May 2012 Highlights « Back

Fuel Up to Play 60 in Illinois

Midwest Dairy’s work with the St. Louis Rams earned a “People’s Choice” award at a national Fuel Up to Play 60 Forum recently.  We were singled out for the individual Rams player cards containing the customized Rams Fuel Up to Play 60 logo, which were distributed to children by Rams players during their appearances. The cards are often autographed by the players and are always a keepsake. After winning, we treated our key Rams contacts to lunch, and presented them the award in recognition of their dedication to building success with Fuel Up to Play 60.

A Fuel Up to Play 60 day in Mt. Prospect River Trails Middle School earlier this month involved 550 students and several speakers including Dr. Naomi Parrella with the Illinois Academy of Family Physicians.  Northwestern University NCAA champion John Shurna and Chicago Bears alum Anthony Morgan also spoke, captivating students and staff alike. 

The students on the school’s Fuel Up to Play 60 team planned a full day of stations that rotated between things like chef’s demonstrations, sampling and physical activity challenges.   The school used Midwest Dairy funding for pedometers and heart rate monitors for monthly physical activity challenges, as well as for cafeteria taste tests and induction burners for a stir-fry and pasta station (including whole grain pasta and a variety of cheese) in the cafeteria, served with low-fat or fat-free milk. You can read more about the event online at nusports.com and at journal-topics.com. 

Here’s a rundown of other recent Fuel Up to Play 60 activity:

• Staley, the Chicago Bears mascot, helped Jane Addams Middle School in Bolingbrook celebrate success with Fuel Up to Play 60 at an assembly this month. Staley worked out with students and promoted the program. 

• The Forward Initiative presented on behalf of Midwest Dairy to 1,500 physical education and health teachers, and school nurses at the DuPage Co. Regional Office of Education training day.

• Presentations have been made at a number of district-level wellness committee meetings, including ones in East Aurora and Lombard.  Flavored milk concerns were also addressed.   

• We’ve met with University of Illinois Extension to see how we can better partner on school projects; they are looking to ‘adopt’ schools to work with more closely.

• Two projects are in the works with Sodexo, one of the largest contract school feeders in the U.S., with a heavy concentration in Illinois.  We have webinar segments planned for Sodexo staff and are planning a farm-to-school pilot project.

• At the Illinois Dietetic Association Spring Assembly, a session on Kids Eat Right and Fuel Up to Play 60 was presented.  Midwest Dairy supported the awards breakfast and provided a milk toast thanking dairy farmers and registered dietitians for their hard work.  A yogurt parfait was a favorite part of the breakfast.   

• In concert with Midwest Dairy Council. Elgin School District is one of three sites across the nation that will pilot a program with the GENYOUth Foundation.  The goal is to increase breakfast participation by offering breakfast in the classroom and increasing physical activity in the school. Each of the five district schools received materials to help increase daily activity levels, and the effort includes pre and post-tests along with data on the breakfast program and milk sales.

• At the west central Illinois Family, Career and Community Leaders of America section meeting, we presented Fuel Up to Play 60 to more than 100 student leaders and advisors from six school districts. We’ve now been invited to present at their fall Peer Education and Leadership Training, in hopes that students and advisors will become Fuel Up to Play 60 leaders for their schools.

• Fuel Up to Play 60 was one of the most popular exhibits at the spring Healthy Teacher Network workshop put on by the Consortium to Lower Obesity in Chicago Children’s School Systems Work Group.  More than 70 teachers from Chicago Public, Archdiocese and Chicago suburban schools attended. 

Other Illinois Updates

In partnership with the Illinois State Board of Education and No Kid Hungry Illinois, Midwest Dairy has announced the Illinois State Breakfast Challenge which will launch in August.  The goal is for schools to increase their participation at breakfast by implementing a breakfast in the classroom or grab-and-go breakfast program.  Two breakfast summits were held in Tinley Park and Springfield announcing the challenge and helping schools get prepared for it.  Breakfast programs include milk and increase milk sales.

Your Illinois Division of Midwest Dairy elected officers at its recent annual meeting.  Warren Pollard, Rockford, will continue to lead the Division, and Bill Deutsch of Sycamore will extend his service as vice chairman.  Ardath DeWall of Shannon was re-elected secretary and Don Ellingson of Poplar Grove was re-elected treasurer.  As treasurer, Ellingson will serve on the American Dairy Association of the Midwest Committee.  Both Pollard and DeWall were re-elected to serve on the Corporate Board from the Illinois Division.

We hope you’ll welcome Sara Haag of Cullom as the Midwest Dairy Association intern here in Illinois.  Haag has a bachelor’s degree in animal science with a concentration in science, biotechnology and pre-vet medicine. She has one more year left of graduate studies in agriculture education with a concentration in applied research at the University of Illinois. During the school year she is an undergraduate research assistant at the Institute for Genomic Biology at the University.  She is a past president of the Illini Dairy Club and chaired the Illini Milk-a-Cow Booth at the Illinois State Fair.  She cares for their herd of 30 head of registered Ayrshire and Dutch Belted cattle, taking care of heifers and dry cows when she is home at Haag’s Dutch-Ayr Farm.  Sara will be starting in late May. We will keep her very busy with June Dairy Month activities and Illinois State Fair preparations.  Mark your calendars for the 2012 Illinois State Fair August 9-19.