Last March, Nestlé Nesquik Plus introduced a Nutrition Awareness Campaign promoting the importance of vitamin intake in children. This campaign has been experiencing a constant flow of positive feedback. The main tool in this campaign is a Child Nutritional Survey aimed at helping parents and school authorities evaluate the nutritional profile of their children/students, thus creating more awareness. Since the launch of this campaign, Nestlé have received an overwhelming positive response: 31 schools have booked over 10,000 surveys and another 2,000 survey results have been received from parents.
The Nutrition Awareness Campaign is a three-month educational drive for parents concerning the importance of a regular daily intake of calcium amongst their children. The campaign stresses the recognised fact that the consumption of three glasses of milk a day provides children with the full RDA (Recommended Daily Allowance) of calcium as recommended by most child nutritionists.
“A healthy diet is among the most essential ingredients to fuel every child’s emotional and physical growth. However, every parent knows that trying to feed children with green vegetables, fresh fruit and balanced healthy meals many times turns out to be a lost battle. Children are not interested in nutrition. They simply look for things that taste great and are fun to eat or drink. This makes it even more difficult to ensure that the growing child gets the essential vitamins and minerals and Nesquik Plus is one way which facilitates the intake of these necessary vitamins and minerals,” added a Nestlé spokesperson.
The first set of questions in this questionnaire concern the child’s nutrition profile whereas the rest of the questions help parents to identify their child’s eating habits and as well as one’s views on nutrition. Participants in this survey have the opportunity of winning a variety of prizes ranging from nutrition consultancy sessions to book vouchers on child nutrition from Agenda Bookshop and attractive Nesquik-themed gifts. The questionnaires are available in Maltese and English.
Schools wishing to acquire more copies of this survey can call Nestlé Malta Ltd’s consumer services outlet on 8007-2209 to book the surveys which will be delivered by Nestlé. The overall results of this survey will be announced in summer and an overall generic report on the nutritional status on the school’s students will be sent to each school upon request. No individual information will be divulged and reports will be treated with the strictest confidence.
Obesity is a major social issue in our country where 35 per cent of school children aged seven to 11 are obese or overweight. This is the highest figure in Europe, followed by Sicily and Spain (IASO – EU Platform on Diet, Physical Activity and Health – Brussels 2005).