The Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, and Rural Development, Julián Martínez Lizán, has highlighted the importance of fruit and vegetable distribution programs and milk programs as they raise awareness among school children about the importance of a healthy diet, with the Mediterranean diet being the prime example, while also showcasing the work of farmers and livestock breeders.
«We want girls and boys to learn how to eat well, to acquire healthy lifestyle habits for their adult life, and to become aware of responsible and sustainable consumption. In this way, we are combining nutrition, education, and health, three key aspects in a person’s life, on which the Government of Castilla-La Mancha has been working since the 2009/2010 school year and to which we will allocate nearly a million euros this year,» he pointed out.
Julián Martínez Lizán made these remarks in Caudete, where he visited the public school ‘El Paseo’, one of the 553 centers in the region participating in the fruit and vegetable distribution program this school year.
At this center, almost 150 children will receive one of the ten portions that will be provided this year. «In total, 855 students from five centers in Caudete are participating in the program this year, with over 86,000 students across the region, to which we will allocate 680,000 euros,» explained the Minister, thanking all the teaching staff and management teams for making these initiatives possible.
Additionally, this same week, on the 7th, the school milk distribution has also begun, with 363 schools and 70,680 children participating this year receiving seven portions of organic milk. This program will receive around 265,000 euros in funding.
TERRITORIAL PROMOTION PROJECT ‘KNOW YOUR REGION’
Following this activity, the students at this center have been the protagonists of the presentation of the story ‘María and Arturo in search of the Region’s treasure.’ A work in which each chapter presents a population or an emblematic place of this region, where the protagonists discover key elements of culture, history, and the natural environment.
This book is part of one of the activities initiated by the Rural Development Group of Monte Ibérico-Corredor de Almansa for the various schools, within the territorial promotion project ‘Know Your Region,’ whose objective is to «create and strengthen the local bonds of the youngest, establishing educational strategies to combat depopulation,» stated the Minister.
The project, with a budget close to 31,000 euros, involves the implementation of 19 educational workshops for around 500 school-age children, guided tours of the region, and the publication of 2,000 copies of this story to distribute them in all the libraries of the different schools in the area, as well as in municipal libraries.