Ministry of Education backs school milk day

The campaign was supported by Tetra Pak Saudi Arabia; it involved staff, teachers and more than 250 children. Aiming at providing a particular day when attention is focused on school milk and thus serves as a mechanism to its promotion.

The Jeddah event was a kick off to start the ball rolling for a series of larger celebrations organized by the MoE School Health Department for Boys and Girls in factories and primary schools in Jeddah, Riyadh, and Dammam to be held after Ramadan with the support of the largest dairy companies in the Kingdom In cooperation with the

The aim of the high profile drive was to highlight the health value of milk as part of a healthy food programme. The benefits of a healthy diet on learning are well established and milk, with its combination of calcium, vitamins, proteins, carbohydrates and other that can play an important role in the development of children."

Research shows that the quality of a child's diet is a significant factor in children's cognitive and physical development. Animal source foods for example milk and meat - are nutrient-rich foods which contain high quality protein, important vitamins and minerals which should be included in children's diet.

Studies have shown that children fed with these foods have demonstrated enhanced learning abilities. In contrast, children who consumed the lowest amount of milk and meat, performed least well on cognitive tests measuring verbal comprehension and perceptual abilities, and were also least attentive in the classroom.

"The MoE is very keen to maximize the potential of our young people," Dr. Saleh Al Ansari, General Director School Health (Boys) said. "Health and education of our children are probably the two most important concerns of both parents and the MoE. Milk Day is another step held by the MoE to keeping them firmly in the public arena. The wide range of countries celebrating the world school milk day-small countries, large countries, poor countries, rich countries- illustrates the universal interest in school milk programmes."

The 'Milk Event' was designed to combine a serious educational element with copious amounts of fun, where it opened with a short play that focused on the nutritional value of milk, how it is produced, packed and kept fresh for long periods without preservatives in the familiar Tetra Pak cartons.

The days continued with "hands on" milking sessions involving a dummy cow, emphasizing the natural source of the food, followed by an interactive session tracing the production process from cow to package.

In keeping with Tetra Pak's commitment to recycling and protection of the environment, competitions reinforced the idea of empty packages recycling to produce various paper products.

During the event, the children had many opportunities - and as in previous annual Milk Days these were very enthusiastically addressed - to consume milk in many forms, flavoured and plain.

At the end of the event, all the milk carton packages that were used during the day were collected and sent for recycling. Then all the participants took home stickers and milk educational booklets, provided by the MoE, in gift bags.