The inventor of the milk carton and inspiration for the smaller milk carton is disputed. First, there was G. W. Maxwell, who had cartons built by hand before coating them in paraffin wax to make the cartons waterproof. There were some flaws that prevented a quick adoption of the paper packaging. Mainly, the milk cartons were fully assembled. Already formed cartons caused storage difficulties, requiring more shipping expenses. (Think how much space an assembled box takes up compared to one that is broken down.)
The gable-top carton with a spout released by a well-practiced pinch became an efficient, lightweight packaging when compared to the reused, heavy glass bottles then in use. Though a polyethylene coating later replaced the paraffin wax, the carton needed no major improvements. But, like today, Americans were attached to drinking milk from bottles. It was the steady increase in the cost of glass over time that made companies switch to paperboard cartons by the 1950s.
A small, single-serve version of milk in this cost-effective packaging is a common sight in school cafeterias, but how students enjoy their milk is changing. Some schools serve milk in single-serve plastic bottles for younger students that struggle to open a carton on their own. Others have introduced a more environmentally friendly system where milk is stored in dispensers for students to pour as much milk as they want into reusable cups, cutting back on the packaging trashed and encouraging students to drink more milk at mealtimes.
Even the classic school milk carton has become more sustainable, with paperboard materials comprising more and more of recycled materials. Many teachers and parents use leftover cartons for fun and educational activities.
Behind the Carton examines the nutritional quality of milk products sold to schools by some of the largest U.S. dairy companies. The report analyzes unflavored and flavored milk products to determine whether they meet evidence-based school meal nutrition standards for sodium, added sugars, low-calorie sweeteners, and synthetic dyes.
The US has several Child Nutrition Programs. One of them is the National School Lunch Program, which was introduced back in the 1940s when President Harry Truman signed the federal National School Lunch Act into law. This program, like the other Child Nutrition Programs, requires that schools offer fluid milk (which includes whole milk, low-fat milk, and lactose-free milk) to all children. They must offer at least two varieties of milk, one of which can be flavored, but it must be low-fat or fat-free.
Put those used milk and juice cartons to good use with the Carton 2 Garden Contest sponsored by Evergreen Packaging. They're looking for schools who can come up with the most creative way to construct a garden made from recycled milk/juice cartons and share their experience.
This is a great way to introduce school kids to the hands-on nature of gardening and teach them about sustainability through the upcycling of milk and juice cartons that might otherwise be thrown away.
"The Mayor is thankful to Boston Public Schools for taking quick action to protect the health and safety of students," her office said in a statement. "While no BPS student was harmed, it's unacceptable that these contaminated milk cartons ever left the supplier and the Mayor's Office will work with BPS to ensure this won't happen again."
In March, CBS Philly reported that more than two dozen Pre-K students in Camden, New Jersey were taken to a hospital after drinking milk cartons that contained sanitizer. The FDA is investigating that incident involving milk cartons processed at the Guida Dairy plant in New Britain, Connecticut.
This time, PCRM is using wholesome-looking families to target school lunches. It wants to replace calcium supplied by milk (popularized for children's diets in order to stave off rickets) with beans, sweet potatoes and figs. Its latest initiative, just launched in the Washington, D.C., metro area, charges milk with unnecessarily upping the saturated fat content of student diets.
For its part, the National Dairy Council says Americans aren't getting enough milk, and dismisses the PCRM campaign as a publicity stunt. "They would love to see milk banned because they're an animal rights group and they want everyone to switch to a vegan diet," council spokesman Greg Miller tells The Salt. He says dairy is a cheaper and better-tasting way of getting nutrients into school lunches, adding that under the PCRM proposal, "kids are going to have to eat a lot of broccoli; they're going to have to eat a lot of kale. I don't know about you, but my kids are not big on kale."
This isn't the first time that milk's star billing on the school lunch tray has been challenged. Questions were raised about milk's fat content during the school lunch program overhaul in 2010, but it ultimately stayed on the revamped school lunch menus, primarily in its nonfat iteration.
The Canby and Olympia School Districts both report no additional spills after beginning to use the milk dispensers. In fact, some school personnel in Olympia have reported fewer spills with the milk dispensers.
Work with your dairy to get milk in bags. The dairy supplying Canby schools offered milk in 3-gallon bags. In Olympia, another community that has implemented milk dispensers, the dairy's 5 -gallon bags were too heavy. The dairy was able to fill them with just 4 gallons to make them easier to load.
Yes. Washable cups are better than disposable cartons. Most environmental impacts occur before we even see a product, so using washable dishware is better than disposables as long as those reusable dishes are, well, reused. Estimates vary somewhat, but as long as a washable dish is used 10 or more times, it is better than using a disposable dish. Below is a graphic that helps to explain where the environmental impacts occur over a product's lifecycle.
But in a handful of districts in the Pacific Northwest, cafeteria workers, custodians, school administrators, and students are working together to bring steel cows into their schools. If their efforts are duplicated across the country, the environmental benefits could be massive. Each district looking to adopt milk dispensers would have to overcome their own set of challenges, but the work being done could create a roadmap for others to follow.
Each school day since then, Columbia Valley cafeteria workers have filled its pair of twin-spigot machines with five-gallon sacks of nonfat and one-percent milk. A hundred and ten pounds when empty, each dispenser sits on a sturdy, wheeled cart, low enough for children to reach and for staff to restock through a front panel.
In Oregon, the Canby School District introduced steel cows at four elementary schools at the start of the 2018-19 year. According to director of nutrition services Galina Dobson, the combined weekly fluid milk waste before installing steel cows was 280 quarts, equivalent to 1,120 cartons. Afterwards waste had fallen to 191 quarts, equivalent to 766 cartons.
Savings in trash and electrical bills add up over time, but bulk milk costs roughly the same as milk in cartons. According to Hossein Akhtarkhavari, who is contracted to oversee food services operations for Columbia Valley and the rest of the Evergreen Public Schools, it actually costs about seven percent more because the milk sacks have to be filled by hand.
As word of successful milk dispenser pilots spread interest has grown, funding opportunities may be growing as well. Clackamas County officials (where Canby is located) estimate that it costs a little over $4200 to pay for a dispenser, cups, dishwashing racks, and everything else required to serve around four hundred elementary school kids.
According to a 2016 report from the state of Vermont, two schools which tested dispensers decided to revert back to milk cartons a) because workers spent time filling cups to guarantee eight ounces were served, b) because of extra labor cleaning up spills, and c) because the price of bulk milk was two cents more expensive per eight ounces. No schools in the Pacific Northwest reported an uptick in spills or additional labor costs, but none of them allow students to take open cups of milk outside of the cafeteria either.
Ann Cooper, director of food services for the Boulder Valley School District in Colorado, worked with milk distributors to bring dispensers into all 52 of her schools. Cooper spoke with New Food Economy over the phone from Napa, California, where that district is planning its first dispenser pilot; she says that the nearby city of Novato is doing the same. Down in Texas, Anneliese Tanner, executive director of food services with the Austin Independent School District, writes that Austin is planning a pilot of two schools in the fall of 2019 and three more the following spring.
The work that has happened in Washougal to be more sustainable and environmentally friendly has been a top down team effort and has garnered support from students and other staff. From composting food scraps to serving from reusable ceramic dishes and metal sauce bowls in the high school, buying local and serving hand-crafted chef inspired meals to the addition of milk dispensers, Washougal School District has proven to be good stewards of resources and has produced a replicable plan that can help other school districts become more sustainable.
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