§ 25. Mr. W. ROBERTSasked the President of the Board of Education whether any children in schools are being supplied with preserved instead of fresh milk?
Mr. STANLEYIt is estimated that about five per cent. of the children receiving milk in the schools are supplied with preserved milk in some form or another. Preserved milk is not provided under the milk-in-schools scheme.
§ Mr. ROBERTSIn view of the fact that some types of preserved milk have a much lower food value than fresh milk, will the Minister draw the attention of the local authorities concerned to that fact?
Mr. STANLEYIn the great majority of the cases in which preserved milk is supplied it is as the result of a voluntary arrangement carried on by the teachers. In the few cases where it is supplied by local authorities the Board try actively to discourage them, provided there are supplies of fresh milk available.
§ Mr. KIRKWOODWill the Minister see to it that, unless special circumstances arise, nothing but fresh milk is supplied to the schools, because we have adequate supplies of fresh milk at the moment, and in many cases producers do not know what to do with it?
Viscountess ASTORWill the Minister impress upon the Minister of Agriculture that it would be better to let the milk go to the children than to the manufacturers?
§ Mr. MACQUISTENIs it not a fact that there is very little fresh milk at all in the country?