YOUR DAIRY PROMOTION AT WORK IN MICHIGAN AND INDIANA

Keeping Dairy Top of Mind with Consumers

BY AMERICAN DAIRY ASSOCIATION OF INDIANA AND UNITED DAIRY INDUSTRY OF MICHIGAN

Halfway through 2020 and our world continues to be challenged by COVID-19. While all industries have been affected, agriculture has been thrust into the limelight with the dramatic toll the pandemic has taken on farmers, supply chains and retail. Your checkoff staff has continued to work with food banks to meet their growing needs and ensure available dairy foods make it into the hands of those who need it most. Reallocating funds to create online resources for partners, food service and retail has also been a priority to keep dairy relevant in these quickly changing times.

Please know, your dairy checkoff staff at United Dairy Industry of Michigan (UDIM) and American Dairy Association Indiana (ADAI) continue to work hard on your behalf and alongside you during this pandemic. Our last update included the work our teams have done during the pandemic, and this update will dive deeper into some of those programs.

Retail

In times of uncertainty, people turn to the bedrock items that they know will nourish themselves and their families, and dairy proved to be an important choice. From March 8 to March 22, as stay-at-home orders and business closures proliferated nationwide, dairy products flew from store shelves. Milk sales were 43% higher than the same period a year earlier. Yogurt rose 3%. Ice cream sales gained 40% and cheese 76%. Butter sales more than doubled during the same period. Gains have continued into the “new normal,” and take up more of consumer retail dollars than during the panic peak. Retail dairy sales from late March through May 17 remain 25% higher than a year ago, while overall grocery sales during that same period are only up 14% — meaning that at a time when people are relying more on grocers to fill their needs, they’re relying on dairy significantly more than they are on other products.

Virtual Connections

As communication moved online, we wanted to make sure the experiential learning that makes such a difference in our audiences also made the transition.

UDIM jumped to Instagram Live to connect with student athletes who were struggling with the abrupt cancellation of their sport. Allison Mankowski, sports dietitian for Eastern Michigan University, spoke to the students on nutrition strategies to use while they were at home. Chef Raphael from Rocket Fuel Nutrition made his favorite dairy-friendly recipes students could easily make themselves. Allison Schmitt talked with the students on mental health, sharing that she too struggles and that is okay to not be okay.

We met with coaches via Zoom, sharing how nutrition is important for sports performance. Richard Browder, Food Service Director for Brighton School District, showed coaches how to work with school food service so students can maximize school meals to help with sports performance. He also shared some best practices, which included ordering chocolate milk! Allison Schmitt also shared signals coaches can look for in student athletes to recognize depression.

ADAI continues to develop ways to communicate online, where many consumers are spending even more of their time. To celebrate National Dairy Month, ADAI teamed up with local influencers “Indy with Kids” to visit a different dairy farm each Friday morning in June through Facebook Live. Their 50,000 followers get to see unique features of dairy farms across the state live with a farmer, and each episode concludes with an educational dairy craft or healthy activity. Dairy farmers also helped families pass the time and keep learning by reading their favorite story books live on Facebook.

In both states, we tapped into our past success hosting virtual farm tours for classrooms. During COVID-19, we opened up the tours to everyone through Facebook Live events and increased communication with consumers online.

In Indiana, our previously scheduled private tour for registered schools was converted to a Facebook Live event to allow parents to tune in with their children. Over 13,000 viewers have watched the tour to date, which garnered hundreds of live questions. Our Dairy Distance Learning campaign through social media continues to share resources with families at home, including Mooovie Monday videos, #DidYouKnow Tuesday facts, Breakbreak Wednesday activities, Clever Thursday crafts, and Foodie Friday recipes to follow along with throughout the week.

UNITED DAIRY INDUSTRY OF MICHIGAN

In Michigan, we hosted a farm tour through Facebook Live. The tour was promoted to teachers who could register their classes and through our social media properties so families could watch together. Around 20,000 people have watched the farm tour. More than 12,000 kids and parents tuned in to another Facebook Live event featuring a dairy-filled cooking demonstration and book reading by National Hockey League star Justin Abdelkader.

Sharing more dairy messages

In Indiana, our work with health professionals like dietitians, physicians, hospitals and others often involved presentations or trips to a farm. In order to keep the education going, ADAI developed the Digital Dairy Series, a collection of live presentations covering a wide range of dairy nutrition and farming topics. We explored the complexity of today’s food choices and how our decisions are influenced by not only nutrition science, but also emotions, social media, availability and safety as we have seen during our current global pandemic. Seven online sessions featured five dynamic speakers and a live dairy farm tour, while including the opportunity for Continuing Education credits. To date, almost 1000 people have tuned in, with over 500 of them being unique and firsttime attendees of dairy events.

Farmers were also called on to share their COVID-19 experiences in local news, with dairy farmer Kerry Estes opening his farm to Fox 59 News in Indianapolis about the struggles and resiliency of farmers during the pandemic. Jill Houin of Homestead Dairy also met with National FFA officers and Domino’s Procurement Department via Zoom to talk about the importance of partnerships and advocating for dairy. The interview will be distributed to FFA chapters across the country, along with a worksheet for chapters to complete together.

UDIM worked with Family Features to create two new relevant recipe features for national print and online publications. “Super Dairy Snacking” features familyfriendly dairy snacks that kids can help make and “Pantry Perfect Pastas” features recipes that use commonly purchased staples, such as pasta, beans, tomatoes – and, of course, dairy! Within 3 weeks, the snack feature had over 380 million impressions and the pasta feature had close to 300 million impressions.

UDIM connected dairy farmers with media outlets across the state to talk about sustainable farming practices as we know the topic is still on the minds of consumers. Annie Link was interviewed about modern farming practices for Metro Parent, Dan VanDyke spoke about soil health and upcycling as a means of sustainability for MLive and Jolene Griffin talked about how cows are upcyclers with WDIV in Detroit. Sustainability messaging was tested with Conflicted Health Seekers through social media advertising and keyword targeting campaigns. In total, ads focusing on dairy’s environmental care and modern farm practices achieved 4.4 million impressions. All “clicks” directed to our sustainability web pages.

Providing Milk Coolers

Through our longstanding work with food banks, we know milk is regularly requested and not often donated because of its perishability. As the COVID-19 pandemic hit, many of our dairy farmers wanted to help in local areas and this pilot program allowed them to help a local food pantry. UDIM awarded milk coolers to 18 food pantries to ensure they have proper storage for dairy foods for their clients, these food pantries were nominated by dairy farmers across the state.

ADAI was able to connect five local food pantries with new refrigeration units to keep dairy products at the optimal temperature for their clients. Several of these pantries had not been able to provide dairy previously because of their lack of storage. Dairy farmers who applied on behalf of the pantries were able to help deliver them as well.

Virtual farm tours:

INDIANA:

WWW.WINNERSDRINKMILK.COM/ VIRTUAL-FARM-TOUR/

MICHIGAN:

WWW.MILKMEANSMORE.ORG/ VIRTUAL-FARM-TOUR/

Resources

On the National Milk Producers Federation website, you will find updates about COVID-19 (as of June 20) as it relates to dairy, including resources for your employees:

NMPF.ORG/CORONAVIRUS

To get current information from your checkoff organization, contact your staff to be included on email updates and visit your state checkoff websites:

INDIANA:

ALLIE RIETH (RIETH@WINNERSDRINKMILK.COM) AND VISIT WWW.WINNERSDRINKMILK.COM

MICHIGAN:

JOLENE GRIFFIN (JOLENE@MILKMEANSMORE. ORG) AND VISIT WWW.MILKMEANSMORE.ORG

freeliners classifieds

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CONTINUED ON PAGE 29

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