World School Milk Day
Milk is an important part of a healthy balanced diet and annual World School Milk Day provides the perfect opportunity to spread the word
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World School Milk Day history
World School Milk Day, is celebrated each year on the last Wednesday of September, falls this year on September 28. World School Milk Day was first celebrated in September 2000 and since then has been recognised globally as an annual event promoted by FAO.
School Milk is an essential item of IDF Programme of Work. We have a dedicated action team with experts within the field devoted to studying and sharing knowledge about School Milk programmes all over the world. School Milk is key from a nutritional, educational and socioeconomic point of view.
Celebrations on 28 September are global and marked in many countries all over the world, with the number of countries and activities are increasing every year, providing an opportunity for everyone involved in the sector to participate.
- Milking demonstrations and school visits to promote milk
- Games, competitions
- Distribution of milk products
- conferences, seminars and information sharing
The dairy sector understands the role that milk and dairy foods play in supporting the health of children worldwide and shares information through the IDF School Milk Knowledge Hub and School Milk Bulletin. By partnering with organisations across all levels – from local and regional to national and global – the dairy sector can empower stakeholders to understand and incorporate policies and programmes such as school milk programmes and milk and dairy foods in school meal programmes to support children’s access to nutritious foods.
Follow how our member countries are celebrating
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!
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.
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!”
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
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:
Dairy is a vital part of global food systems, providing economic, nutritional & social benefits to many people around the world
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