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World School Milk Day
Published 3 July 07
How did it start? World School Milk Day is celebrated on the last Wednesday in September. This date was chosen because schools were open in all the countries surveyed during this month. The end of the month was selected to allow countries in the Western hemisphere sufficient time to prepare for this day, as in most of these countries the school year starts in early September. Wednesday was chosen as it was a school day in all countries surveyed.
The 1st World School Milk Day was held in 2000 and it has since become an annual event Every last Wednesday in September, over 30 countries - regardless of whether they are large or small, rich or poor - celebrate World School Milk Day, demonstrating that the interest in school milk is universal.
This year World School Milk Day was celebrated on Wednesday 26 September 2007.
The goal of World School Milk Day is to provide a particular day when attention is focused on this issue and thereby promote such programmes. Importance is lent to the event by the fact that other countries are doing the same thing, on the same day.
How is World School Milk Day celebrated? World School Milk Day is an "open" day - people are free to celebrate how they wish. Celebrations can be at any level - from national or regional events to individual schools. Some countries have started in a small way and have organised bigger celebrations with each passing year. Big or small, all have a common goal: to draw attention to school milk and thereby promote its consumption.
Celebrations of past years showed how creative people are in celebrating World School Milk Day. In almost all countries celebrating the Day, free milk is distributed to children in schools. Other activities include sporting events, distribution of educational and promotional material and celebrity visits to schools; also drawing and art competitions are very popular. Often dairy companies act as sponsors of the Day and provide not only free milk but also promotional material such as t-shirts, caps, pens, posters, etc. for the children.
Some of this year's activity
Scotland
Claire Doyle, our Scottish facilitator
visited four different schools with Charlotte the cow, the
project's mascot, joining in the salsa dancing with children from
Dykehead Primary School. The school started a milk scheme
last year.
South
Dairy Farmers of Britain provided Hampshire
facilitator Sharon Long with free milk to take to Waite End Primary
in Waterlooville. The children also received booklets and
stickers as well as posters and milk-shake recipes.
St Mary's CE Primary in Bentworth also celebrated with a special assembly - a copy of the project's 'Story of Milk' booklet was given to every child. The school already takes advantage of the Under 5s free milk but wants to extend milk to the rest of the school also.
Midlands
Jill Middleton in the Midlands also led a special
assembly. The school she visited is hoping to introduce a
pupil-led healthy tuck shop with milk on sale every day.
Wales
In advance of the big day, the School Milk Project was
particularly busy in Wales, liaising with Welsh Healthy Schools
coordinators with a mailout of bi-lingual resources across the
whole of the country.
- Over 1000 School Milk Project packs sent out
- Over 6000 stickers
- Over 300 Healthy Choices packs
- Over 600 posters
- 0ver 1600 additional bi lingual education resource booklets sent out
In creating awareness of World School Milk Day we have had an additional 46 schools contact us over the past week who want to continue to promote milk drinking across the whole school - which is great news.
For advice and information on how to set up a scheme please refer to information provided on this site or give us a call on 0870 241 2693
