This Independence Day, MilkPEP and The Dairy Alliance have teamed up for our first collaborative effort to bring milk to the 54th Annual Atlanta Journal-Constitution Peachtree Road Race in Atlanta, GA. To celebrate this occasion, MilkPEP interviewed Dairy Alliance CEO, Geri Berdak to discuss this unique partnership to promote the benefits of milk.

Why did the Dairy Alliance decide to get involved in the 54th AJC Peachtree Road Race in Atlanta, GA?

The Peachtree Road Race in Atlanta on July 4th is the world’s largest 10k race, a title it has held since the late 1970s. The race has become a citywide tradition in which over 70,000 amateur and professional runners try to register for one of the limited 60,000 spots. The race attracts some of the world’s elite 10K runners and has served as both the United States men’s and women’s 10K championships.

We thought with that many runners competing for their fastest time on a hot Atlanta day – that they’re gonna need milk for that!  What better way to highlight the performance benefits of milk, nature’s original sports drink, to everyday athletes participating in this race.

How will the Dairy Alliance and MILK be showing up at this race? Have you participated in other running events?

This is The Dairy Alliance’s first running race sponsorship. As we focus on reminding people about the valuable benefits milk provides for everyday performance, our partnership with MilkPEP guided us to seek running events as a great place to feature milk – which led us to sponsor the Peachtree Road Race.

The Dairy Alliance will show up at the Peachtree Health & Fitness Expo, taking place before the race, to share educational information about the benefits of milk, which delivers a strong combination of natural nutrients to aid muscle repair, rehydration, and replenishment.

Attendees who visit the exhibit at the Peachtree Race Expo will learn tips for how to reach their performance goals through a diet including the use of milk from Marie Spano, MS, RD, CSCS, CSSD, one of the country’s leading sports nutritionists and a nutrition communications expert. She is a highly celebrated and sought-after dietitian by pro players in the NFL, NBA, MLB, MLS, and other sports leagues.

Attendees will also be provided a free bottle of cold delicious chocolate milk or white milk (compliments of Publix), cooling towels, cowbells, pompoms, and stickers.

We hope that through this engagement, runners will turn to milk to help them sustain their energy and run further during the Peachtree Road Race and beyond.

We also plan to connect to the community in an authentic way knowing many runners dedicate their race to a charitable cause – Atlanta Community Food Bank.  ACFB is one of the largest food banks in the nation (distributing 8MM area meals each month) and is tied to Feeding America at a national level.

What excites you most about partnering with MilkPEP?

What excites us most is that both The Dairy Alliance and MilkPEP share a common goal – driving milk reconsideration among modern families. In addition, the comprehensive research, marketing strategy and creative direction that MilkPEP is leading is exciting. Together with The Dairy Alliance’s local market knowledge and MilkPEP’s marketing savvy, we are confident that our surprising messages in support of milk for everyday athletes will be memorable and successfully reinvent the image of milk, ultimately increasing consumption.

The official tagline of The Dairy Alliance is “Dairy is an essential ingredient to life” – do you believe being present at this race will help do just that? Please explain.

Our sponsorship and participation at the Peachtree Road Race engaging consumers to reconsider milk for its valuable benefits in supporting everyday performance and to generate donations to Atlanta Community Food Bank to fund and distribute milk to needy families supports our mission which is that dairy is an essential ingredient to life.

Describe what success looks like at this race.

Success will be:

  • Peachtree Road Race participants recognize the valuable role milk plays, use it on race day, in their training regime and to support everyday performance.
  • Generate $1000 for the Atlanta Community Food Bank to provide nutritious milk and other foods to those in need in the community. On a tangible level, for every one dollar, ACFB provides 4 meals in the community.

 

MilkPEP wishes to thank The Dairy Alliance and Geri Berdak for their partnership and support as we continue to push the envelope on milk and equity in sports.