Ontario Basketball announces multi-year partnership with Dairy Farmers of Ontario

Dairy Farmers of Ontario (DFO) embarks on a multi-year partnership with the Ontario Basketball Association (OBA) to increase youth access to basketball in communities across Ontario.

 

DFO and OBA to work together to enhance existing and develop new basketball events and opportunities for youth in Ontario under DFO’s Recharge With Milk/Stay Real With Milk program.

 

The OBA will help connect grassroots, community basketball with DFO’s pro team partnerships with the Toronto Raptors and 905.

 

MISSISSAUGA, TORONTO– Dairy Farmers of Ontario (DFO) has partnered with Ontario Basketball (OBA) to advance the shared organizational goal of increasing accessibility to community basketball for youth across Ontario.

 

As one of the three key sports under the DFO’s Recharge With Milk/Stay Real With Milk program, basketball is one of the fastest-growing and most inclusive, accessible sports, offering a unique opportunity to accelerate the program’s goals of increasing youth participation from the south to the north of the province. The new partnership will help support existing DFO partnerships with the Toronto Raptors and Raptors 905 in reaching young athletes who live outside of the GTA.

 

DFO Chair Murray Sherk is excited to see the Ontario-led program begin to take hold. “Working in partnership with strong, like-minded organizations to help amplify the good work they already do has had a great effect. Our partnerships with highly professional groups like Ontario Basketball allow us to align our investment with proven needs and opportunities that benefit youth at the grassroots level, without duplication of effort. Ontario Basketball is an important partner for us, and we’re looking forward to helping them grow and provide new programming

that helps more kids benefit from a healthy, active lifestyle.”

 

DFO Chief Marketing and Business Development Officer Sean Bredt says, “As a non-profit organization that represents the interests of dairy farmers and their families across the province, it’s crucial that our Recharge With Milk program has a meaningful, measurable, and enduring effect on sport opportunities for youth at the community level. Every dollar we put into this program represents a direct investment from a real person, and our farmers want to see a positive impact on youth activity and opportunity in the communities where they live and work.”

 

OBA Executive Director Jason Jansson is thrilled for the support DFO will bring to basketball programming. “We are beyond excited to officially welcome the DFO as partners and get young basketball players across Ontario to Recharge With Milk! Their support will go a long way to making our basketball events and growing programs sustainable and more accessible. This will create a real positive impact in the basketball community in our province and help OBA achieve even more, and we thank a great organization like DFO for seeing the value in the development of our members.”

 

The DFO-OBA program will initially focus on in-game and in-tournament events and activations, building to integrated, jointly delivered sport nutrition programming and new opportunities for youth to enter the game across Ontario.

 

The partnership will see Recharge With Milk become the presenting sponsor of the 2019 OBA Provincial Championships, and starting in the 2019-20 season will be the presenting sponsor of the OBL league with over 650 teams.

 

In addition to promoting a healthy, active lifestyle and the proven nutritional benefits of milk, the partnership will focus on grassroots sport events and youth engagement opportunities to fully integrate sport and food literacy activities across the Ontario basketball landscape.

 

About Dairy Farmers of Ontario (DFO)

www.milk.org | www.rechargewithmilk.ca

DFO is the marketing group for the largest sector of Ontario agriculture and is proudly owned and operated by Ontario’s dairy farming families.

 

DFO has committed to multi-year partnerships with key Ontario sport organizations including Ontario Basketball, the Ottawa Senators, Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment (MLSE) which includes the Toronto Maple Leafs, Toronto Raptors, Toronto FC, Toronto Marlies, and Raptors 905 to work together to make sports more accessible for young Ontario athletes. In addition to promoting the proven benefits of milk, the partnerships will focus on advancing grassroots and community sport initiatives and developing new sporting events and opportunities for youth at the community level.