Posted on 11/21/2005 10:12:30 AM PST by CheneyChick
Brazil's coffee industry has brewed up a plan to serve up to 1 million schoolchildren a free breakfast -- complete with a cup of java.
Brazil's Coffee Industry Association (Abic) is seeking the support of 50 roasters to launch a pilot "Adopt-a-School" program to feed breakfast to 1 million Brazilian school children aged 6 to 18.
Under the plan, a coffee roaster would adopt a school of at least 500 children and provide them with a free breakfast of coffee, milk and bread. The annual cost of the program for each school is estimated at 33,500 reais ($15,000).
"Kids have soft drinks at school. ... Why not coffee instead to make them alert and attentive?" Professor Darcy Lima, project scientific adviser, told the association's annual conference in northeast Brazil. The conference ends on Sunday.
Professor Adriana Farah from the University of Rio de Janeiro also defended coffee for children, saying it contains less than 2 percent caffeine and helps reduce colon cancer, heart disease, depression and alcoholism.
Brazil, the world's biggest coffee producer, has some 1,100 producers that grind and roast coffee beans. Most are small concerns.
With a population of 185 million, Brazil is the world's second biggest coffee consumer after the United States. But per capita consumption of 9.13 pounds per year is only one-third that of Finland and other Scandinavian countries.
In Brazil's vast coffee-growing regions, children traditionally drink coffee from an early age.
Bruno Giestas, commercial manager of Realcafe in Brazil's No. 2 coffee state Espirito Santo, said his two young children loved coffee.
"It's normal here. The project looks like a good idea."
LOL! I was thinking the same thing. :D
"Sign me up! I've always said that coffee "enhances" my personality."
No problem, but did you drink it every day when you were 6?
Hmmmmm....30 8-year olds, full of coffee, in one room....are they going to give valium to the teachers?
I pity those poor teachers.
Oh, what I wouldn't give to be in a Brazilian public school!!
Amount of caffeine in 12 oz. of Coca-Cola: 34 mg.
Amount of caffeine in 5 oz. of drip-brewed coffee: 115 mg.
I know I drank coffee @ the age of 6...it was half milk and half coffee but everyday before school that is what I had along with 2 slices of toasted homemade bread....Yumm
Maybe this will work here in getting even with the teachers union, LOL
LOL! We pump kids full of Ritalin (speed) to get them to focus, the Brazilians have found a better way.
"No, Johnny!" says the teacher...
"No fingerpainting until you finish your double-shot, macchiato, low-foam latte! And that's final!"
This would ruin naptime, though.
When I was a kid (early 60s) my mom gave me and my sister a cup of coffee with our breakfasts.
It never even seemed strange to any of us at the time.
Nowadays I suppose that qualifies as child abuse.
Wonder what they give the kids in Columbia?
Actually, I grew up in Brazil and attended a Brazilian school for a short period of time. And yes, I did learn to drink coffee there. Their breakfast coffee is mostly milk anyway: Café com leite.
I was served coffee as a child, we called it pearl tea.
It was about a tenth of a cup of sugared coffee with nine tenths of milk.
"I was served coffee as a child, we called it pearl tea.
It was about a tenth of a cup of sugared coffee with nine tenths of milk."
Believe it or not, I drank full strength tea (numerous cups) with my dinner every night as I was growing up. My only explanation for this is that my mother was of Russian/Jewish origin, and Russians are famous tea drinkers. I suffered severe insomnia throughout my entire childhood, and no one ever suspected that this might be the cause!
Juan Valdez hits grand slam!........details at 11......
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