Saudi GazetteA school awareness nutrition campaign recently carried out by Kraft Foods in Jeddah region revealed that more than 50 percent of school students are unaware of healthy food. The campaign took place in some 50 intermediate governmental schools in Jeddah under the supervision of the educational directory of Jeddah in the form of a competition followed by an inter-school debate, where the students of selected schools were asked questions on healthy food and balanced diet. In an exclusive interview with Saudi Gazette, Dr. Khalid Al-Madani, a consultant in clinical nutrition and ex-vice president of the Saudi Society for food and nutrition discussed the campaign and the lack of health awareness among students. Q- What is the main goal behind this campaign and what is the role of the organizers? A – The initial concept of the campaign was introduced by Kraft Foods and organized by the company under the supervision of the Students Activity Department at the Jeddah Educational Directorate. The nutrition deficiency is different from one country to another. In some poor areas like in some African countries, children suffer from death due to deficiency of important nutrients in their food like Vitamin D, minerals and proteins. However, in a rich country like Saudi Arabia the nutrition diseases are caused due to completely different reasons. We call the nutrition diseases here as ‘Diseases of Affluence' where it is resulted by the increasing wealth. Thus, our children face different kinds of affluence diseases like obesity, diabetic symptoms, and some early cardiovascular diseases. Enlightening the young generation about the dangers of such a nutrition disorders is the responsibility of both government and private sectors. Kraft Foods have conducted the campaign as part of the company's social responsibility. I was asked by Kraft to help them in compiling and editing a special brochure that includes some valuable information about balanced diet and some questions for the competition. The general goal of the campaign is to target the intermediate schools as the students are supposed to be aware of nutrition terms like vitamins, minerals, proteins, fats and carbohydrates. The Educational Directorate has effectively and positively responded to this campaign. Q- Why did you select only 50 schools and why were no girls schools chosen? And what about other regions like Riyadh and Dammam? A – The schools' selection was done in cooperation with the Directorate. They gave us a list of the schools covering different areas in Jeddah to allow the chance of participation to as many students as possible. Regarding the girls schools, we preferred to begin with intermediate male students as it is the first phase of such an unprecedented campaign. I think the company has a future agenda to include similar campaign for the girls' schools. The campaign started here in Jeddah and will be also run in Dammam in the upcoming months and finally it will also take place in Riyadh later on. Q- Will there be any similar campaigns in the future? What about educating the families of students? A – I think the feasibility of the campaign repetition depends on the company and its coordination with the Ministry of Education. Honestly, I would love it if such a campaign would run annually and cover all the schools in the Kingdom. I agree with educating families about nutritious food and healthy life styles as well. We need the support of other government organizations like the Ministry of Social Affairs and the local media to convey such a message to all the families in the Kingdom. __
