The Macedonian First Lady, Ms. Maja Ivanova today, before the students of the elementary school “Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi” officially launched the campaign “Healthy Food for Faultless Childhood”, aiming at stimulating the interest among children about healthy food and proper diet. This campaign is part of the program.

“Integration of environmental education in the Macedonian educational system” which has been successfully implemented over the past two years by the citizen’s association OHO in cooperation with the Ministry of Education.

Ms. Ivanova, being the patron of this campaign, sent a message to all parents to join the shared effort to create conscious generations who will become immune to the dependence on fast food and thus provide safe and healthy future. In the 2011/2012 academic year, the schools and kindergartens are to conduct various activities throughout the school year so that the children will become familiar with the importance of healthy food and also will be encouraged to consume healthy food as part of their daily meal.
 
The activities will include: preparation of short messages on “Healthy Food for Faultless Childhood” that will become part of the Eco-code for schools and kindergartens; students and children drafting recipes on “Healthy Food for Faultless Childhood”; marking specified days as days of vegetables and fruit; developing art and written works, organization of competitions, exhibitions, masquerades and public events to promote the campaign. For the purpose of the campaign, educational posters are prepared which will be distributed to all schools and kindergartens, as well as to all other institutions involved in the educational process.
 
Several months ago a similar campaign titled “Let’s move” was launched by the US First Lady, Michelle Obama, which aims to change the habits of children who are faced with obesity and encourage them to practice eating healthy food. During her visit to New York, Michelle Obama informed Ms. Ivanova on the primary objectives of the campaign and the plans for its implementation, calling her to support this initiative. Ms. Ivanova has fulfilled today that promise, urging for overall engagement of all relevant factors in order to improve children’s health.