Milk in schools trial for North | Northland News | Local News in Northland

Northland primary school children are set to be the first in New Zealand to go back to drinking free milk at school.

Fonterra today announced that a  pilot ``Milk for Kiwis'' scheme would be trialled in Northland schools next year and if it was successful would be rolled out in schools across the country in 2013.

``Milk is an important block for good nutrition. We want kiwi kids to grow up drinking milk because it is for good for them,'' Fonterra chief executive Theo Spierings said at the announcement in Auckland today.

Spierings said New Zealand  dietary guidelines recommended schoolchildren drink at least two-three servings of milk per day.

The Northland pilot will cover 110 schools and 14000 children.

It is believed the deal was brokered after months of negotiations between Northland and Government health officials and Fonterra.

Yesterday, a Northland health leader who has persistently called on the Government to launch an inquiry into milk prices, said he hoped the region would be an early beneficiary of the scheme.

"The importance of this announcement will be enormous for New Zealand because it indicates a significant gesture from Fonterra to alleviate some of the impacts of child poverty," Manaia Health PHO chief executive Chris Farrelly said.

"I truly believe that they [Fonterra] have a genuine interest in the children of New Zealand and what they are doing gives them mana in their own country and mana throughout the world."

Mr Farrelly likened the move to Christmas present under a tree.

"We know it's looking good, we want to get the details but it will be unwrapped tomorrow," he said yesterday.

Free milk was last seen in primary schools 44 years ago, having been given to school children between 1937 and 1967 under a world-first Labour government health scheme.

Each day "milk monitors" distributed a half pint bottle (284ml) to each pupil. The scheme was dropped in 1967 by the government of the day on cost grounds and because the public was starting to question the benefits of milk.

As well as free milk to ensure children are well-fed, Mr Farrelly said he hoped the Government's free housing insulation would continue for lower income people so children were better housed.

"We are not going to give up on kids," he said.

Whangarei mother Alesha Standing, whose children Wyatt, 5, and Cameron, 7, go to Whangarei Primary School, believes free milk would improve children's health.

"It's really good, especially since a lot of kids miss out on milk because they can't afford it. If Fonterra and the schools help make up for that, it would be great," she said.

The initiative follows constant criticism by health authorities and the public that customers were paying too much across the counter for milk and children's's health was suffering.

In February, Fonterra put a freeze on milk prices for the rest of the year.

Mr Spierings was expected to comment today on whether the price freeze would continue.

A Consumer New Zealand survey found 79 per cent of New Zealanders thought the Government should hold an inquiry into milk prices and 91 per cent believed milk prices were far too high.