Your staffs are working in a variety of ways to get dairy and nutrition equipment to more kids. Here are some local highlights:

Midwest Dairy Association (MDA)

MDA provided USDA Food and Nutrition personnel in each of its 10 states with more information on how schools could access the grant applications, which led to the information being included in newsletters and other USDA communications.

MDA has personally reached out to key schools and partners, and when a grant is received and implemented, success stories are collected to help with future outreach.

Western Dairy Association (WDA)

WDA worked with its three state education agency partners to reach out to local school nutrition directors. Each state is promoting the USDA/FUTP 60 school nutrition grants and application process on their websites.

The Montana Office of Public Instruction invited a staff member to present a webinar on FUTP 60, which includes promotion of the USDA School Nutrition grants to their Rural Health Initiative members.

Mountain West dairy promotion

Mountain West and the Utah Child Nutrition Program are jointly promoting the grants at the spring business meeting for Utah child nutrition directors, hosting a grant how-to-apply class at the annual School Nutrition Association of Utah conference, enlisting the help of local hunger advocacy who will be working one-on-one to contact individual high-need schools/districts and sending out information to all districts.

PHOTO: DMI chairman and Arizona dairy farmer Paul Rovey, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and DMI CEO Tom Gallagher celebrate the partnership of dairy farmers and the NFL at this year’s Super Bowl.