...to ask you to ditch school milk?

[TurquoiseTranquility]

Just received the milk letter from school. Not sure if milk prices vary by area/school, but I'm being asked to pay £18.25 for the Autumn term. That's for a 189ml carton of semi-skimmed for 8 weeks, which works out at a whopping £2.42 per litre (£1.37 per pint) of supposedly EU-subsidised milk
Beyond the maths, though, I can't even begin to explain just how much school milk goes to waste. I'm a TA and in my KS2 class, only three children are on the milk list... yet they never EVER drink it, and even though we do offer it to the rest of the class, there are rarely any takers. In Reception, where more than half the class are on the milk list, they are regularly chucking whole packs of it. And that's not just the milk, it's all the packaging and the plastic straws, makes my heart sink
The odd thing is, I've always asked my kids whether they want milk before renewing. And they'd always said yes. But having seen all that waste, I thought I'd go a bit further and ask it they drink all of it or just take a sip and put the rest in the bin. Guess what the answer was.

So last term, I bought them a small thermos flask each and started sending milk in with them. This lasted all of 2 weeks, in which time they were coming home with the flasks still full. Lesson learnt

I guess what I'm trying to say, grill your kids before you pay! And if you don't think they actually drink much of it, save your money and the planet. They'll drink some at home if they want to.

I was in a national trust cafe yesterday and a sign said that milk poured down the sink can be more polluting than raw sewage!! Not sure how though? Seems wasteful anyway, a bit like the free school meals for all that ended up in the bin most of the time.

I'm assuming your diets consists solely of vegetables, limited meat (if you're not vegetarian) and a few pulses yes? after all if we're only supposed to eat what we NEED

I didn't say we shouldn't drink milk, only that we didn't need to. You are choosing to conflate needs with wants.

DD1's got less keen on drinking it so I'm not renewing hers when it runs out... DD2 still likes it so I'll pay for hers again next term. I know the class teachers make the kids take it if their parents have paid for it though in their school.

Surely you can still "need" milk if the rest of your diet is deficient, echt? Or are you saying that milk has zero nutritional benefit, like sugar??

Milk is quite fattening isn’t it

Mines not at school yet but he's obsessed with finishing his drinks so I know he would but I can imagine most kids wouldn't.

Surely a plastic glass of milk with their lunch is better than cartons? The glasses get reused so minimal plastic wastage and just one big carton is bought so they can say how much they want to drink. 🤷‍♀️

DS aged 13 drinks pints of the stuff, I am delighted by this!! So do I... Aged 47! 'just for babies', indeed. What rubbish!

I suspect when everyone is having it most gets drunk. If fewer people are having it they are the odd ones out and more likely to leave it.

This takes me back! The passage where it was kept always stank of sour milk. Horrible.

Our school milk in 19p a day for 189ml carton. Ds2 in yr2 is the only one of my 3 who has milk, I don’t mind paying as he enjoys it. His school has a milk fridge in the resource area with them all in and there is usually loads left over, but the school kitchen uses them.

Can't believe your school allows this waste.

At my child's school it's in a fridge any left over staff can take hold often offer it to parents at home time too.

Ours have semi skinned, children need a higher fat diet than adults. They need the benefit of milk, especially if their overall diet is poor. It arrives in individual plastic bottles, goes in a fridge, gets drunk (no straws) bottles washed and recycled, lids collected for a charity, spares put out at lunchtime for everyone including ks2. Parents told if their child isn’t drinking it.
It’s a good thing.

Even full fat milk is pretty low fat, as it happens.

Anyway humans don't need milk, there are other ways to get the nutrients in milk, just as is the case for nearly every food. It's merely a useful way to obtain those nutrients for those who have lactase persistence.

I don't think that was OPs point though. She's saying the system is inefficient, not that milk itself isn't potentially beneficial for many children.

Milk is one of the few things my DD will eat/drink so it's reassuring to know that she is getting a few more calories throughout the day. I'll stick with it, thanks.

I don't 'need' cheese, yogurts or magnums, but I eat them daily.

I don't need fags, alcohol or sex either - but they are my favourite sins.

I was school milk monitor back in the day, and I also remember the little bottles of fresh orange juice at school. I used to have one of each and mix them together.....

Mind you, I think a bit of honest information for parents at payment time would be in order. If you know hardly anyone is drinking it in your classroom, then parents should be advised, in order to avoid such unnecessary expense and wastage.
^^This. Please tell the parents!

My 6 ft 16 year old son drinks lots of milk and uses lots on cereal too.

I didn't say we shouldn't drink milk, only that we didn't need to. You are choosing to conflate needs with wants.

Nobody said children NEEDED milk though, so why make a comment that is completely superfluous to what the OP was asking, if not to just be a teeny bit goady?

Surely you can still "need" milk if the rest of your diet is deficient, echt? Or are you saying that milk has zero nutritional benefit, like sugar??

If your diet is deficient you may need extra fats/vitamins/etc.etc. but you don't need milk. Milk may provide what you need , but you don't need milk to provide it.

Options other than are termites green vegetables, beans, fish. All eaten by humans for millennia.

Milk has also been drunk by humans for millennia.

It was so useful as a food source that many humans evolved to be able to digest it after weaning, which most mammals can't.

If you are going to bring up "this has been eaten for a long time" as an argument you need to at least try to have a point.

Well there are plenty of children who don't live in middle class families and aren't offered a nutritious breakfast or drink Evian water, so a small carton of milk will be good for them.

Tbh I can't believe people pay for it either . Can't they just give milk at home? Stuff thats actually been in the fridge...

In our school, it’s 20p for a cup of milk, and the kids just say yes or no if they want it at the time. The fee is taken from our parent pay account on the days they say yes.

Milk is largely water anyway and is often a more palatable way of drinking water and infinitely better than any 'juice' flavouring which tends to be acidic (damaging teeth) and also has no added sugar or sweetener.
Unless milk is cold and fresh it is a bit rank mind you and shame on the school for not getting milk (when supplied) to the children in cool fresh condition.
Cartons and straws, just a waste.
I would prefer my school milk in the form of pink, chocolate or 'proper' custard (the real stuff from the 60's before this political correctness nonsense).

We evolved to digest milk in Northern Europe and is likely one of the reasons we survived above other homo species. So actually it was an evolutionary advantage.