4 AM EAST PROVIDENCE
Munroe Dairy
The fleet of trucks idles outside A. B. Munroe Dairy like a herd of anxious cows, each awaiting its fill of milk and other provisions before venturing into the night. Inside, delivery driver Nick Galego reviews the day’ s orders on a counter that looks pulled from a 1950s diner. Yellow order slips detail the day’ s routes, the Rhode Island locales joined by further-out destinations like Pawcatuck, Connecticut, and Lakeville, Massachusetts. Milkmen today sport baseball caps and Munroe-branded hoodies instead of the white hats and bowties of black-and-white films, but the profession remains mostly unchanged since the company’ s founding in 1881.“ My cousins and my family all had Munroe when I was growing up,” says Galego, a Riverside native.“ I’ d eat over their houses and I’ d pour a glass of milk, and now I’ m delivering it.” Every night, thirty-five trucks and drivers deliver an average of 4,500 gallons of milk, a massive dairy delivery effort that unfurls across three states. While other dairies have succumbed to economic pressures, Munroe has maintained its customer base in part due to the availability of other groceries through its delivery service. Familiar names like Calise, Matos, Venda and Mills dot the shelves in the East Providence warehouse, where Galego now completes the orders before climbing into the truck. For the next eight hours, he’ ll wind through Swansea, Somerset and North Dighton, Massachusetts, making doorstep deliveries. Music, he says, is key to making it through a shift, and he’ s not picky about the type. He’ ll just as soon blast out musical theater hits as other genres.“ One of my top albums last year was Wicked,” he says.
RHODE ISLAND MONTHLY I APRIL 2026 91