By JOHN VAN KLAVEREN
MOOVE over mauve – Geelong kids are milking their art skills and giving a set of 10 life-size, fibreglass dairy cows a bovine makeover.
Dairy Australia has herded the blank cow canvasses into local schools as part of it 12-week Picasso Cows program.
Dairy Australia project manager, Emily Barnes said the program aimed to help kids find the nutritional benefits of foods like milk, cheese and yoghurt as part of a balanced diet.
Ms Barnes said most of the schools in the 2015 Picasso Cows program were located in metropolitan areas where many students had limited knowledge of farming life.
“It is surprising the number of kids who have no idea how milk gets from the cow to the supermarket or think that yogurt actually grows on trees,” she said.
“This program is designed to help schools explore the entire grass-to-glass process and keep the learning fun and creative.
“The program also serves up key nutrition messages for primary school students at an age when healthy lifestyle habits can be established.
“It’s an important lesson given that two in three children between the ages of nine and 16 are not meeting the Australian Dietary Guidelines’ recommendation for the dairy food group and are missing out on the essential nutrients, including calcium, that naturally occur in dairy.”
