5 Reasons to Celebrate World School Milk Day

Did you know that milk has been served in schools around the world for decades?

No matter the language you use, governments in many countries recognize milk’s important health contribution to children’s diets and create programs to serve it. Since 2000, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has declared the last Wednesday in September World School Milk Day. Why should you celebrate milk at school? Here are five reasons:

1. Supports growing bones. We all want our kids to reach their full height potential. Milk contains calcium and phosphorus, which are both important in building strong bones. Kids and teens need three dairy servings each day to meet their calcium needs. Learn more about the nutritional benefits of milk here.
2. Nutrient dense. Milk has nine essential nutrients, including protein, that kids need. Sports drinks, fruit juices and soda pop may contribute one or two nutrients but, they have added sugar and don’t provide as much nutrition for the calories as milk. Find out why chocolate milk is a nutritious option for kids here.
3. Goes great with meals. To help students get all the nutrition they need, it is important to drink milk with most meals. Water is important for healthy bodies and is a good choice between meals for hydration.
4. Easily available. In the United States, almost 30 million students each day eat a school lunch and 14.6 million eat school breakfast. Milk is a required part of those meals. That is a lot of great nutrition, especially considering 2/3 of those meals are fed to students who live in food-insecure households and may not have milk at home.
5. Supports local farmers. Did you know there are over 1,700 dairy farms in the state of Michigan and 97% of those are family owned? Dairy is an important business in our state. Every container of fluid milk has a code that tells you where the milk came from.  Look for a two-digit code, followed by a three-digit code near the best-by date.  Michigan’s code is “26.” Drinking local milk is a great way to support our farmers. Learn more about our Michigan farmers here.

Are you interested in learning more about milk, nutrition and meeting a dairy farm family?  Please visit milkmeansmore.org.