TETRA Laval SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Delivering fortified milk to Yemeni school children
A new partnership to deliver fortified milk to 10,000 children is demonstrating how challenges such as inadequate refrigeration and poor infrastructure can be overcome in the country.
Childhood malnutrition and barriers to food distribution
A report by UNICEF states that 45 per cent of children in Yemen experience irreversible stunted growth. Child wasting rates in the country are among the highest in the world, with estimates for some areas surpassing 25 per cent.
Yemen’s Ministry of Education runs an emergency school feeding programme covering 1.8 million children together with the World Food Programme. However, the programme faces many challenges, including a lack of refrigeration and potable water, poor infrastructure and logistical challenges.
UHT technology can be part of the solution
To address the issues of food safety and access to safe nutrition in schools, a collaborative effort between HSA Group (an international conglomerate of Yemeni origin), its subsidiary NADFOOD, Tetra Pak Arabia Area and Tetra Pak Food for Development has been established to serve fortified milk to 10,000 children in Yemeni schools. The UHT milk is processed locally in Tetra Brik® Aseptic 125 ml packages and is fortified with micronutrients and vitamins.
UHT technology enables school milk to be stored for 6 months without refrigeration while retaining its nutrients. The technology is critical to the viability of many school milk programmes around the world – including locations with no reliable cold chain and schools without refrigerators. This ensures that even children in the most remote locations can have access to safe, nutritious milk.
“Food security is a real challenge for children in Yemen, and thanks to our UHT technology we can support in providing 10,000 children with the nutrition they need to grow, while encouraging them to attend school,” said Niels Hougaard, Managing Director Tetra Pak Arabia Area.
International collaboration and potential scale up
“To support NADFOOD and Tetra Pak Arabia, we are sharing our experience and best practices used in School Feeding Programmes worldwide,” explained Rafael Fabrega, Tetra Pak Food for Development Vice President. “By collaborating in this way, we can help Yemen’s school milk programme be as efficient and effective as possible, while strengthening the bonds between our organisations for future advancements in the fight against childhood malnutrition.”
The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) will assess the educational and health benefits of the initiative for the 10,000 participating children. The plan is to ramp up the school feeding programme in Yemen to include more children and to investigate the potential for more nutritious, dairy and cereal-based beverage formulations.
45%
of children in Yemen experience irreversible stunted growth
Fortified milk to
10,000
children in Yemeni schools
School milk can be stored for
6 months
with UHT technology
Partnering on school milk in Uganda
Tetra Pak East Africa and Food for Development are working closely with stakeholders to transform the Ugandan dairy industry – to improve nutrition, enhance livelihoods and stimulate economic growth.
With low levels of milk consumption, combined with deficiencies in other key food groups, Uganda has a high prevalence of malnutrition. An estimated 2.3 million children in the country are chronically undernourished and 29 per cent of children under five suffer from stunting. Furthermore, Ugandan schools face poor educational outcomes, with a high level of absenteeism (30 per cent for primary school children) and a low level of conversion from primary to secondary school (25 per cent).
Initiative to improve nutrition and enhance livelihoods
A pilot Uganda School Milk Programme is currently improving both nutrition and educational performance among 50,000 school children by supplying them with safe, nutritious milk. The programme is also creating a predictable demand for dairy products in the local market, enhancing the livelihoods of small holder farmers and stimulating wider economic growth.
The pilot initiative is primarily funded by parents, supported and managed by local dairy processing firms and backed by government policy and resources. Tetra Pak East Africa and Food for Development are also key partners that are driving the objective of establishing a national school milk programme.
In the proposed national programme, four Tetra Pak customers in Uganda will supply the milk: Pearl Dairy, Brookside Dairy, JESA Farm Dairy and Vital Tomosi. The ambition is to create a national school milk programme that can supply domestic milk across the country, including to non-milk-producing regions.
Aseptic technology ensures food safety and quality
The milk is processed and packaged using Tetra Pak’s aseptic technology to help ensure food safety and quality, while providing the children with important nutrition. With aseptic technology, UHT milk can be safely transported to schools without the need for a cold chain as it can be stored at room temperature.
“To improve school children’s health and support their development and school performance is very important for the future of Uganda,” said Jonathan Kinisu, Managing Director Tetra Pak East Africa. “Through great collaboration with our customers, the government and parents, we are able to provide children with much needed nutrition and our UHT technology ensures we can reach rural areas where cold chains are a challenge.”
In August 2023, Tetra Pak East Africa and Food for Development held a School Milk Programme workshop in Uganda to ensure stakeholder alignment and cooperation for scaling up the programme nationally.
Partnering to make a difference
The Uganda School Milk Programme will be essential in improving the health of school children and creating an incentive for them to attend school. In the long term, it will boost literacy rates, drive economic growth and reduce poverty in Uganda. This potential is being unlocked through innovative collaboration between a wide range of stakeholders.
“Pearl is proud to participate in the Uganda School Milk Programme as we strongly believe that this initiative will play a pivotal role in not just addressing the nutritional needs for children but also in sculpting the dairy consumption landscape in Uganda,” said Rohit Rajasekharan, Chief Transformation Officer, Pearl Dairy. “As one of the largest stakeholders in Uganda’s dairy value chain, our purpose is to change the livelihoods of the small holder farmers in Uganda and make a more resilient next generation for Africa by catering to the nutrition needs to today’s children.”
Improving child health and school attendance in Bangladesh
A new school milk programme, which involves three Tetra Pak customers, has been established to provide milk to 60,000 Bangladeshi school children.
Childhood malnutrition and lack of formal milk collection
According to figures from UNICEF, millions of children, adolescents and mothers in Bangladesh suffer from malnutrition.1 At the same time, milk consumption per capita in Bangladesh ranks among the lowest in the world with milk availability of 175 ml compared to the recommended minimum daily intake per capita of 250 ml.2
Low milk availability is mainly due to inadequate collection, processing and packaging in the domestic milk industry. Only nine per cent of milk in Bangladesh reaches industrial processors where it can be processed and packaged into safe dairy products.3
A partnership for better nutrition and school attendance
In 2023, a new school milk programme was launched in Bangladesh to promote child health while improving school attendance and local dairy development. The programme involves Bangladesh’s Ministry of Primary and Mass Education, three dairy processors that are Tetra Pak customers – Pran Dairy, Brac Dairy and Akij Dairy – and a dairy organisation. The goal is to supply 60,000 primary school-age children at 300 schools with safe and nutritious milk.
The programme will boost future milk consumption and help improve the country’s daily per capita milk intake. Serving school milk that is processed and packaged using Tetra Pak’s aseptic technology will help to ensure food safety and quality, while providing children with much-needed nutrition. Aseptic technology enables UHT milk to be safely delivered to schools without the use of preservatives or refrigeration, including schools located in the remotest regions of Bangladesh.
Tetra Pak will continue to provide its customers and partners with training and technical assistance. Such support will help promote efficiency, effectiveness and food safety. It will also help reduce logistical costs while preventing food loss and waste during transportation and storage.
“Serving school milk that is processed and packaged using Tetra Pak’s aseptic technology will help to ensure food safety and quality, while providing children with much-needed nutrition.”
1 UNICEF – https://www.unicef.org/bangladesh/en/nutrition
2 DLS: Department of Livestock Services, Bangladesh.
3 Ibid.