Johnny_Blaze_47
12-29-2004, 11:55 AM
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-milk29.html
School milk carton giving way to bottle
December 29, 2004
BY J.M. HIRSCH
Yet another familiar school-days object may be going the way of the inkwell and the slide rule.
Encouraged by a milk industry study that shows children drink more dairy when it comes in round plastic bottles, a growing number of schools are ditching those clumsy paper half-pint cartons many of us grew up with.
Already more than 1,250 schools have switched to single-serving bottles. While that is still a tiny fraction of the nation's schools, it is a significant jump from 2000, when there were none, according to the National Dairy Council.
Allegedly hard to handle
''Those ... square containers are awfully hard for kids,'' says New Hampshire Agriculture Commissioner Steve Taylor, who has watched the trend spread to some 320 schools in New England. ''Teachers say you can spend the whole lunch period just walking around and opening those containers.''
While the growing use of bottles in schools can partly be attributed to ease -- educators say plastic caps are easier for children to open, and round bottles fit better in their hands -- marketing savvy deserves at least as much credit.
Several years ago the milk industry decided its boxes were not visually competitive when sold alongside the relatively sexy bottles of juice and soda increasingly common in schools.
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As funny as this sounds - I agree with the part about spending your whole time opening cartons.
When I worked at an elementary school, I couldn't go a few minutes without a child asking me to open their milk for them.
School milk carton giving way to bottle
December 29, 2004
BY J.M. HIRSCH
Yet another familiar school-days object may be going the way of the inkwell and the slide rule.
Encouraged by a milk industry study that shows children drink more dairy when it comes in round plastic bottles, a growing number of schools are ditching those clumsy paper half-pint cartons many of us grew up with.
Already more than 1,250 schools have switched to single-serving bottles. While that is still a tiny fraction of the nation's schools, it is a significant jump from 2000, when there were none, according to the National Dairy Council.
Allegedly hard to handle
''Those ... square containers are awfully hard for kids,'' says New Hampshire Agriculture Commissioner Steve Taylor, who has watched the trend spread to some 320 schools in New England. ''Teachers say you can spend the whole lunch period just walking around and opening those containers.''
While the growing use of bottles in schools can partly be attributed to ease -- educators say plastic caps are easier for children to open, and round bottles fit better in their hands -- marketing savvy deserves at least as much credit.
Several years ago the milk industry decided its boxes were not visually competitive when sold alongside the relatively sexy bottles of juice and soda increasingly common in schools.
******
As funny as this sounds - I agree with the part about spending your whole time opening cartons.
When I worked at an elementary school, I couldn't go a few minutes without a child asking me to open their milk for them.