Milk dispensers in schools help to increase children's milk intake.
Düren (PRWeb) March 10, 2007 -- The Government of Latvia is keen to promote milk drinking in its schools as part of a countrywide drive to increase nutritional intake by young children. In April 2006, an initiative was launched in a secondary school in the capital Riga, using bag-in-box catering dispensers.
The concept was initiated by Rigas Piena Kombinats (RPK), the largest milk processing enterprise in Latvia with a mission to become the leading dairy producer in the Baltic states.
RPK worked closely with two other companies on this initiative, Autonumis and Rapak. Autonumis is a leading manufacturer of dispensing machines and Rapak is one of the world's largest suppliers of liquid packaging and dispensing technologies.
Combining their expertise, these three companies have already had a major impact on milk drinking in Latvian schools with more than 62,000 litres of milk consumed through dispensers in the last four months of 2006 alone. The advantages of using dispensers for school milk include ease of use, convenience and hygienic dispense of a 200 ml measure without any wastage or mess. There is also the important benefit that the milk is always kept at just the right cool temperature for drinking.
Already 50 dispensers have been placed in schools throughout Latvia. At the moment, the age limit for free milk is 11 years. If the Government agrees to extend the scheme to the 11-16 year age group, RPK believes that volume of milk consumption through dispensers could triple.
The scheme is going down well with the children themselves and research conducted by RPK has been monitoring the impact of the initiative. Initial results found that:
- On average 65% of children are happy to use the dispensers with some schools reporting the dispensers being used by 100% of their pupils.
- What's more, 100% of the children surveyed said they liked the idea of using a dispenser for milk and that it made milk drinking more popular with them.
- Of all those children drinking milk through dispensers, 50% drink during a stated time in class and 50% dispense the milk when they want to.
- 88% of the school staff surveyed said that the use of dispensers made their task of running the school milk programme easier.
- Clearly, the school milk dispensing initiative has been a huge success, encouraging milk consumption and health among young students in Latvia.
Press Contact: LUCY PEACOCK
Company Name: Rapak
Email: email protected from spam bots
Phone: 0034958891466
Website: www.rapak.com
Press Release Source: EMediaWire
