World School Milk Day

Milk is a vital part of a healthy, balanced diet and World School Milk Day is the perfect moment to celebrate its impact on children’s nutrition and learning.

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World school milk day history

World School Milk Day, celebrated annually on the last Wednesday of September, will fall this year on September 24, 2025. First launched in 2000, it has since become a globally recognized event promoted by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to highlight the importance of school milk programmes in supporting child nutrition and education.

School Milk is a core component of the IDF Programme of Work. We have established a dedicated Action Team composed of global experts committed to advancing and sharing knowledge on School Milk Programmes worldwide. These programmes are essential not only from a nutritional standpoint, but also for their educational and socioeconomic benefits.

Celebrations on 24 September are truly global, with participation growing each year. Countries around the world mark the occasion with a wide range of activities, offering a valuable opportunity for everyone involved in the sector to engage, share, and celebrate. The number of participating countries and the diversity of events continue to expand annually, reflecting the increasing recognition of the importance of this day.

Milking demonstrations and school visits to promote milk
Games, competitions
Distribution of milk products
Conferences, seminars and information sharing

The dairy sector recognizes the vital role that milk and dairy foods play in supporting the health and development of children worldwide. Through platforms like the IDF School Milk Knowledge Hub and the IDF School Milk Bulletin, the sector actively shares evidence-based insights and best practices.

By partnering with organizations at every level—from local and regional to national and global—the dairy sector helps empower stakeholders to design and implement effective policies and programmes. These include school milk initiatives and the broader integration of milk and dairy foods into school meal programmes, ensuring that children have consistent access to nutritious, wholesome foods that support their growth, learning, and well-being.

Follow how our member countries are celebrating

IDF U.S.

The Dairy Council of CA spread school milk’s positive impact with a special appearance on Sacramento TV station KTXL for Studio40 Live, hosted by Scott Moak and Gary Gelfand. The segment featured CEO Amy DeLisio, Mobile Dairy Classroom Manager Kimberlee McLaughlin and a delightful appearance by special guest Cocoa the cow. Watch here!

IDF Norway

This year, IDF Norway will promote World School Milk Day on Facebook and in a direct mail to the schools, with information on why milk is so important for pupils around the whole world.

In addition to that, they are going to announce a live school class on Zoom which they are doing together with a non-profit foundation that wishes to teach children why it is so important to recycle the School Milk carton. This session will take place in October, but we will use School Milk Day to get attention to this important subject.

IDF Japan

Current activities for School Milk in Japan by J-milk consist primarily of providing the following educational materials.

Provision of Short Instructional Materials

To enable school children to learn about milk served at school during lunch time, we provide school teachers and staff with “short instructional materials” on our website, including instructional methods, that can be used for short, 5-minute instructional sessions during lunch time.

Teaching Materials for Elementary Schools: “Milk is Alive”

The educational material for elementary school “Milk is Alive” is designed for third and fourth graders to learn about the relationship between milk and the lives of dairy cows and nature at school, starting from the fact that there are differences in taste and smell (flavor) depending on milk.

Others

In addition to promoting the importance of milk consumption in school lunch programs by comparing “days with school lunch (milk)” and “days without school lunch (milk),” we also emphasize the necessity of drinking milk at home on holidays and other occasions as well as in school lunches, in cooperation with school officials engaged in school lunch programs and people involved in dairy farming and milk industry as also the project “.Let’s drink milk on days we don’t have school lunches!”

IDF UK

To celebrate World School Milk Day 2022 Dairy UK are hosting a webinar targeted at healthcare professionals on the subject of nutrition for primary school aged children, highlighting the role of dairy as an essential part of childhood diets, and conducting 2 X paid social media campaigns.

Dairy UK have launched a YouTube campaign promoting nutrition packed lunchboxes for primary school aged children, targeting parents of primary school-aged children. Video and lunchbox recipes can be viewed at: https://milk.co.uk/world-school-milk-day/

Secondly, Dairy UK launched a paid Twitter campaign targeting health care professionals, promoting our September 28th webinar ‘Nutrition For Life: Primary School Years’ to help us engage new healthcare professionals to our webinar series and to our website milk.co.uk

Throughout the day they will also be celebrating with our own Twitter and LinkedIn posts to our industry and stakeholder following and retweeting and sharing content

IDF Iceland

School Milk Day in Iceland: 4th Grade Drawing Competition

Every year, MS Iceland Dairies (Mjólkursamsalan) celebrates International School Milk Day by launching a national 4th Grade Drawing Competition. Starting at the end of September, this event invites all 9- and 10-year-old children in Iceland to participate, with around 1,600 students—about 40% of this age group—taking part annually.

The competition encourages creativity and artistic expression, focusing on themes such as the Icelandic countryside, health, and wellness. It aims to inspire children to think about healthy habits and the importance of dairy in their daily lives.

Each year, ten winning drawings are selected, and the artists’ classes receive monetary awards to fund a fun group activity. The event is highly regarded in the school community, with strong participation and support from both students and educators. The Ministers of Children and Education have served as patrons, helping to select the winning entries.

Participation has remained steady over the years, with 1,500–2,000 children involved annually. The competition is a wonderful example of how School Milk Day can foster creativity, community spirit, and healthy habits among young people.

For more information and to view past winning entries, visit: http://www.ms.is/teiknisamkeppni

IDF South Africa

This year WSMD will be celebrated under the theme ‘Dairy gives you GO for a healthy me and healthy environment!’ which will focus and showcase how dairy makes a difference in the health status of the school learners by getting the learners and teachers involved through a school driven campaign. The Consumer Education Project of Milk SA (CEP) has developed a WSMD challenge that emphasises the unique combination of nutrients, in each dairy product, that work together in building a healthy body and immune system.

The WSMD challenge, developed by the CEP, also highlights the important role that communities play in the health of the environment. By challenging the learners to collect and use the empty dairy containers to reuse it in creating a work of art. Creating art, is a natural expression that society needs in today’s world which is filled with numerous challenges. The sense of ownership in creating something worthwhile is in and of itself something to be proud of, and the CEP would like to share that with everyone! The focus is brought on the responsible role society plays in our community health. A healthy mind, in a healthy body in a healthy place.

Working with the Department of Basic Education’s (DBE) National School Nutrition Programme (NSNP), the challenge has reached every school across the nation! The WSMD challenge will run the entire month of September in various schools (both public and private) where learners, working in groups, had to create and express their works of art by using recycled material, like dairy containers to create works of art. Schools have submitted their entries and a national panel will collaborate to judge with National winners in each grade. These wonderful creations will be put on display later this year in the gallery of the DBE for everyone to enjoy.

With the generous donations from various dairy companies (including Danone, Transem, Nestlé, Dewfresh, Fairfield and Woodlands Dairy) have all collaborated to make this year even more special, helping more than 20 underprivileged schools, with over 4 000 leaners, across the country to participate in their own WSMD celebrations.

https://www.rediscoverdairy.co.za/community-work/world-school-milk-day/

In addition, each of the schools also receive the learning material developed by the CEP for grades R-3 and R 4 to 7 (where applicable). This is also available online and can be downloaded here:

www.dairykids.co.za

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