Wednesday was ... wait for it, World School Milk Day.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
It is, apparently, celebrated on the last Wednesday in September.
Countries around the world celebrate World School Milk day to celebrate the health benefits of school milk programs.
Do you have memories of school milk? Did it turn you off milk forever or was it the beginning of a lifelong love affair?
Here's how the Sydney Morning Herald trumpeted its new scheme ...
FREE MILK FOR CHILDREN - Big Federal Scheme
About one million school children throughout Australia will receive free milk under a scheme announced yesterday by the Minister for Health, Sir Earle Page.
The distribution will be the first step in the Minister's national health scheme.
An additional seven million gallons of milk yearly will be absorbed in the scheme.
Sir Earle said the Commonwealth would meet the entire cost of the scheme, estimated at about £1,500,000 annually.
The States would handle distribution, and the scheme would start in each state as soon as dis- tributing machinery was arranged and supplies were available.
A conference of State Ministers for Health and Education, and the Federal Ministers for Commerce and Agriculture and Health will be held soon to develop plans.
The distribution will be made to children at creches and nursery schools, kindergartens, and private and public schools.
The maximum to each child will be half a pint a day. Children over 12 may be included where it is deemed expedient for administration.
1 p.c. OF PRODUCTION Sir Earle pointed out that milk production in Australia varied between 1,000 and 1,300 million gallons a year, and the amount required for the scheme would be less than one per cent.
Schemes of milk distribution for school children to-day vary in the different States.
In New South Wales a scheme has been operating through the Education Department since 1941. Under it, 155,000 pupils of about 400,000 children under 12 receive milk.
In Victoria more than 66,000 pupils receive free milk.
In other States there are no organised Government schemes, although various voluntary bodies make a considerable distribution.
Their funds raised by voluntary effort, are supplemented by the State Governments.
Sir Earle Page said the Commonwealth Health Scheme as a whole, will cost £54,000,000 a year.
Of this amount £50,000,000 will be required for medical in- surance subsidies, £2,500,000 for drugs and medicines, and £1,500,000 for free milk.
Sir Earle said there was no justification for statements that to secure life-saving drugs, made free by the Government, it was necessary to belong to a friendly society.
The Minister who was commenting on a statement by Mr. A. E. Connolly, State secretary of the Pharmaceutical Guild of Aus- tralia in yesterday's "Herald," also said there was no justification for the statement that the administration of payment for the drugs would be in the hands of friendly societies.
Sir Earle said that, since last January, the Federal executive of the Pharmaceutical Guild had been told, verbally and in writing, that these drugs would be available on the same free terms to every citizen of the Commonwealth who was ill and presented a doctor's prescription, whether he belonged to a voluntary organisation or not.
The Federal executive had also been told very plainly that payment would be direct from the Government to the chemist without any intermediary.
Thc secretary of the Milk Zone Dairymen's Council, Mr. L. C. Turton, said it was difficult to understand thc timing of the free milk scheme in a season of lowestproduction.
New South Wales was already ahead of all the other States in this respect.
This increased demand for milk would provide problems for the Milk Board and its suppliers.
Production would have to be increased by some means, said Mr. Turton, especially in the winter months.
Normal liquid milk requirements in Sydney were now more than 25,000 gallons a week greater than at this time last year.
In addition, if the demand for sweet cream was to be met, another 150,000 gallons a week would be necessary.
The population was steadily increasing, and the majority of New Australians were heavy milk consumers.
Yet the dairying industry was still declining, mainly because the life was very hard and it was much easier to make a living in industrial work, with its 40-hourweek and general amenities.
A "BLESSING"
Secretary of the Primary Producers' Union, Mr. L. J. Johnstone, said official recognition of the value of milk as a builder of health and stamina in schoolchildren would be a blessing to the dairying industry.
It had come at a time when the industry was facing changing conditions, and would have the effect, for the time being, of withdrawing considerable quantities of milk from the butter,cheese, and other processing factories.
If all Australian needs were to be supplied, there would have to be increased production of milk, Mr. Johnstone said. Otherwise the time was not far off whenAustralia would have few dairy products for export to Britain or any other country.