Delegates visit the nutritional vegetables garden, a model piloted at Tong Phan Primary School with support from the Vietnam Agriculture Academy. — Photo courtesy of Nestle

The Nestle for Healthier Kids programme for the 2019-20 school year began last week at the Tong Phan Primary School in Hung Yen Province’s Phu Cu District with a programme for primary school students to improve their nutrition knowledge and involve in physical activity.

It was attended by more than 300 students from five primary schools in the province and featured a range of activities, including learning about adequate nutrition and enhancing physical activity and presentations on “Posters promoting reasonable nutrition and healthy lifestyle.”

Participants also had a chance to visit computer labs to attend nutrition classes that comprised lectures, up-to-date information and games, and a nutritional vegetables garden, a model piloted at Tong Phan Primary School with support from the Vietnam Agriculture Academy to inform teachers and students about nutrition information through the cultivation of clean and nutritious food products.

Truong Dinh Bac, deputy head of the Department of Preventive Medicine, said: “With the lack of nutritional knowledge and limited physical exercise among students, the rising incidence of obesity and diabetes in school-age children, it is critical that measures to reduce obesity/diabetes are taken with an emphasis on promoting healthy nutrition and lifestyles.

“Therefore, the introduction of a model that promotes good nutrition education and physical activity in children via a website is obviously essential and beneficial.”

Nguyen Ngoc Yen, head of Nestle in the northern region, said: “Through practical initiatives that are implemented across the globe, including Viet Nam, Nestle for Healthier Kids has been supporting teachers, students and caregivers by helping them acquire necessary nutritional knowledge and participate in physical activities so that millions of Vietnamese children will lead healthier lives.”

Nestle for Healthier Kids was launched in Viet Nam in 2012 together with the National Institute of Nutrition and Ministry of Health and later expanded nation-wide in 2017.

It aims to improve the nutritional status and physical stature of Vietnamese children.

As of October 2019, the programme has reached more than 30,000 students in 61 primary schools in nine localities, and Nestle has said its ambition is to help 50 million children lead healthier lives. — VNS