Vietnam Launches School Milk Program Nationwide

A school milk program was launched nationwide on Sept.28, aiming at providing school-children with free milk to improve their health and physique, state media reported. The “School Milk – For Vietnam’s Stature” program, approved by the prime minister, targets to feed all pre-school children and elementary pupils in poor districts on milk by 2020, meeting 90%-95% of their energy demand, and increasing the heights of school boys and girls by 1.5cm and 2cm, respectively. In addition, the domestic dairy firm TH True Milk has committed VND200 billion ($9 million) to the program in the 2016-2021 period. As many as 60 countries worldwide have responded to World School Milk Day launched by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Among them, Japan, SputhKorea, the US, the UK and Thailand use pure fresh milk. (giaoduc.net.vn Sep 29, vovworld.vn Sep 29)