Dr Hilary Jones highlights World School Milk Day

One of the issues that Dr Hilary Jones is most passionate about is the health benefits that children can have from regularly drinking milk – including in reducing obesity – and ensuring that schools and nurseries are offering milk to its pupils.

Free healthy milk is available to children of different ages through a number of different programmes including:

• The Nursery Milk Scheme (All children in England, Wales and Scotland under the age of five are eligible to receive a free 1/3rd pint of milk provided they attend an early years setting for two or more hours a day)
• European Milk Scheme (All children in UK schools are eligible to receive subsidised milk with the European Union providing a subsidy of 2.4p per 1/3 pint, with an additional 1p top-up by the Department for Environment (Defra) for children aged 5-11 years old)
• Free School Meals include the offer of a glass of milk each day along with a meal, and is a Department for Education-administered means-tested scheme for children in low-income households

Unfortunately, many schools and nurseries are unaware of the different programmes that are available to them and their pupils, meaning that far too many children are missing out on healthy free milk. Some of the schemes and subsidies are also at risk of being discontinued, meaning that millions more children could miss out in the future.

Aston spoke to Dr Hilary Jones.

Photo by Eiliv Aceron on Unsplash