KUWAIT: The
national project for the development of the healthy school canteen is one of
the important methods and tools recently adopted by the Kuwaiti Ministry of
Education to strengthen the nutritional status of school students in
cooperation with Kuwait Flour Mills and Bakery Company. This initiative
encourages students to change the wrong habits and adopt positive behavior by
providing food to reduce the incidence of nutritional-related diseases.

In March, the
Ministry of Education began implementing the project initially on eight schools
for experimentation. Health products were presented by Flour Mills Company in
preparation for the expansion of the project next year to include primary
schools and then include all stages. This project was applied to these schools
as a first step in cooperation with the Kuwaiti Ministry of Health, the
Kuwait's Public Authority for Food and Nutrition and the Kuwait Flour Mills and
Bakeries Company to provide various and safe food items for school students.
The project seeks to develop the school canteen to provide a variety of
nutritious food at affordable prices for school students in order to improve
their health and to reduce the risk factors leading to no communicable
diseases.

In this context,
Kuwait Flour Mills and Bakeries Company CEO Mutlaq Al-Zayed said that the
canteen project is aimed to introduce the company's products in canteens with
the approved specifications of Kuwait's Public Authority for Food and Nutrition
in order to preserve the health of school students. Zayed added that the
company and its partners represented by the Ministry of Education and the Food
and Nutrition Authority have developed an objective plan for the project consisting
of three phases aimed at preserving the health of the students in terms of
national responsibility. He explained that the first phase included the
adoption of samples of the company's varieties by the Food and Nutrition
Authority after conducting several questionnaires for students to know their
favorite products.

As for the second
phase, it began supplying samples to eight schools from different stages and
governorates to test the products and undergo a trial period of 3 weeks, he
said. He added that during this period, questionnaires would be conducted for
students after the experiment, noting that the third phase will be the actual
supply starting from the next school year for all primary schools.

He said that the
number of products offered by the company in the canteens amounted to about 31
products of different flavors ranging from 100 fils to 250 fils Kuwaiti ($0.32
to $0.81). He added that the mechanism of work in the project is now through
the delivery of the company's products to the school's canteens, which are
responsible for the purchase, pointing out that there is a trend in the future
to use vending machines in schools to sell products of the company. - KUNA