11/21/08 Dairy scores with the NFL

Teaming up to reach kids is the aim of the dairy checkoff partnership with the National Football League. United Dairy Industry Association chairman Bill Siebenborn says this is the renewal of a five year partnership with the NFL. SIEBENBORN "It's a very exciting piece of our future, because a good share of what the dairy checkoff is about is - schools, nutrition education, and partnering - and the NFL partnership covers all of these." A new NFL partnership program called "Fuel Up To Play" works with kids to encourage fitness and nutrition, including dairy. Dairy Management Inc's Tom Gallagher says the partnership with NFL teams and the players is a win for dairy producers because of the league's star power. GALLAGHER "Those players bring excitement to kids about nutrition and about physical fitness. So, we're able to take the goodness of milk and tap into the equity that the NFL has already established with children and really motivate them to drink more milk." DMI manages the national dairy checkoff which helps to pay for partnership programs like this one. Gallagher says NFL players promote dairy consumption with kids year round and that helps to form lifelong dairy consumers. Today's Idaho Ag News Bill Scott