WMMB's Fall/Winter School Promotion Features Bucky Badger
Byline: Kay Zwald, WMMB Director and Hammond, WI dairy producer

It's game time here in America's Dairyland! School is back in full swing, and the fall/winter sports season is off to a running start. It's a busy time of year for many families, trying to get their children off to school and to after school practices and games. Whether students are involved in football, volleyball, basketball, soccer, swimming or other sports, good nutrition is essential.

The Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board (WMMB) launched several exciting new sports-related programs this fall to remind both students and parents that milk and dairy products are important for active students. As reported by the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism, low-fat chocolate milk is an effective beverage for refueling after exercise. In addition, chocolate milk is the perfect follow-up for active teens after a workout because it's a powerful nutrient package providing water, energy, protein, calcium and seven other essential nutrients.

The Wisconsin Dairy Council, the nutrition education department of WMMB, has six Regional Program Managers located across the state working with schools to reinforce these milk messages and provide resources and materials. Their goal is to have every student in Wisconsin drinking at least one serving of milk at school every day.

Part of our state's dairy check-off dollars are being used to offer Wisconsin schools a got milk? Bucky Does! promotional kit that encourages students to make milk their active drink. 1,000 kits were offered to school foodservice managers to promote milk in their school cafeterias. The kit includes a life-size Bucky Badger stand-up, sure to generate lots of excitement. The cardboard cut-out features Bucky Badger holding a glass of chocolate milk and a glass of white milk to remind students that they need 3-4 servings of dairy products each day for strong bones and good health. In addition to the stand-up, the kits provide foodservice managers a supply of red got milk? pencils.

The goal of this promotion is to draw attention to milk in school cafeterias and to make school cafeterias a fun place to eat. As part of the promotion, WMMB is providing foodservice managers with a game plan to use in their cafeterias to highlight milk. Included is a coloring sheet, activity page and numerous tips and ideas on fun ways to increase milk sales and school lunch participation.

As part of the school promotion, select middle schools will also have a live Bucky Badger appearance during their lunch period. At these events, Bucky Badger will have the opportunity to pass out milk and pose with middle school students for milk mustache pictures. WMMB is targeting middle schools for the Bucky appearances because it's a key age in developing life-long milk drinking habits. Most teens drink 2-3 times as many sugar-sweetened beverages (soda, flavored tea, sports drinks, fruit drinks) than they do milk. As a result, statistics show that nine out of ten teenage girls and seven out of ten teenage boys do not get the recommended calcium that they need. (Source: What We Eat in America, NHANES 2001-02: Usual Nutrient Intakes from Food Compared to Dietary Reference Intakes.)

In addition to the Bucky Badger promotion, several other sports-related materials are available to schools this fall/winter. To promote milk as an active drink, Power Up by Eating Smart was developed for coaches to present to their teams to encourage good nutrition and dairy consumption as part of their sports training. As part of this program, a got milk? insulated cooler bag is available to coaches to provide their teams with ice cold milk before or after games and practices.

Several new sports-related posters and brochures are available for school activities as well. A popular brochure, Any Way you Play it Play it with Milk, has been reprinted and new posters are available that position chocolate milk as the "Ultimate Sports Drink."

While many new materials are available to schools, there are long-standing programs in place as well. Schools can continue to order free game program blanks to use at school-related events and games, which reinforce the nutritional attributes of dairy. WMMB also will continue its WIAA sponsorships of boys' and girls' athletics. These programs reinforce the health benefits of milk highlighting calcium and the eight other essential vitamins and minerals found in milk.

Many additional dairy-related materials and programs are available to schools this fall/winter. If your child's school would like to order materials or learn more about programs available, contact the Wisconsin Dairy Council by calling 1-800-373-9662 or by logging onto our website.

Kay Zwald represents St. Croix and Dunn counties (District #5) on the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board. Kay is actively involved in the St. Croix County Dairy Promotion Committee and St. Croix County Farm Days.