Midwest Dairy is partnering in Subway sandwich shops throughout the Midwest to encourage students to eat healthy, raise money for its in-school nutrition program and increase awareness about Midwest dairy farmers’ support for youth health and wellness initiatives as part of a national dairy checkoff campaign.

Fuel Up to Play 60 is a national program that helps support in-school nutrition. The Midwest Dairy-Subway partnership will build on that program with a promotion of 60-cent, 6-inch subs on Sundays through the end of December.

Students who participate get a healthy habits tracker through the Fuel Up to Play 60 program that helps them keep track of their food and activity, including good nutrition and 60 minutes of exercise daily. A child using the tracker can take it to any participating Subway on Sunday and get a 6-inch sub for only 60 cents with the purchase of a meal. All subs can include cheese and be paired with milk.

The second initiative, Tackle Hunger, will run through the end of November. That program will allow Subway customers to donate to Fuel Up to Play 60 grants for local schools by rounding up the cost of their meal to the next dollar amount.

Participating Subway stores will feature signage at the checkout about the promotion, and all funds raised will be distributed to schools in that restaurant’s footprint to help them continue to deliver school meals during the pandemic.

Midwest Dairy CEO Molly Pelzer says Midwest Dairy is adding a third effort outside the Subway partnership: Community Cares, which will provide a limited number of “care packages” that dairy farmers can sign up to receive. Farmers will then be able to give those packages to anyone they consider to be a “local hero” whether that be a teacher, a first-responder, a health care provider or an essential worker on the front lines in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The idea is to raise awareness in the community of the heroes among us,” Pelzer says. “The packages are designed to contain ‘undeniable dairy’ items, and we are urging farmers to be creative in the way the present them to local heroes.”

Dairy farmers can learn more about the Community Cares effort on the Midwest Dairy website.