner High School student senate leased a machine last March for $100 a month for the junior high and high school, which share a building. It sells 16-ounce bottles of white and flavored milk for a buck, and the senate keeps the profits.

"It great. The kids really use it in the morning, but you see them all day walking around with milk bottles," said Sara Salsbury, student senate advisor. "I was skeptical at first, but that was shot down right away."

With the blessing of the N-P school board, Annette and Dan Dietz forked out $5,100 for a dairy vending machine before school started. A substitute teacher in the district, Annette watched kids gorge themselves with pop and junk food, prompting the couple to get into the vending business.

A Gallup poll in August asked teens about their snack-buying habits at school. Sixty-eight percent said they buy junk food or soda from vending machines. In another poll, 23 percent said they buy a "great deal" from machines, while 61 percent buy "some." Only 2 percent said they don't use them.

"We wanted to offer a healthier choice for kids and create some lifelong milk drinkers. What better way to promote our product than in schools," said Annette, a 1988 Plainfield graduate prior to the merger.

According to the Midwest Dairy Association, studies show adults from 18 to 34 may consume six more gallons of milk per year if a better milk-drinking experience is provided in schools.

Vending packets are available from the MDA, with education materials covering the health benefits of dairy, businesses that sell the machines and business models.

The association estimates more than 20 percent of Iowa's 370 school districts have dairy machines, something unheard of a few years ago. However, the number changes regularly.

"We find out about new ones every day. Typically, kids (used to) triple their soda intake from ages 11 to 18," said Nicole Sahr, a registered dietitian with the MDA in Ankeny.

Officials credit the recent popularity of milk products with new packaging and marketing schemes. Like pop, milk now comes in convenient, resealable plastic bottles. The "Got Milk?" and milk mustache campaigns featuring sports stars and celebrities have kids taking notice.

Every two weeks, the Dietzes sell around 600 16-once bottles of milk at $1 each, 300 pieces of string cheese for 35 cents and 300 cups of yogurt and pudding combined, each retailing for 50 cents. This from a school with 260 students. The milk comes in a variety of flavors from chocolate and strawberry to polar vanilla and root beer.

The machine has done so well, they bought a second two weeks ago for the middle school in Charles City.

"I didn't think it would sell quite so well," said Dan Dietz, who milks about 150 Holsteins two miles east of Nashua. "We've had requests from five{M3 other schools (Wapsi Valley, Ackley-Geneva-Wellsburg-Steamboat Rock, Crestwood of Cresco, Starmont and a high school in southern Iowa) on how it works. That's what I wanted to do, was create awareness.

"I'm getting feedback from parents saying their kids are going into Kwik Star and getting a milk instead of pop," he added.

The Dietzes fill the machine twice a week. They buy Nature's Touch milk and yogurt at wholesale prices from the local Kwik Star convenience store. The chain owns its own dairy line. They purchase cheese and pudding from Associated Milk Producers Inc., which buys their milk and delivers the products to the farm.

Sales are so strong, only eight bottles of milk had to be tossed because of expired expiration dates.

N-P senior Terry Decker said he usually bought a pop or juice to drink during study hall. This year he's opting for milk.

"Everybody likes it. I don't know if it's because people want to be healthier or it tastes so good," Decker said. "I know it's better for me. My dentist told me pop was bad for my teeth."

The Fayette County Dairy Promotion Board wants to get a machine in every high school in the county. It succeeded in Sumner and North Fayette in West Union, but has four more to go. Swiss Valley has offered to buy machines if their products are used.

In the case of North Fayette High, the school's FFA chapter stocks and keeps track of sales in return for the profits.

"I think the time is right. They (kids) know the nutritional benefits more than they did years ago," said Dennis Koch, board president. "It's a chance for organizations to make some money, too."