According to data from UNICEF, chronic malnutrition among children in Iraq is a major challenge with several long-term effects. Malnourishment reduces children’s chances of survival, hindering health and growth. One in five children in Iraq suffers from stunting, or low height-for-age. Chronic childhood malnutrition is also likely to have enduring negative effects on children’s cognitive ability and school performance. 1
Teaming up to provide school children with nutritious milk
Tetra Pak Arabia area has joined with local customer Alssad to provide milk to school children in Iraq. The current milk programme is part of the broader National School Feeding programme run by the United Nations World Food Programme and the Iraqi Ministry of Education. In the 2021 – 2022 academic year, the partners have fed 350,000 children, with the aim of reaching 3.6 million by 2024-2025. 2
Still in its pilot stage, the milk portion serves about 7,000 students with white milk in Tetra Brik® Aseptic 250 ml cartons. The initiative is active within parts of three of the country’s governorates, namely Diyla, Wasit and al-Diywania city (in al-Qadisiyya governorate).
RESULTS
Improving childhood health and education
Through receiving regular nutrition at school in the form of safe, high-quality milk, the health status of the children should improve, also improving the children’s cognition and school performance. The fact that this milk is freely available at school should also create an incentive for children to attend, thereby reducing illiteracy rates in the country.
"Tetra Pak Arabia is proud to be working with Alssad Company for Food to bring about a positive impact on the health and education of children in Iraq. After the successes of the pilot School Milk Programme, we plan to continue to help provide safe, nutritious milk to more schools in more locations throughout the country."
–Niels Hougaard, managing director at Tetra Pak Arabia Area
LOOKING AHEAD
Expanding operations throughout the country
The Ministry of Education of Iraq (MoE) and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) have agreed to broaden access to school feeding for 3.6 million school children across the country. Partners plan to expand the programme over the next four years to provide better opportunities to all children in need, to stay in school and support their learning and futures.
The plan for 2024 is to scale up the School Milk Programme, currently reaching 7,000 children, by distributing white milk in 125 ml Tetra Brik® Aseptic cartons. Tetra Pak customer Alssad is ramping up its processing and packaging capacity to support this expansion.
1 Source: UNICEF
2 Source: WFP, GCNF