Petition launched to bring back school milk
Thursday 24th March 2011, 2:57PM GMT.
A petition has been launched to bring back school milk
THE States’ decision to scrap school milk was an act of ‘disgraceful meanness’, campaigners said today as they launched a petition to get it reinstated.
From today, members of the Jersey Democratic Alliance will be out and about across the Island collecting signatures in a bid to show how strongly Islanders disagree with the controversial move.
Free school milk for primary school children was stopped in February. JDA president Ted Vibert, who has announced that he is to stand in this October’s States elections, said that States Members had not been given the full facts when they agreed to scrap free school milk.
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I would have happily signed this, but as it is the JDA idiots just scrapping the bottom of the barrel for cheap votes, I will not get involved.
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What is the big deal about giving kids milk at school? Do they not get fed at home? Is malnutrition rife amongst Jersey’s children due to critical food shortages? What dark-age legacy is responsible for the daft idea that this should be continued?
It seems that the sentimental attachement to an outdated practice is over-ruling logical decision making.
Good grief.
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I would sign this petition, just one problem, the JDA are running it!
And Ted, don’t bother standing as people are fed up with the JDA along with your side kick Jeff!
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Why don’t the campaigners get a fund together to pay for it, there just as good at moaning about things they want for free,
Tell me, a tax payer without children, how i am going to benefit from free school milk?
My eyes see it, if you want kids you look after them, not us, there not our children. If people want something you pay for it.
Half pint of milk, 50p
class size 20 children
cost of milk per day £10 per class
cost of milk over a month for one class £300
cost of milk over 9 months £2700
cost of milk for 9 months for 4 classes £10800
cost of milk for 3 year groups with 4 classes
£43200
and thats for 1 school for a year with milk at 50p a half pint, wiht class sizes of 20 pupils, in a school with 3 year groups with 4 groups of classes.
It isn’t cheap, add that to 5 schools and the total is
£216000 per year for “free” school milk per year!
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Jersey states can’t afford Jersey milk.
It says it all.
Useless government and Jersey prices.
Nothing s free, they proved it…
Are we gonna get kids on milk benefits ???
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states stop free milk, why not scrap free parking for states member… seriously
Why not charge 10p for the kids to use the WC while you are it…
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Not like the JDA to try and win the popularist vote by misinforming the public with emotional nonsense rather than scientific facts. Milk provides little to no nutritional benefit to a child’s wellbeing if they are being fed properly.
This expensive scatter gun approach to target a handful of children who may potentially suffer malnutrition from neglect is the part of the Rolls Royce mantra Jersey once could, but no longer can afford. This policy is the equivalent of offering every school child in Jersey a packed lunch in case their parents fail to do so. School milk serves as nothing more than a subsidy to the diary industry.
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@james2 – I believe it costs 14p per child, not 50p. Not much to ask for really.Less than 15 mintues parking…….
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Has anyone told Ted we have a black hole exceeding £50 million.
By the time the JDA are finished that hole will be so deep Ted could jump in it and he would almost be back in Oz.
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This is pure electionering.
Political agendas.
Election year.
JDA (if you must) please pick something that has not already been done to death.
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Do these people have nothing better to do with their time? If a child is so mal nourished then honestly half a pint of milk isn’t going to make much difference. It would also be interesting to see how many children actually like drinking the white stuff too. Maybe politicians should spend their time being productive and investigating why there are children in Jersey who are subjected to such poor diets at home and make a difference.
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Must be joking!
Can we sign a list of all those who loathed it?
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After this petition has been signed and taken to the States, what will the JDA decide it was really asking for? The last one pretended to be about GST but was actually about Ozouf, so this one’s probably really something to do with the Education Minister. Or Jerry Springer. Or kayaking.
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Another JDA petition. – I will avoid shopping in St Helier this weekend.
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Milk provides little to no nutritional benefit to child’s wellbeing IF they are being fed properly, IF their parents know how to, or IF they can afford to.
IF being the operative word !
Therefore the JDA are wise to do what they can, as they have the children’s best interests at heart. More so that a lot of our ministers.
This is not the equivalent of offering every school child in Jersey a packed lunch at all and it only applies to primary schools.
I will sign this petition even though my children have grown up.
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@11 from one Jersey Mum to another, totally
agree. I would rather provide milk for my child as I
Will buy organic so I know the cows haven’t
been pumped full of crap.
Ps I detest milk ! Sorry cows
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Good grief Ted, get a grip will you. Milk is for calves not children it’s well known to be the cause of all sorts of respiratory problems.
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Maybe they could get a very rich person to sponsor free milk in schools? This would kill two birds with one stone.
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James 2 – Half pint of milk, 50p
Where do you shop? I can get 500ml for 57P, note this is not as many believe a pint, a pint is 568ml, it is approx 13% short of a pint.
Course I can get 2 litres for 87P in the UK but we’re not allowed to import it as wee have to subsidise our over expensive under productive dairy.
Go on, give us a choice, those that want to support the dairy can do so, the rest can buy cheap UK milk that lasts beyond 3 days.
2 Puzzled Again –
What is the big deal about giving kids milk at school? Do they not get fed at home? Is malnutrition rife amongst Jersey’s children due to critical food shortages? What dark-age legacy is responsible for the daft idea that this should be continued?
It seems that the sentimental attachement to an outdated practice is over-ruling logical decision making.
Good grief.
I was going to make this point but could not improve on what you have so eloquently said.
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Let’s get this straight. Jersey can afford school milk. The States have decided that it is not a priority.
As a father who has kids at school, I fully agree with the States decision. About half the class didn’t drink milk anyway. There is no evidence that kids in Jersey are suffering malnutrition.
If a small number of kids are suffering from malnutrition, then is the best approach to offer all children a highly perishable product, packaged in a size that nobody else wants and requiring daily delivery?
And here’s another issue: what if, in a few years time, milk is linked to health problems (already there are suggestions of links betwee milk consumption and some serious diseases and allergies). If the States do provide school milk should they take out insurance to coer any potential claim?
If you start from the position that kids should have milk, but that parents cannot be trusted to provide it to kids, why stop there? Why not provide fresh veggies as well? In fact, why not insist kids come to school for breakfast lunch and dinner, all paid for by the States?
No, it is the responsibility of parents to feed their kids properly. If they are so rubbish at parenting that they can’t, the solution is to take the kids into care, not provide milk to everyone.
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Shereen #15
Following your logic if we were going to cover all the ‘ifs’ ‘buts’ and ‘maybes’ then we should be investing millions into a orbital defence system so that IF an asteroid is on a collision course for St Helier we MAY be able to protect ourselves.
If you want to ‘think of the children’ consider that cows milk is not a natural substance for human consumption and holds little more nutritional value for humans than water. Don’t be suckered in by the marketing ploy by the JDA and the dairy industry.
Like I said before (but for some reason was removed by the moderator) if you want to spend tax payers’ money giving primary children something of nutritional value, fruit would be a lot better.
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As a medical professional I couldn’t agree more with the majority of comments. Milk supplies little nutritional value, there are better sources of calcium. We are seeing escalting cases of childhood obesity and it is entirely uneccessary, I would have more support for free apples.
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MOOOO!
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What a bunch of mean minded pigs you are.
Jersey is full of mean spirited money obsessed people. If Jersey can’t afford milk for school children it is a disgrace. I really hate you people. It is a disgrace that non of the state schools provide hot meals. I hope you enjoy your ferraris and porsches – you look like idiots and i hope you are as miserable as you sound
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A lot of kids don’t want to drink luke warm milk! what’s left at the end of the day is taken home by staff! Better to take GST off food & then families can afford to feed their kids more healthly, anyway it’s down to the parents & some prioritise fags & booze, bring in food stamps you never know some might be shamed into getting jobs!
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Not another JDA waste of effort and space on the High St. What shall we rename this petition? One people have signed it, then peeel away the fact it says it is against the removal of school milk, and let’s call it the Petition To Become A Part of Guernsey.
WHo cares!!! Kids don’t need school milk – if you want it, buy it yourself for your kids. States shouldn’t be paying for this rubbish!
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This is pathetic and all involved need to grow up.
While the subject matter is clearly evocative, it’s plain to anyone with a mind of their own that this is just a cheap attempt to gain favour.
Who actually gives a stuff apart from the dairy farmers? Are parents saying that they’re relying on this milk for their kids? Course they’re not. If they are they’ll just have to make savings elsewhere.
Have any of these half baked petitions ever ever ever ever ever eveeeeeeeeer changed anything on this island?
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A far better idea would be to make milk available only to those that need it. Parents who wish their children to take milk at school can apply for it.
Like this, those children that need it can have it, and the rest can continue to bring in their own snacks/drinks etc.
I have no problem with some of my taxes going to help those needy children that require it, but I object to gallons being wasted everyday because the majority of kids don’t want it.
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After reading through the above comments I’m a little dissappointed.
What the majority of you don’t seem to understand is that this has nothing to do with the JDA or the nutrional value of milk. When I was at a school (more so at a younger age) everyone was excited when it was “milk time” and we even had appointed “milk monitors”! Now you’ll probably think that’s quite sad but you must remember this is whilst aged around 10 or below and that it taught me two things:
1) Awareness of local produce
2) Responsibility (milk monitors)
These two basic points have stayed with me my whole life and although pretty basic, are actually quite important to learn as a child in Jersey.
It is disgusting that the States find it perfectly acceptable to provide the Opera House with £1mil pound funding (I’m sure it was only refurbished / renovated in the past 5yrs?) from the “rainy day” fund (what a joke by the way- only used for everything other than a rainy day) but struggle to keep our teachers happy or run decent, affordable holiday care.
I don’t care what we give our children, no sorry our FUTURE, but let’s just give them something ay?!
The States of Jersey are no better than the goverment of Nigeria! They’re just as corrupt and just as selfish. Did you see how much the person appointed at the hospital to sort out the cock ups is getting paid?! Did you see what one of the people involved with the financial development of Jersey is getting paid?! Oh and finally, what the hell do we need a Lieutenant Governor for? Tradition? Oh right so a bit like school milk then! He’s the Queen’s rep right? Oh so does he phone her every week? “Hi Queenie, yup everythings great here, nice to talk to you bye bye” WELL WORTH THE MONEY!
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This has been banging on for years now. Half the children never drank the stuff and teachers were using it up in there tea and coffee. If they had really thought about it years ago when a mother would get a pint of milk cheaper or free I can’t remember how it worked until her child grew to school age. Why did they not stop school milk years ago and give the mother a cheap pint of milk until the child reached secondary age. This would have stoppped all the deliveries, the special cartons and all this time wasting now.
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i would happily sign a petition calling for the scrapping of free parking and other perks for states members…after all we’re all in this recession together, right?
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If parents want to fund THEIR children’s milk at full cost then that’s fine. But just don’t expect the tax payer to pick up the bill.
Why don’t they give them some milk to take to school and put it in the school fridge if they feel they need it, or schools could arrange to a charge each school term to provide it.
Whilst we are on a school topic, free nursery places should also be brought to a swift end.
Also what about charging for children’s dental care at the hospital for those can afford it?
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