As the saying goes, children are our future, and we would not want that to be an unhealthy one.

The Education Division, realising the impact that school lunches have on children's eating habits, will be launching a campaign to ensure that food offered in school tuck shops is healthy and nutritious.

Tuck shop representatives from about 50 schools will be coming together next week to attend a course organised by the Education Division as part of the campaign. This is one in a series of steps that will lead to the implementation of the Healthy Eating Lifestyle Plan (Help) within schools, starting as from the upcoming scholastic year.

"We would like our tuck shops to be full of healthy but interesting food... Next week's course aims to show that healthy food is not difficult to prepare and is as good, filling and not necessarily expensive... Food and drinks can be attractive and tasty while being healthy," the director general of the Education Division, Cecilia Borg, said.

She explained that, following an August 2006 World Health Organisation report, indicating that Maltese children suffered from obesity, a working group made up of various stakeholders within the Education Division was set up under the chairmanship of Margaret Ellul to formulate a policy.

This led to Help, a document designed primarily for schools and which aims at encouraging schools to give high priority to healthy eating and a healthy lifestyle and also to implement and monitor school healthy eating lifestyle plans.

The policy would be implemented in Malta's schools as from next month.

Dr Borg explained that at the end of the last scholastic year a circular was issued inviting all state and non-state schools that have a tuck shop to attend the two-day course on Monday and Tuesday.

Tuck shop representatives from about 50 schools accepted the invitation and will be attending the free course, sponsored by APS Bank, being held at the Institute of Tourism Studies, in St Julians.

Participants will be addressed by experts and given the chance to exchange ideas, she explained.

As abiding by the Help document becomes compulsory in January 2008, the next step would be to ensure that the set criteria are being observed by school tuck shops.

Dr Borg also explained that the division was working on other aspects of children's health apart from school lunches. These included increasing exercise among children.

The division was also trying to see that milk consumption increased and hoped to sign an agreement whereby all schools are given milk for free.

It was also trying to introduce water fountains in schools but, of course, there had to be the infrastructure in place to carry clean water first.

The Help document can be viewed at www.education.gov.mt/ministry/doc/help_healthyeating.htm.