Why are school milk and school milk schemes so important?
Ulla Holm: Since the 1960s, school milk and school nutrition programmes have played an important part in our business and have been part of our commitment to make food safe and available everywhere. Milk provides essential proteins and amino acids, which help to develop young children’s brains and bodies. Experience shows that school milk programmes improve the health and learning capacities of children and often function as a catalyst to increase demand for locally produced and processed quality milk.
What have been some recent trends and developments in this sector?
Holm: Tetra Pak began supporting school milk programmes in the 1960s in countries such as Japan and Mexico. In 2000, we set up the Food for Development Office (FfDO), which works in close partnership with governments, development agencies, NGOs and customers to coordinate and make available our extensive knowledge in agricultural development and school feeding programmes. Today, Tetra Pak is involved in school milk initiatives in over 50 countries, serving about 50 million children – 29 million in developing countries – across the world.
After last year’s international food crises, followed by the financial crises, we have seen that United Nations agencies now jointly highlight the need to support small- and medium-size farming and develop the whole food value chain, using local entrepreneurs as the engine for growth. A new report from the World Bank and World Food Programme confirms that school feeding is the best way to support vulnerable groups, and that linking school feeding to local food production and processing is a win-win situation for a country.
Already in 2006, Tetra Pak FfDO activities were recognised by the UN, with the 2006 World Business Award and today Tetra Pak’s model linking school feeding and nutrition programmes to dairy development and private sector development is widely recognised by many governments, UN agencies, international development agencies and NGOs.
Has the global recession, with governments under pressure to reduce costs, had an impact on school milk schemes?
Holm: We see continued interest and commitment from governments to develop and grow school feeding programmes, linked to the agricultural value chain.
In the past year, we’ve seen continued expansion of programmes in different countries such as India, China and Haiti. For example, in Mumbai, the scheme managed by local government last year covered more than 125,000 children. Although the programme faced challenges due to a contamination scare, it’s now expanding and reaches about 180,000 children with the intention of doubling in the near future. Efforts are now being made to expand the programme to other parts of India, including Delhi.
Iran now has one of the largest school milk programmes in the world. In Russia, government commitment has resulted in a Moscow plant dedicated to producing school milk.
Highlight some of Tetra Pak’s activities in this field.
Holm: At Tetra Pak, we’re proud of the progress and achievements we’ve made in our global school feeding programmes, especially in the current climate. In Haiti, we’re working with Tetra Pak’s local customer Viva to participate in two school feeding programmes funded by the World Bank. The initiative already covers 50,000 children.
In 2008, Tetra Pak partnered with the Guatemala-based Nutrition Institute of Central America and Panama (Incap) to develop a ready-to-drink (RTD) version of its Incaparina nutritional cereal beverage. Produced by our local customer, the RTD product offers a safe, easily distributed alternative for rural areas with substandard hygiene and lack of potable water, while providing consumption control. It’s being sold commercially and has now been launched in a government emergency and disaster relief feeding programme targeting severely malnourished children in rural areas.
In addition to the expansion of some of our established programmes, we have in the past year initiated pilot programmes in Morocco and Kenya, working with local NGOs, governments and customers. Our Moroccan initiative is focused on two regions in particular, where we target nearly 4,000 students in 37 primary schools with fortified milk.
Ulla Holm is director of Food for Development at Tetra Pak – a packaging company offering sustainable carton packaging solutions for food and beverage products.
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