Minister of National Education Nabi Avcı attended the Schools Raisins Distribution Program launched jointly by the Ministry of National Education, the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock and the Ministry of Health at the Saray Primary School near Ankara.

Minister Avcı said other dried items like hazelnuts and walnuts will be added to the raisins which are being distributed free to students and that more than 6 million children will benefit from this program “I hope this will benefit everyone, let it bring health to our kids.”

Saying he will make a short speech Minister Avcı said “thus we are happy to be going ahead with a program which our valuable teacher Dr. Nevin Acar has been pushing us for a long time. I thank our prime minister, the personnel of the Ministry of National Education, the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock and the Ministry of Health, our teachers, our principals and provincial directors for their contributions in running this program.” 

The Minister visited the second grade classes and personally distributed raisins to the children. Chatting with the students “when you start the third grade we will also be giving you hazelnuts and walnuts. That will go down very well. We also want to distribute black raisins next year. There are antioxidants in their pips. Then you will receive much richer packages. Thus you will not be eating junk food.”

Asked about children with diabetes Minister Avcı said “we are asking for permission papers from the parents. We know the children that we should not serve the raisins and thus we protect them.” Later the minister met with teachers and chatted with them.

The minister shook hands with all the parents and teachers and then had a family photo taken with the students.

The raisins will be distributed on Tuesdays and Thursdays and will be in 25-gram packages. They will be distributed from 64 logistic points. The students will receive the packages for times which will mean 24 million packages and 600 tons of raisins. The cost of the program will be seven million iras and will continue until the summer break.