REFLECTIVE MOMENTS

School milk project produce measly return

While strolling through the online pages for rural schools in the district, I noticed some food for thought in the regular postings for these educational facilities.

Food is the operative word, for indeed, in addition to school sports, class trips and reports of various activities for different grade levels, much attention was paid to the topic of food and the availability of it on school premises — over and above the packed lunches brought from home and carried in lunch buckets.

Much has changed since my enrolment in a rural school decades ago but it is interesting to make some comparisons while the mind goes on a nostalgic trip, remembering how it was and then wondering, with some amusement, how we ever managed to survive our spartan lifestyle.

It wasn’t until Grade 10 or 11 that the Junior Red Cross group decided to take on a milk project two days a week. If I recall correctly, the home and school association financed the start-up which gave us funding to purchase small containers of chocolate and white milk at a wholesale cost, to be sold at a markup so eventually we would have a profit.

Chocolate was definitely the favourite among the students, but we were compelled by the teachers to offer white milk as well. It was a mad rush on milk days as it was first in line to snap up the chocolate containers, one per student. Those who dawdled had to settle for white milk.

And once a month we were allowed to order Revels as a special treat. We took orders in advance and didn’t have to worry about leftovers that had to be stored in the staff room refrigerator. It was always a puzzle to us when our inventory list often didn’t match what we found in that staff room fridge that was off-limits to the students. The milk project fizzled out when student volunteers were difficult to find and somehow the sales price didn’t provide enough of a cushion for profits to accrue. I conveniently can’t recall if the initial funding was ever repaid.

Now my alma mater regularly offers many opportunities for food at school: taco in a bag, pancake breakfasts, hamburgers and hotdogs, even pizza. Some food days are fundraisers for specific projects while others are simply to have food that hasn’t been packed at home. Now there’s even a microwave to allow students to heat their lunch items.

Grilled cheese sandwiches are a regular item at another school along the Trans-Canada. And at a school north of the city, a hot lunch day is scheduled once a month. That school also has a canteen that offers chocolate milk, cheese and crackers, Fruitto-Go and frozen yogurt.

I do recall the day my school installed the pop machine, after some debate on the merits of sugary drinks. For a mere quarter, we could enjoy a favourite flavour, with a bucket provided so we could get some money back on the empty containers — recycling before recycling was called that.

We managed to overcome the rule of one drink per day per student by having students “who didn’t drink” buy our drinks for us. Teachers either didn’t catch on or felt it was a battle unworthy of their time.

And we had drinking water in the school — available free of charge at the water fountain just down the hall from the office and staff room. No loitering allowed. I wonder if that fountain is still there and has the pop machine been outlawed by school board policy? Possibly.