Milk for Schools

[Victoria O'Keefe]

The Milk for Schools program had some definite benefits and a few negative aspects.

Warm, partly-curdled milk left out in the sun until morning recess wasn’t appetising and a lot of students rejected it.

For some economically challenged families, it was a bonus.

I know of children whose parents could only afford to serve their cornflakes with water.

The one thing I must say is that very few of my generation had milk allergies or lactose intolerance or sensitivity. Maybe it was all that school milk.

[Moonraker]

Recall in the early 70s we were given small glass milk bottles. We'd puncture the aluminium tops with our straws.

[George 1978]

I assumed that the local dairies used to produce small glass milk bottles specially for schools, such as the Coop? Caretaker used to leave milk crate near entrance of the classroom and used to collect it at the end.

[Richard1978]

When I started at secondary school milk came in 1/3 pint bottles, but while I was there they started to use cartons.

[Arran]

Cool Milk now has a near monopoly on supplying milk to primary schools in England.

It's now all semi-skimmed and overpriced.

[Moonraker]

When I started at secondary school milk came in 1/3 pint bottles, but while I was there they started to use cartons.

Oh no, not cartons!
I recall the cartons coming in around 1976.
We use to take out empty cartons out in the playground and quickly stamp down on the top of the carton. This caused a very loud bang as the air exploded out of the carton.
Couple of us were caned for this.

[Richard1978]

Oh no, not cartons!
I recall the cartons coming in around 1976.
We use to take out empty cartons out in the playground and quickly stamp down on the top of the carton. This caused a very loud bang as the air exploded out of the carton.
Couple of us were caned for this.

I imagine why!

It was also popular to do the same with crisp packets at my school.

[Arran]

They had small glass milk bottles at my primary school in the 1990s.

[George 1978]

I imagine why!

It was also popular to do the same with crisp packets at my school.

It's like stamping on a blown-up balloon - it was always make a loud noise if you stamp on it.

Regarding the small milk bottles: It made me think whether the public could get those small glass milk bottles outside of educational establishments.

[Arran]

I vaguely remember seeing small glass milk bottles in independent coffee shops back in the late 1990s. No idea if they were from the same company which supplied primary schools in my area.

Did any LEAs ever own a milk bottling facility to supply primary schools?

I have yet to find a satisfactory explanation why the straws were always blue (never any other colour) and very thin at my primary school. It took some effort to suck the milk out of the bottle using them. Thicker bendy straws would have been much better.

[George 1978]

Did any LEAs ever own a milk bottling facility to supply primary schools?

I am certain that they must have had a contract to supply them - I don't ever recall seeing small milk bottles in supermarkets and the like.

[Arran]

I asked my local authority education department why the small glass milk bottles were changed to cartons, and if they had their own milk bottling facility or the milk was bottled by a dairy, but they didn't reply.

I have wondered about the environmental impact of supplying milk to primary schools in glass bottles vs cartons. There wasn't even a whimper from any local environmental organisations when the glass bottles were changed to cartons, but it wouldn't surprise me if very few of their members had any school aged children at the time.

[George 1978]

I asked my local authority education department why the small glass milk bottles were changed to cartons, and if they had their own milk bottling facility or the milk was bottled by a dairy, but they didn't reply.

I have wondered about the environmental impact of supplying milk to primary schools in glass bottles vs cartons. There wasn't even a whimper from any local environmental organisations when the glass bottles were changed to cartons, but it wouldn't surprise me if very few of their members had any school aged children at the time.

Probably because cartons don't smash when you drop them.

[Arran]

The small glass milk bottles were quite solid and robust. Breakages rarely happened and were usually caused when kids were being stupid with them.

My mother never had any concerns with me handling glass milk bottles when I was in reception class. I can't recall any parents of other kids expressing any concerns either.

Some kids nicked milk bottles from school to drink out of at home but I doubt the number of nicked bottles was high enough to force a change to cartons.