COVID-19 Response: School Milk, Partnerships, NFL Draft & More

View this email in your browser

Emergency Funding Requested for School Milk

To help West Virginia schools provide milk with the meals they are providing to their students during these challenging times, the American Dairy Association Mideast, along with DFA-Mideast Area and Maryland & Virginia Milk Producers Cooperative, sent a letter to West Virginia Governor Justice asking for emergency state funding. This support would allow West Virginia school districts to purchase the milk they need to ensure children, especially the 1 in 5 who live in a food insecure household, are not missing critical nutrients needed for good health.

Read the Letter

Leveraging Partnerships during COVID-19

With schools closed and sports seasons cancelled, ADA Mideast is finding new ways to support communities and leverage its partnerships. For example, the chocolate milk that was originally intended for student athletes to enjoy after the OHSAA winter tournaments was donated to the Mid-Ohio Foodbank to help feed central Ohio families in need. OHSAA is also reminding their social media followers to be active every day and power their potential with chocolate milk – even while at home.

See an Example

NFL Draft to Highlight Dairy Farmer Efforts

Starting tonight, the 2020 NFL draft will go virtual. The three-day event will air live nationwide and feature a fundraiser to support COVID-19 relief efforts.

GENYOUth will be one of very few partners whose COVID-19 Emergency efforts will be highlighted. GENYOUth launched the For Schools’ Sake campaign to raise funds which are being used to provide grants for schools that need additional resources for meal distribution and delivery. These school grants are critical to help keep dairy moving into the hands of those who need it.

Throughout the draft weekend, Fuel Up to Play 60 and GENYOUth communications and social media will share our own posts and those of NFL players highlighting support for dairy farmers and GENYOUth’s relief efforts. In addition, our ads will be placed throughout NFL.com and a FUTP60 student from Pennsylvania will be featured during the telecast as a lead-in to a Day 3 draft pick, scheduled for Saturday, April 25.

With sports in shutdown, the airing of the draft promises to be highly viewed and followed.

Learn More

Gallagher Shares Update with RFD-TV

In a recent interview with RFD-TV, DMI CEO Tom Gallagher highlighted the checkoff's urgent and focused efforts on behalf of dairy farmers' during the COVID-19 crisis. Highlights of the interview include raising $3.5 million to support school systems and your dairy checkoff’s partnership with Feeding America.

Watch Now

Keeping an Eye on Exports

The U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC) is working diligently to keep dairy trade moving despite COVID-19.

Mexico recently issued a decree that halted all administrative action, including the issuance of about 6,000 import permits for dairy products. This could have reduced U.S. dairy exports by $120 million, prompting USDEC to work around-the-clock to get the decision reversed. As a result of USDEC’s work, Mexico issued a clarifying directive deeming food and beverage sector supplies as “essential” during the pandemic and administrative duties related to those tasks would not be halted.

While this issue is the first of its scale that has arisen as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak, USDEC staff is actively monitoring threats to market access around the world day-in and day-out, working to investigate potential problems, address issues as they arise, and look down the road to aim to head off potential future disruptions.

Coronavirus Dairy Toolkit

To assist the dairy community, the National Milk Producers Federation has a dedicated webpage featuring key resources about how the coronavirus is affecting the U.S dairy sector, along with informational materials that NMPF and others have created to help the dairy community respond to the pandemic. New resources continue to be added.

Explore the Resources

This email was sent to <<Email Address>>
why did I get this? unsubscribe from this list update subscription preferences
American Dairy Association Mideast · 2800 Corporate Exchange Drive · Suite 260 · Columbus, OH 43231 · USA