The reporter had an interview with Labor Hero Thai Huong - Founder, Chairman of the Strategy Council of TH Group , who has persistently pursued the mission "For Vietnamese stature" for many years, about school nutrition as an indispensable foundation to realize the aspiration for national development.
Outstanding students from Nguyen Sieu School, TH School, Amsterdam School and Dich Vong School performed together to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the education sector's tradition and the opening of the 2025-2026 school year.
PV: What do the three goals that General Secretary To Lam emphasized in his speech opening the new school year make you think about, especially from the perspective of school nutrition?
AHLĐ Thái Hương: As Chairwoman of the TH Group's Strategy Council, I have always been persistent in pursuing nutrition for Vietnamese people, especially nutrition in the "golden age". At the opening ceremony of the 2025-2026 school year, General Secretary To Lam emphasized: "No child will be left behind...", with special priority given to school nutrition. That message is like a call from the leader and the will of the entire political system. This is the golden time for the whole society to listen, communicate and act. It touches my heart, because I understand clearly: if children are not properly cared for in their nutrition during the golden period, they will miss out on lifelong development opportunities.
Many people think that nutrition is just about meals and fullness, but in fact, it directly determines the intelligence, physical strength, and even personality of future generations. Look at the data: according to the 2023 National Nutrition Survey, up to 18.2% of Vietnamese children under 5 years old are stunted; in some mountainous areas, this rate exceeds 30%. That means millions of children are entering life with an "unequal start" in terms of stature. Meanwhile, in urban areas, children are facing overweight and obesity with a rate of over 20% in primary school. This is a "double burden" that if not addressed at the root, we will have to pay a heavy price in the future.
I have always emphasized: every day of delay in implementing school meals is a day of lost opportunity for children. School nutrition is the fairest shield, ensuring that every Vietnamese child – from the center of the capital to the remote mountains, from coastal villages to the highlands – has a fair starting point in the journey of becoming a human being. Only when a generation is fully nourished, will Vietnam truly have a solid human resource base to go far and go steadily.
AHLĐ Thai Huong encouraged students at the launching ceremony of the program "Joining hands for Vietnamese stature", September 4, 2014.
PV: From the perspective of school nutrition, what connection do you see between a meal, a glass of milk and the formation of a generation of people who are "both talented, kind, and resilient"?
AHLĐ Thái Hương: Comprehensive education cannot be separated from nutrition. If a child is hungry, lacks energy, or on the contrary is overweight or obese, it is very difficult for them to absorb knowledge and develop harmoniously. Therefore, school meals, including a glass of school milk, must be considered the "first lesson" in physical, mental and personality development. Science has shown that 86% of maximum height and 80% of brain development are completed before the age of 12. This is the golden age that determines a person's physical and mental strength. If we miss it, all efforts later will only be "firefighting" and will never be recovered. Therefore, investing in proper nutrition for this age group is a sustainable investment for the future.
Looking at the world, we can see that after the war ended in 1946, Japan experimented in 1953 and enacted the School Lunch Law in 1954, so that 70 years later there was no such thing as "Japanese dwarf".
From that vision, TH Group initiated, accompanied by the Ministry of Education and Training, the Ministry of Health and independent experts at home and abroad, consulted with Japanese and French experts to implement the "Model of school meals ensuring proper nutrition combined with increasing physical activities for children, pupils and students", piloted in the 2020-2021 school year, in 10 provinces and cities, representing 5 major ecological regions across the country.
School meals ensure nutrition.
In the Pilot Model, school meals are approached in the direction of using completely natural foods, based on the agricultural advantages of the region; pure fresh milk is scientifically included in the meal composition: 5 days a week there is still a glass of pure fresh milk, along with a set of 400 menus; at the same time, students are encouraged to exercise at least 60 minutes a day. After one year of implementation, the Pilot Model has brought about outstanding results compared to the initial targets: the results show not only improved physical fitness, reduced malnutrition and overweight, but also enhanced concentration, discipline and confidence. The model is considered a comprehensive, revolutionary solution to improve the stature of Vietnamese people. This is the scientific basis for us to build a school nutrition policy associated with comprehensive education.
But the significance of school nutrition is not only physical. When children have access to a standard, transparent, safe meal, they learn to respect their own health, love nature, and share kind values. That is a way to educate character from very simple things. A balanced meal or a glass of clean milk every day is the seed sown in the soul, to form a generation of Vietnamese people who are "both talented, kind, and resilient" as the aspiration that the country's leaders have set.
Thai Huong Labor Union.
Reporter: Regional gaps remain a challenge: in mountainous areas, the rate of stunting is twice that of the plains, and many children lack milk. In your opinion, what solutions can ensure equitable school nutrition, so that all children – whether in urban or island areas – have equal opportunities to develop?
AHLĐ Thái Hương: That’s right, the regional gap is a “silent cut” to the country’s future. According to the National Institute of Nutrition, the rate of stunting in ethnic minority children is currently over 30%, double the national average. That means that right from the starting line, children in mountainous and remote areas are at a disadvantage compared to their peers in urban areas – not only physically but also in terms of learning and development opportunities.
To overcome this, we must first consider school nutrition as a universal right, regardless of rich or poor, mountainous or plain areas. In Vietnam, there are about 13.8 million children of preschool and primary school age, the national multidimensional poverty rate is only 1.9%, but in remote mountainous areas, there are still nearly 30% of children from extremely disadvantaged families, 20% are poor and near-poor, and the remaining 50% are mothers who can afford to buy milk for their children to drink 5 days a week, without support. Therefore, I think that there needs to be a stratified mechanism for school meal policy in general:
• For localities and regions with special difficulties - mothers who cannot afford to pay: The State must subsidize 100% of school meals. School meals when implementing the pilot model have had standards. These menus need to be digitized immediately and made public and transparent for the whole society to monitor. And phase 1 should support a glass of milk so that 100% of children can enjoy a glass of national school milk.
• For other localities: A co-payment model between the budget, parents and businesses can be applied.
In addition to the Government's mechanisms and policies, food businesses must shoulder a mission and responsibility to accompany the country.
When we create that transparency and fairness, the promise of “no child left behind” will truly come to life. And more importantly, we will not only raise children in disadvantaged areas, but also raise the belief in social justice – the foundation of a strong nation.
PV: You initiated TH School – a place that integrates knowledge, personality, physical fitness and international integration. What do you think this model shows about the ability to realize the vision of comprehensive educational innovation, and what experience can be replicated throughout the system?
AHLĐ Thái Hương: When I founded TH School, I did not want to just build a school, but wanted to experiment with a comprehensive educational model of “world-class + quintessence of Vietnamese studies”, where knowledge, personality, physical fitness and international integration develop together in harmony. Students are educated according to Cambridge international standards, but do not stray from their roots: they still learn culture, history and national music. In the school, boarding meals are designed as part of the educational program with a scientific, nutritionally balanced menu, associated with daily physical exercise.
Most importantly, we focus on educating personality and life skills: from behavior, discipline, community spirit to environmental responsibility. A TH School student is not only good at knowledge and physically strong, but also knows how to share and love. That is the spirit of “being talented, kind and resilient” that society expects.
From this experience, I learned three replicable lessons:
1. Nutrition and physical fitness should be considered a pillar, not an afterthought, in education.
2. International integration must go hand in hand with preserving Vietnamese identity, so that students can be globally confident without losing their roots.
3. Personality education must go hand in hand with knowledge, to train citizens to know how to be human before working.
TH School proves that Vietnam is fully capable of creating a modern, comprehensive educational environment right in its own country. With determination and appropriate mechanisms, these principles can be widely applied in the public and private systems, so that a whole generation of young Vietnamese can develop in a balanced and sustainable way.
School nutrition supplements.
PV: Recently, the Politburo issued Resolution No. 71 on breakthroughs in education and training development. Resolution 71 sets out the aspiration that by 2045 Vietnam will be among the top 20 education systems in the world. In your opinion, to achieve that stature, how should school nutrition policies and new education models be positioned in the long-term strategy?
AHLĐ Thái Hương: For Vietnam to become one of the top 20 education systems in the world by 2045, we cannot just talk about curriculum, textbooks or digital technology. The most basic thing is that our people – our students – must be healthy and have a solid physical foundation. If the physical is weak and the intelligence cannot be developed, then any educational reform will find it difficult to achieve its goals.
Therefore, I believe that school nutrition must be positioned as the soft infrastructure of the country, on par with schools, teachers or digital infrastructure. To have a generation of intellectuals of international stature, we must first have a generation of young people of international stature. School nutrition policy needs to be built on three long-term pillars:
1. Standardize school meals nationwide, with mandatory nutritional standards to ensure that students in every province or city receive a minimum level of energy and micronutrients.
2. Link nutrition with physical education and life skills so that children are healthy, disciplined, have civic spirit and awareness of health maintenance.
3. Combine with a comprehensive educational model like TH School – where knowledge, personality, physical fitness and integration develop together – to form a class of global citizens who still have a strong Vietnamese identity.
A nation that wants to rise to the top cannot only teach, but also teach and nurture people. I believe that when school nutrition is properly placed in the long-term education strategy, the 2045 target will not be a distant dream.
School meals.
PV: In the context of digital transformation, technology and artificial intelligence are strongly penetrating education. In the field of school nutrition, how do you expect technology to help monitor and personalize students' meals to ensure transparency and efficiency?
AHLĐ Thái Hương: Technology can absolutely create a revolution in school nutrition. I imagine that in the near future, each student will have an electronic nutrition profile, updating height, weight, BMI, and micronutrient status. From there, artificial intelligence (AI) will analyze data from millions of students to make recommendations for optimal diets for each age group and each locality. This will help us detect early the risk of malnutrition or overweight so that timely interventions can be made.
Technology can also support awareness education: students have access to online nutrition applications, self-test their knowledge about meals, and are encouraged to exercise at least 60 minutes/day as recommended by WHO. Thus, technology not only monitors but also becomes a tool to nurture healthy living habits for the younger generation.
Transparency and personalization – these are the two keys that digital transformation and AI can bring to school nutrition. And when we have trust, we will have strong support from parents and the whole society.
PV: If you were to send a message to society after this special opening ceremony, what would you like to call on parents, teachers, businesses and the community to do together to turn school nutrition into a national movement?
AHLĐ Thái Hương: I want to say something very simple: act like a mother. A mother's heart and love for her child are always the most immense. For 9 months and 10 days, the child grows up in the mother's body, and in the first years of life, the mother's sweet milk nourishes the child to grow up. But there are also times when the mother accidentally misses the golden opportunity for the child - that is the first 10 years of life, which determines the stature and intelligence of the whole life. If at that age, the child lacks calcium, zinc, iron, or nutrition, then the opportunity to develop will never be regained.
Research shows that a glass of fresh milk at school every day can meet up to 30% of the zinc and iron needs of a child's body. FAO has confirmed that fresh milk is the most complete food for growing children. School meals and glasses of school milk are the shield, the strong fortress protecting the physical and mental future of the Vietnamese generation. Every day of delay in implementation is a day of great opportunity for children passing by.
With the sincere wishes from the heart of a mother, I hope that all of us, in our own positions, will treat children today with the heart of a mother, and contribute to promoting the gift of a School Meal, a shield, a strong fortress.
PV: Thank you very much!
Source: https://cand.com.vn/doi-song/anh-hung-lao-dong-thai-huong-dinh-duong-hoc-duong-phai-duoc-coi-la-ha-tang-mem-cua-quoc-gia-i780907/
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