The world of hummus is growing as fast as any in the snack food category. Major brands are investing millions in the chick pea snack, combined with their own crackers and pretzel brands that fans are accustomed to, and dropping in various flavors to make hummus as appealing and healthier than your standard nachos or other dips on game day. The growth at retail in large ethnically diverse metropolitan areas has been tremendous, and now the key hummus brands are looking to extend more into sport by dipping crackers into various partnerships.
One that is unique, cost effective and very grassroots is with Olympian Tim Morehouse and his quest to bring of all sports, fencing into the mainstream. As a skills, life and conditioning sport, fencing has its niche around the world and has made inroads with programs in select inner cities, but let’s face it, will never really be the full mainstream sport for conditioning that even wrestling or martial arts are. His vision is to see fencing academies like you see dojo’s in every small town, but with the cost, the training, and the limited media exposure, fencing has its challenges.
However the approach Morehouse has taken Fencing in the Schools combines his sport with healthy living ideals through schools programs. Their mission statement, “Empowering youth to achieve excellence through the sport of fencing” will be carried out by bringing the fencing to schools around the country to fight childhood obesity, instill the Olympic ideals and improve educational opportunities. Bringing hummus, the popular Sabra brand, along for the ride is a smart stroke that gives the program much more of a lift, as it takes hard marketing dollars and ties them to a philanthropic cause in an area Sabra needs to break in to…the lunch counters in millions of schools across the country. Now it’s not like a “eat Sabra, learn fencing” approach is the goal…one brand subtly feeds off (no pun intended) the other. Fencing teaches healthy ideals, hummus is a healthy snack, and kids learn about both, and take those lessons back home to mom and dad. They have also combined for a nationwide sweepstakes to win a fencing program in schools as an even better hook. Right now the program has pulled in 10,000 kids with a goal of a million by 2023? Why 2023? Other than being a “safe” long distance date it is also a year before the 2024 Games, which many hope will be a return to the US. If that happens then fencing builds a base and has a marketable year-long tool that hopefully has lots of groundswell and a tangible event…an American Olympics…where you can tie both the inspirational (Olympic fencers) to the aspirational (young people engaged in the sport).
Too ambitious? Maybe. A passionate leader who has gotten some grassroots mojo and perhaps a very strong brand behind him? Sure. Whether fencing can cut through the clutter of other sports looking to grow and engage young people with healthy lifestyles remains to be seen (tennis and golf as individual sports should also look for a hummus tie, no?) but the program has its merits and could be one with a swashbuckling chance at success.
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