MILK IN SCHOOLS

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 115, 18 May 1938, Page 11

MILK IN SCHOOLS

BENEFIT TESTS IMPROVED DEVELOPMENT (From "Tho Post's" Representative.) LONDON, April 30. The importance of nillk for the improvement of the physique of school children » further emphasised by the interim report of. an official investigation carried ou<f by a committee of exparts, uiyler the 'chairmanship of Sir John Orr, appointed by the Milk Marketing Board. The committee is investigating the effect of' trie milk-in-schools scheme on the growth and health of school children. " • It has been, shown that those children receiving a daily ration of one-third pint show increases in weight and height over those who do not take advantage of the milk-in-schools Scheme. When greater quantities are consumed there, is a correspondingly greater physical development. Work began in 1935 and covered 8000 children in schools at Luton, Wolverhampton, Burtori-on-Trent, Huddersfield, and Renfrewshire, j The cooperation of parents,', local education authorities, school medical officers, and teachers enabled the children to be so grouped that 2000 did not receive,any 'milk (they got biscuits instead), 2000 received one-third of a pint of pasteurised milk, 2000 were given twothirds of a pint of pasteurised milk, and the remainder had two-thirds of a pint of raw milki Improvement figures relating to the children* receiving one-third of a pint of milk were' almost doubled by the children who received twice that quantity. The groups with the large milk supplement gained 4 to 6 per cent, more in height during the year' and 9 to 10 per cent, more in weight than those with the biscuit supplement. It is pointed out that only 49 per cent, of those eligible take advantage of the milk-in-gchools scheme. The number of children who could recaive milk is &000.000. '