The dairy promotion checkoff was started by farmers to increase sales of dairy products here and around the world. Key to that is keeping consumers and others as dairy “champions” – showing them that dairy and dairy farmers are important contributors to society.

One way farmers do this is by helping improve kids’ lives through better nutrition (including more dairy, of course) and more physical activity via the checkoff’s Fuel Up to Play 60 in-school program. It’s a partnership with the National Football League, so you may have seen it advertised during games.

This not only moves more of your milk, it helps reinforce your freedom to operate among consumers and your community.

In April, the NFL Foundation added to its commitment to youth health and wellness with an additional $1.5 million to provide 4,000 more NFL FLAG Essentials Kits to Fuel Up to Play 60 schools nationwide.

FLAG helps students and educators in elementary and middle schools get active, both inside and outside, before, during and after school. In fact, 98 percent of educators reported using the kits throughout the school year.

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FLAG is part of the NFL’s partnership with Fuel Up to Play 60 and the GenYouth Foundation, the farmer-founded organization that raises funds and awareness for youth wellness, and is a vehicle to bring dollars to Fuel Up to Play 60.

The $1.5 million is on top of the $1 million the NFL invested last year in support of Fuel Up to Play 60 and FLAG.

This renewed commitment brings dynamic student activity programming to even more schools to help millions of students be more physically active.

A spring follow-up to a Super Bowl celebration

As part of this year’s Super Bowl festivities, we celebrated dairy farmers’ commitment to child wellness via a major announcement with the USDA and the NFL, demonstrating to the public and thought leaders that the government sees the value of what dairy farmers are doing for child wellness.

In recognition of what the dairy community has done for more than a century to improve students’ lives, the USDA is partnering with Fuel Up to Play 60 through a commitment of $30 million in nutrition equipment grants that will combine with a $5 million commitment from America’s dairy farmers to improve nutrition at school.

It also helps raise awareness of Fuel Up to Play 60 and reinforces our shared commitment with the USDA, NFL and other partners that support the program for future generations. This is being publicized to get other private companies to make contributions in support of our shared goals, which will move more dairy.

These dollars will be instrumental in helping schools achieve wellness goals and to serve nutritious meals students want to eat. Funds provide access for students who need nutritious foods (including dairy) that they may not otherwise have.

Through our NFL partnership, and with the checkoff leadership, we’ve built the Fuel Up to Play 60 program into the largest, and most effective, in-school health and wellness program in the country. Today, we are bettering the lives of more than 38 million students in 73,000 schools across the country.

This means:

  • Millions of students have access to healthier foods, with 2.5 million more students eating breakfast at school daily since the start of the program.

  • More than 125,000 adult stakeholders support the program, and of those nearly half agree that Fuel Up to Play 60 positively impacts their students’ academic performance and overall behavior.

  • More than $42 million in financial and in-kind contributions have helped offset the farmer investment and have helped implement healthy changes in schools and communities nationwide.

  • All 32 NFL teams are actively involved in the program, with its players supporting thousands of events in schools, communities and on dairy farms across the country.

Our partnership with the NFL and USDA provides a great opportunity to show the commitment of the more than 45,000 dairy farm families across the country to children’s health and wellness. And that helps dairy farmers keep working and keep selling more milk.  PD

Your Dairy Checkoff in Action – The following update is provided by Dairy Management Inc. (DMI), which manages the national dairy checkoff program on behalf of America’s dairy producers and dairy importers. DMI is the domestic and international planning and management organization responsible for increasing sales of and demand for dairy products and ingredients.