FrieslandCampina Engro Pakistan Ltd (FCEPL) in collaboration with the University of Education, Punjab launched a ‘School Milk Program’ (SMP) in a ceremony held at a local hotel today.

Minister of Higher Education Punjab, Raja Yasir Humayun Sarfraz was the chief guest for the occasion. The ceremony was also graced by the Minister for Livestock, Sardar Hasnain Bahadar Dreshak.

Managing Director FrieslandCampina Mr Ali Ahmed Khan in his message on the successful launch of School Milk Program said “This year FrieslandCampina celebrated its 150^th anniversary of providing superlative dairy products and nutritional excellence. We will continue this magnanimous journey in line with our strong commitment and vision of providing a better livelihood for our farmers and safe, nutritious, and healthy dairy products for our consumers.

Ali Ahmed added that “FrieslandCampina, being a cooperative of Dairy Farmers is committed to “nourishing by nature” and that this purpose has three predominant elements including better nutrition, a good living for farmers now and generations to come.”

“Nutrition is at the core of our purpose, and we are taking several initiatives to enhance efficiency and refinement in the technological system”, Ali Ahmed said further.

It is our primary responsibility to highlight the dire consequences of raw milk consumption and we have undertaken many projects for the improvement of farmer livelihoods through our dairy development initiatives.While milk consumption in schools has a multitude of benefits for the school children, it also leads to other benefits including farmers selling more, industry growth and employment generation.

Keeping this in mind, we are partnering with the UE for a 6-month pilot program where key learnings in terms of nutrition improvement and school performance, will be shared with the government and relevant stakeholders for potential large scale roll out.”

The SMP event was graced by the patrons of Pakistan’s various educational institutions, all of whom are ardent advocates of the health and dietary needs of the country’s substantial student population.

Dr. Muhammad Nasir, G.M. Scientific & Regulatory Affairs, FCEPL said ‘’We are partnering with the government and other stakeholders to launch this much needed initiative of the School Milk Program, which will help improve the nutritional status and health of kids and is also expected to improve their educational performance indicators.”

Dr Nasir said further that the launch of the SMP is scheduled to be the first of many other empowering and quality-of-life enhancing entities aimed at the health and nutritional needs of every Pakistani, in line with the vision of Prime Minister, Imran Khan. With the slogan of “Nourishing the future” the children of the nation can expect many other similarly empowering initiatives scheduled along the year.