March 28 (SeeNews) - The European Commission said it is granting Romania close to 18 million euro ($20.3 million) for providing fruit, vegetables and milk in schools.
Some 6.86 million euro will be used to encourage fruit and vegetable consumption in schools, while 10.8 million euro will be allocated for the school milk scheme, the Commission said in a press release on Wednesday.
The EU-funded programme also serves educational purposes and complements the activities carried out at the national level by Romania, the EU's executive body added.
"Thanks to this programme, our young citizens can benefit from the safe, high-quality food that European farmers produce and learn where the food is coming from," European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, Phil Hogan, said.
The Commission has published an evaluation report showing that during 2017-2018 some 159,000 schools in the EU have participated in this programme with a total budget of 182 million euro. During this period, a total of 255,500 tons of fresh fruit and vegetables and 178 million litres of milk were distributed to European schoolchildren.
($=0.8864 euro)