Since 1941, it has been a calcium-rich fixture in Atlanta. But Saturday, the Atlanta Dairies plant, which for decades has provided lunchtime beverages for metro Atlanta schoolchildren, bottled its last drop of milk.

The 9.5-acre plant on the 700 block of Memorial Drive Southeast had already been scheduled to close in May. But the March 14 tornado ripped off a 5,000-square-foot piece of roof and hastened its demise.

"If you stop and think about it, it's the last hometown independent dairy" in Atlanta, said Calvin Covington, chief executive officer of Southeast Milk, which has owned the plant since 2006. "It's just a sort of a sign of the times."

Area dairy farmers formed Atlanta Dairies in 1941. The product has been a staple in metro Atlanta breakfast nooks and lunchrooms ever since.

It's the milk of choice in public schools in DeKalb, Clayton, Forsyth and other counties around the state, plant General Manager Ted Young said.

About 500,000 gallons of milk were bottled weekly by the half-pint, pint, quart, half-gallon, gallon and 5-gallon bag. The dairy also produced private label milk for Target, among others.

But declining business forced the hand of Southeast Milk, the cooperative whose 300 dairy farmers, many in Georgia, supplied the plant.

Inefficiencies at the plant, a high reliance on school customers and increasing costs of truck fuel and milk contributed to the decision to close.

"I'm embarrassed to say" how much money the plant was losing at the end, Covington said.

Southeast Milk reached an agreement in principle March 10 to sell to Pennsylvania-based Dean Foods, Covington said, declining to reveal the price. Dean chose to keep the Atlanta Dairies label but to cease operations in its namesake city and move production elsewhere.

A May 11 closing was planned, until the tornado ripped off part of the roof that covered a refrigerated portion of the plant.

"It was like someone with giant hands crumpled it up and threw it against a block wall," Young said.

Following the storm, the Southeast Milk board decided to stop operations rather than continue, even though Young said state Department of Agriculture officials had cleared it to continue. Remaining milk orders have been given to Mayfield and Pet, also Dean brands. For the time being, the plant will operate as a shipping depot, receiving bottled milk and then sending it out to customers. But it already has begun holding job fairs for its 200 employees. Some have worked there for 20 years or more.

Covington said Southeast Milk is talking with developers to sell the real estate.

"The building will be razed soon," Young said. "It'll be condos and a grocery store or something."