World School Milk Day – The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations (UN) is celebrating the 17th annual World School Milk Day on 30 September for school milk information, giving advice and help to countries who want to establish school milk programmes. A lack of information about different school milk systems among United Nations members prompted the FAO to rectify this.
E-mail networks and a linked website were created in 1997 as the place to exchange the relevant information. This is accompanied by conferences to exchange information among those operating school milk programmes.
World School Milk Day is a focal point of activities and draws attention to the different programmes used by members of the School Milk List e-mail network.
By having so many people worldwide participating in the event, school milk programmes are better promoted. I remember receiving my free school milk at morning break and it is an important part of my childhood memories.
By encouraging young children to drink milk now, and make it a part of their milk diet, then the behaviour is likely to continue into adulthood. Calcium foods are an important part of a healthy diet so establishing the behaviour now is vital to a healthy lifestyle.