Milky Memories

This box of waxed paper straws should stir milky memories of several generations of school children. Supplied as part of the free milk in schools scheme, which was started by the first Labour government in 1937, the straws were designed to fit in the cardboard tops of the children’s milk bottles. The scheme required milk monitors to hand out half a pint of milk to each child every day, a ration that was supplemented by apples for a few years during World War Two.

The scheme lasted until 1967 when it was shelved as a cost saving measure. Questions about the benefits of milk were also being raised in some quarters, a sentiment that those who struggled to stomach the sometimes smelly, un-refrigerated milk would have probably agreed with.