Should milk be part of the school meals programme? 

A valuable source of protein, vitamins, and minerals, the National Dairy Council has issued a call for milk to become part of the Hot School Meals Programme

Research says that only 4% of Irish children and teenagers meet their recommended dairy intake. Picture: iStock 

Do you remember school milk? Back in 1982, what is now known as the EU School Milk Scheme was launched in Ireland and rattling crates of neat little glass bottles with foil tops started to arrive in primary schools. Some kids loved it, some not so much so.

As a child, I wasn’t a fan, but something must have stuck. Now, especially with two teenage daughters in the house, my family consumes high quantities of dairy, including milk.

Our experience appears to be the exception.

Research tells us that Irish children and teenagers don’t get anything near their recommended dairy intake. The National Teens’ Nutrition Survey conducted by the Irish Universities Nutrition Alliance (IUNA) found that only 4% of Irish teens get the recommended five daily servings of dairy.

As a result, more than half have an inadequate intake of calcium, which, along with the 94% of teenagers who are lacking vitamin D (necessary for the absorption of calcium), IUNA points out, “may impair the development of bone mass during this crucial period of growth”.

“Height is the big one,” says Sarah Keogh of Eatwell, who is a consultant dietitian with the National Dairy Council.

“We would know that kids can be shorter compared to their peers if they’re not consuming enough calcium. We can also see lower bone density, which is an issue for later on,” she says. “If you’re not growing, other things in the body aren’t growing either. So your height is one marker of your overall health.”

The number of participating schools in the EU School Milk Scheme has declined sharply over the years, falling to 369 in 2023/2024.

The NDC, which manages the subsidised scheme in conjunction with participating cooperatives and local authorities, is calling for milk to be added to the Hot School Meals Programme.

No drink is currently included because, as Keogh says, there’s an assumption that water is available.

“There’s a protein in the meal, which is brilliant, there’s fruit and veg in the meal, which is brilliant, and there’s carbohydrates in the meal, also brilliant, but the original guidelines [for Hot School Meals Programme providers] didn’t include something that was related to calcium,” she says.

Sarah Keogh: If kids dont meet their calcium needs they can be shorter with lower bone denisty

Keogh points out that adding milk to the meal would ensure that children are getting calcium at a key development stage for bone strength. Milk and milk products are valuable sources of essential nutrients, including protein, vitamins, and minerals, along with calcium.

Keogh acknowledges that the NDC is a farmer-funded representative body, but argues that alongside its commercial aims, it also promotes a food with established nutritional benefits.

“They represent really good food with really good nutrition, and [milk could be] plugging a really important gap in nutrition for children in schools. It’s a minimally processed or unprocessed product, and it doesn’t have additives.”

While issues with the Hot School Meals Scheme have been well documented, there are now networks across the country that deliver food to schools daily. The meal can be a source of nutrition that can make an enormous difference to children in low-income families, and milk could add extra benefits.

“It’s that extra bit of protein and that extra bit of nutrition, especially if we look at children [from households] on restricted incomes,” says Keogh. “It’s that opportunity for them to get a very nutritious food that maybe they’re not getting at home.”

“I think it’s time for the hot school meals and the school milk scheme to get together,” says Keogh. “In this day and age, a lot of parents are struggling with grocery bills going up.”

One of the challenges with the hot school meals programme, says Keogh, is the negative coverage about it, “but when you talk to parents, most absolutely love it. If you have a whole meal a day that is provided at the school, parents don’t have to worry about it, and if they knew [their children] were getting their calcium in as well, I think it would be a really good thing.”

Milk, of course, is also an Irish product. “We have the best dairy in the world,” says Keogh, and it would be fabulous to be able to include that [in the school meal].”

Enabling the consumption of milk in childhood, Keogh points out, comes with many long-term advantages.

“We often talk about osteoporosis as a paediatric disease that shows up when you’re older. You have about 90% of your bone in place by the time you’re 19 years old. It’s during those childhood and teenage years we want to really get calcium into the bones so that later on they stay nice and strong.”