...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.

Our 18 pounds a term is for milk and their daily snack. Is this not included aswell?

Isn't it also the case that the countries with the highest consumption of milk (UK and usa) also have the highest rates of obesity and heart disease?

Not even slightly, no. The UK has the 20th highest milk consumption in the world per head and most of the countries above us have lower obesity rates than we do. And amongst the most obese countries, we see very varied rates of milk consumption: there's the US, there is also Saudi Arabia and the smaller Pacific Islands.

we pay £1 a week each for snack for our two which includes fruit and either milk or water, milk is poured into glasses from a larger bottle just like at home? children choose on the day. I think the problem is all those small cartons ordered in

My kids get milk in nursery and primary school. It's free and we don't pay? (Uk)

The Dutch are the tallest nation in the world due in part to generations of high dairy consumption. You don't need milk to live but the body does very well on it.

It does if you have the right gene to digest it!

If it's down to the cows, why aren't all Westerners as tall the Dutch?:

www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/08/scientists-try-to-answer-why-dutch-people-are-so-tall

@RandomlyChosenName

O just assumed it was normal practice, but found out pretty quickly that it's unusual. I don't understanding why. It doesn't add much washing up; the kids get cups of water and the teachers go round with pitchers to refill so they need to wash cups anyway. But our school seems to really good with lunches - they order their own meal in the morning during registration, so get their hot meal then there is an unlimited salad station and fruit station that they just choose from. It's a really good system and not wasteful as they've got a good estimate of how much salad each kid takes so there is only a small amount leftover and someone ready to cut more if needed on the off occasion.

My reception ds loves his milk. And ds2 is starting in September too and he also loves it. We go through so much milk! It's not bad for you and its not just for babies! How ridiculous!

My reception ds loves his milk. And ds2 is starting in September too and he also loves it. We go through so much milk! It's not bad for you and its not just for babies! How ridiculous

Liking something is not sufficient reason for doing it.

To be fair, the two countries drinking more milk per capita than the Dutch, Norway and Finland, are also taller than average even for Europeans. Although personally I don't think it's just the milk.

The dutch have been bloody good at breeding dairy aninals over the years - the black and white cows the dairy industry's been dominated by for about 70yrs? Dutch.

Our school buys bottles of milk and pours it into beakers for the kids, no need for separate cartons or straws.

Echt, if it was oreo milkshake we were talking about I'd agree. But it's milk ffs! Why should they not have a glass of milk?

Echt, if it was oreo milkshake we were talking about I'd agree. But it's milk ffs! Why should they not have a glass of milk?

At no point have I said people should not drink milk.

I think buying bottles and pouring into named cups is better. Also what about the DC who hate the stuff.
Being forced to drink school milk has put me off for life. Even the smell of slightly warm milk turns my stomach.

Ok then Echt what's your point then?

bobster, I'll break it down.

My point, as I've made on a number of occasions, is not a personal one. The science says that humans do not NEED milk after they are weaned. This is quite different to what people want or are accustomed to. Something quite a few posters on this thread seem incapable of distinguishing.

www.sbs.com.au/food/article/2016/12/16/do-humans-need-dairy-heres-science

www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/what-should-you-eat/calcium-and-milk/calcium-full-story/

That Jezebel article really is ridiculous. Yes if you can’t digest milk you shouldn’t drink it. Just as people who have anaphylactic response to celery probably shouldn’t eat celery.

But if you’re a white European with no rogue intolerance who has inherited genes specifically evolved to be able to digest dairy then the fact that most people of Chinese descent can’t digest it has precisely zero relevance to you.

However as I understand it the
“Dairy contains calcium
Bones contain calcium
Therefore drinking dairy/eating calcium tablets will make your bones strong” equation is not quite as flawless as it might initially appear.

I understand that. We don't need meat, or bread, or seafood amongst many other things either, does this mean because we don't need these things to survive we shouldn't consume them?

It's not ideal that this has turned into an is milk necessary thread, though. OP's point is pretty clearly about efficiency of providing it in the way we do, not about whether young children need to be drinking milk at all. She talks about her own children drinking it. Yet it took all of three posts before someone threw in a daft fallacy. It's not like this topic hasn't been absolutely done to death on MN either.

The facts are these: that milk provides useful nutrients, that most of the world's population cannot fully digest it after young childhood but a significant minority can, that this significant minority includes the majority of the UK population and that, as evidenced by the many millions of healthy humans who don't consume dairy, that it is useful rather than essential.

Now I'm receptive to the idea that we might be able to improve the ways in which we provide milk to school children. Happy to think about how this could be done with less waste, and also to target the funds we spend better. But having to wade through a load of dipshittery about how nobody above infancy should be drinking milk at all etc etc is just going to make people less likely to engage with OPs suggestion. Which is a shame, as this is worth talking about without links to ridiculous Jezebel articles.

In our school if they don't drink it they bring it home. Ds1 loves milk and definitely drinks it

My 11 year old loves his milk - he takes it at school and with breakfast

My dad drinks pints of it daily

It's not just for kids

It's vile uht flavoured choc/strawberry stuff at my dc school so no wonder they don't drink it. I tried it when dc came home with one. (not envy).

Alot of money wasted when water will do.