Dairymom's Thankful Thursday

Five years ago, America's Dairy Farmers and the National Dairy Council teamed up with the National Football League and others to empower kids to make their schools a healthier place. So far, Fuel Up to Play 60 has reached over 38 million kids in 73,000 schools, encouraging them to choose good-for-you foods, including dairy, and get 60 minutes of play a day!

I had a front row seat in the auditorium of Pulaski Elementary in Chicago last week when the public announcement was made that funding for the Fuel Up to Play 60 would be funded for #5MoreYears!
We heard from every representative  in this public-private  program--the National Dairy Council, National Football League, GENYOUth Foundation, U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Department of Education.


Activity with Chef Carla, from the Chew, leading the NFL players kicked off the celebration,

 

followed by comments from the partners,

activities with the NFL players,

 

and, of course,

enjoying a healthy dairy snack!

 

 I'm thankful for the impact Fuel Up to Play 60 is making to  improve the health of this  

                next   generation and  that as a dairy farmer, I'm contributing to this program  
                                                 everyday from down on the dairy farm.

2012 Nutrition+Physical Learning Connection Summit

Ten years ago the 16th Surgeon General, Dr. David Satcher, released the report about the need to prevent and decrease America's obesity epidemic. Food insecurity, poor dietary choices and lack of physical activity are still contributing factors that are being addressed by a variety of concerned groups and organizations. It's been stated that there is a growing amount of research that shows a link between proper nutrition,physical activity, and academic achievement. Now we need a plan to take our knowledge and research to  work through the barriers that keep preventing us from conquering childhood obesity.

For the next couple of days, the 2012 Nutrition + Physical Activity Learning Connection Summit will be taking place in Arlington,Virginia. The goal of the meeting is to identify knowledge gaps, draw meaningful conclusions, highlight practical approaches to leverage the current science and move the agenda forward on working with and through schools to enhance children's health and readiness to learn. This summit is presented by the GENYouth Foundation, in partnership with the National Dairy Council, National Football League, American College of Sports Medicine, and American School Health Association.

 

As a dairy farmer, I'm very proud to produce a nutritious product and support programs like Fuel Up to Play 60 that are striving to educate children to make healthy food choices and increase physical activity daily to ensure lifelong good health habits.

Dairy Promotion I Do's

Thinking back to our wedding day, dairy promotion could have been written into our wedding vows since it has been an ongoing part of our marriage and life on the farm. When Ryan and I married in 1984, dairy promotion was known as the voluntary nickel program. Ryan contributed a nickel per hundred pounds of milk produced on the farm. The National Dairy Checkoff program (http://www.dairycheckoff.com/) was created in 1985 by dairy farmers, for farmers and is funded by America's dairy farm families---and only by dairy farmers. Today each dairy farm family contributes 15 cents per one hundred pounds of milk produced on each farm. Dairy check0ff money is used for programs at the national and state/regional levels. We have witnessed a phenomenal evolution of not only how our product is promoted but the development of products to meet the health and wellness needs of consumers. More than fifty percent of the checkoff budget is allocated to advancing dairy health and wellness efforts that are consistent with the Dietary Guidelines of Americans. Products such as reduced-fat cheese,reduced-sodium cheese and reduced-sugar flavored milk were developed with dairy farmer funding to meet consumer need. Dairy farmers are currently investing in the overall health of children by the most recent in-school Fuel-Up to Play 60 program that aims to help children's health by bringing healthy eating and physical activity to more than 64,000 schools. Partnering with the NFL for the Fuel-Up program and working with other food companies allows us to make the most of every dairy farmer dollar. Providing a nutritious product that meets the consumer's need is what dairy promotion is all about! I invite you to visit the Midwest Dairy website for a sampling of useful consumer dairy information compliments of dairy farmers like me--http://www.midwestdairy.com. I'm thankful to be celebrating twenty six years of marriage and dairy promotion during this Thanksgiving week. In 1984, we didn't have dairy promotion in the vows but we did serve milk,cheese, and crackers at the reception!