Whether you like the Patriots or the Giants – or neither one – Super Bowl time is a great opportunity to highlight the powerful partnership that dairy farmers, through their checkoff program, have forged with the National Football League.

The “Fuel Up to Play 60” program encourages young people to get 60 minutes of activity daily, and to make balanced nutrition choices, including low fat and fat free dairy products. Mark Leitner of Dairy Management Inc., which manages the National Dairy Checkoff, says more than 70,000 schools with some 36 million students are now participating in the program.

“It makes the program by far the largest program of this type, nutritional and physical fitness program in the country, and gaining momentum because of that,” said Leitner. “Because of its scale and success we’re starting to attract additional resources, additional partners to the program — which is great for farmers, because of course, that means the message of nutrition and dairy products goes out to not just at the school level, but at the individual kid level.”

Fuel Up to Play 60 benefits from the NFL’s star power to encourage kids to be more physically active and enjoy the nutritional benefits of reduced fat dairy products including milk, cheese and yogurt. Leitner says one study of the 21 pilot markets with the program resulted in an additional 42 million pounds of milk sold.