Milk still tastes “good and healthy” for students at Mother Teresa Halkirk Catholic School.
This year, the school celebrates 25 years as part of the provincial Club Moo School Milk Program.
As one of 20 schools marking the program’s silver anniversary, Mother Teresa has underlined the value of nutritious diets.
“Parents want their children to have healthy choices of a dairy product for lunch,” said Maxine Baird, a teacher at the school who has co-ordinated the program locally since the partnership began with Alberta Milk.
With 40 students from grades 1 to 9 at the Halkirk school, about two-thirds of the students participate in the program, she said.
“We don’t have any vending pop machines in the school, so this is one option for drinks.”
Students say they appreciate the taste of milk — white and chocolate — and its health benefits.
“I like milk,” Toryn Johnson said.
“Milk tastes good,” Madelyn Schauer said.
“Milk makes bones strong,” Zachary Schilling said.
“It’s a good dairy product and we need to have dairy products every day,” Eric Williams said.
Club Moo is an incentive-based milk program that rewards students for drinking milk to try to establish healthy eating habits.
Advocates say milk with lunch helps provide the energy and nutrition children need to perform their best physically and mentally.
“Having a strong commitment to health is vital to creating healthy habits in the future,” said Lee Finell, a registered dietitian with Alberta Milk.
“I applaud each of these schools for choosing health and including Club Moo as part of the everyday lives of their students and staff.”