School milk is on the agenda in Vietnam

With support from the Food for Development Office, Tetra Pak Vietnam, Vietnam’s Children Protection Fund and the People’s Committee of Ba Ria Vung Tau province jointly organised an international school milk conference in Vung Tau City on November 25-26, 2010. The conference attracted 180 participants and speakers from 15 countries sharing experiences on school milk as a way to improve nutrition and the economy.

The purpose of the conference was to share the experiences from the Ba Ria - Vung Tau school milk programme and programmes of other countries with other regions of Vietnam as well as with the national government in Vietnam. The conference covered the whole value chain of milk. Many speakers referred to school milk as a catalyst for development of not only children’s health and education but also of the whole dairy sector and the economy at large.

The presentations made by the International Dairy Federation, Global Child Nutrition Foundation, Tetra Pak Food for Development Office, DeLaval and representatives of school milk programmes in Russia, Poland, Thailand and Pakistan are available in attached document.

The Ba Ria - Vung Tau School Milk Programme
The Ba Ria - Vung Tau School Milk Programme started in 2006 and today cover over 48,000 3-6 years old children (including 43,000 pre-school children and 5,000 malnourished children in the community). Children drink free packed milk 2 times/week (kindergartens) or 4 times/week (malnourished children in the community). The malnutrition rate among children has decreased and kindergarten enrolment and attendance increased as a positive and effective result of the programme. Tetra Pak has been a very active partner from the start providing organizational and implementation support.

View the School Milk Conference presentations document (pdf, 20 MB)