Montik is the Best Friend of Children/School Milk

The project "Montik is the Best Friend of Children/School Milk" became the logical continuation and development of the program «Savushkin Product — for the Nation’s Health». It was implemented in academic year 2007-2008 at secondary school No 163 in Minsk. This was the first event of such type in Belarus carried out with the medical support under the auspices of the Chamber of National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus, the Public Health Committee in Minsk, Pervomaiski District Executive Committee in Minsk, the Board of Education in Pervomaiski District Executive Committee in Minsk and United Nations Development Programme in the Republic of Belarus.

Every day from October 1, 2007 to the end of academic year 2007/2008, pupils from the first to the fourth form at a school in Minsk had Savushkin Product’s sour-milk cocktail and cottage-cheese dessert paste "Montik". For this purpose, special Milk Breaks were organized at school when children could have the dairy products in the comfortable environment.

Unfortunately, nowadays school-age children fall ill more often. The most widespread diseases are gastrointestinal diseases and osteomuscular and musculoskeletal pathologies. The basic reason for that is unbalanced diet and lack of protein, calcium and vitamin D. These elements can be supplied by daily consumption of dairy products.

The project provided unique information on the influence of natural dairy product consumption (in this case of dairy products produced by PJSC Savushkin Product under "Montik" trademark) on schoolchildren’s health and academic progress, the information to be used later as a basic factor in making a menu for pre-schoolers and schoolchildren. Within the project framework, an educational program on the importance of a healthy diet and necessity of development of milk and dairy product consumption standard was also conducted for children and their parents.

The analysis of the project results has allowed the following conclusions:

• regular consumption of the sour-milk cocktail with probiotics (living bifidobacteria that preserve their activity in the gastrointestinal tract and give a beneficial effect on health) and vitaminized cottage-cheese dessert paste "Montik" improved the general state of health of the majority of children and their appetite;
• the children tended to wake up easier in the morning, their ability to concentrate and academic progress improved;
• the children’s immune resistance improved (children went down with colds less frequently and practically did not suffer from gastrointestinal diseases of different etiology);
• the participants’ parents started to put more emphasis on the diet, which resulted in the increase of a share of healthy breakfasts.