Bear Brand Laki Sa Gatas: Report Card 2008

MANILA, Philippines - Bear Brand Laki Sa Gatas has reached out to more than one million schoolchildren nationwide in 2008.

Since it started in 2006, the advocacy campaign has been encouraging Filipinos to drink milk and inculcating to them the importance of proper nutrition. In 2008 alone, Bear Brand Laki Sa Gatas visited more than 700 schools and reached out to over 100,000 mothers, 12,000 teachers, and 300,000 children.

“Apart from attaining our goal of reaching out to one million children this year for this nutrition advocacy campaign, we’re very happy that we are able to help children, teachers, and parents understand the value of proper nutrition and the role that milk plays in attaining it,” says Eugene David, Nestle Philippines Inc. (NPI) Business Executive Manager for Dairy Health and Nutrition Solutions, the makers of Bear Brand.

Reinforcing the message of proper nutrition

Bear Brand Laki Sa Gatas is an annual nutrition caravan that goes to different elementary schools across the country. Its aim is to encourage teachers, mothers, and children to practice proper nutrition through consumption of the right amounts of Go, Grow and Glow foods and by developing the habit of drinking at least two glasses of milk everyday, among others.

The campaign likewise empowers educators to teach proper nutrition education and encourage parents to make healthy food choices.

Support from highly-respected personalities

The year also saw some of the country’s highly-respected personalities pitching in for the message of Bear Brand Laki Sa Gatas.

Batangas Governor Vilma Santos-Recto led a two-part media launch of the campaign wherein she spoke in front of many students with their mothers and teachers to promote the nutritional importance of milk and helped the Bear Brand Laki Sa Gatas team address the malnutrition issue in the Philippines to the media. She also launched a Bear Brand TVC promoting the nutritional relevance of milk.

Miss International 2005 Precious Lara Quigaman, Manila Vice Mayor Isko Moreno, and Cambridge-educated professor and award-winning writer Wendell Capili have likewise showed their support to the campaign by appearing in television commercials aired across the country.

There, the three personalities propagated the message that a child can achieve his dreams and overcome difficulties in life by having a strong mind and body, something that proper nutrition and milk-drinking can provide.

“The success of Bear Brand Laki Sa Gatas in 2008 is just the beginning of our long-term advocacy. Expect more from us this year,” David concludes.