Saturday, October 17, 2009

Do you remember

When children in Britain were given concentrated orange juice and cod liver oil? In that case you are as old as us. Food rationing finished at midnight on 4 July 1954 and at the same time the supply of orange juice for infants.

We did have free school milk. The Schools Milk Act, which was passed in 1946, provided one third of a pint of milk per day for all children up to the age of 18.

In 1968, Harold Wilson stopped free milk for secondary school children. Then Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative Government stopped school milk for children over the age of seven in 1971.  At that time, many councils tried to defy the instruction. Labour councils in particular threatened to put up rates to allow them to continue supplies of milk to children. The provision of free milk cost £14m per year which was twice as much as was spent on school books.

It could be argued that children no longer needed free milk in schools because their parents could provide it. The problem is that, these days, some parents seem to have very  little control over what their children drink and allow them to choose sugar laden carbonated drinks rather than fresh milk or fruit juice.

Things are different in neighbouring Hurchillo where the council believe that children should still have fresh orange juice. In celebration of the Día Mundial de la Alimentación yesterday, they gave the children orange juice. I dare say the children enjoyed it and would welcome a glass of fresh juice every day. It would certainly be a lot better for them than a lot of the drinks they buy in cans.

1 comment:

Maz said...

It's amazing to me how many children/young adults these days drink only soft drinks. They never dream of drinking tea, coffee or even water! Personally I hardly ever drink soft drinks (unless it's a diet coke with my bacardi)and would opt for a fresh orange juice any day rather than something out of a can.