"How now brown cow" as the old expression goes

Back in grade one we lived just around the corner from Maple Leaf Dairies on Greenwood Drive in the "west end" of Summerside... at that time I don't think I was a big fan of white milk as I was always suspect that Mom were passing off some of that "awful powdered milk" which was quite common in those days when money was pretty tight... but I can also remember Mom getting "chocolate" milk in the old quart bottles delivered to our house on Fridays.... and as we lived next to the dairy it arrived very early, so on cold days to keep it from freezing and popping the cardboard covers off we would get up really early.... but it was well worth it as it sure didn't take long to empty the chocolate bottles... I told one of my uncles back then that I thought I liked chocolate milk even more than pop and he suggested that I should "buy a brown cow" from the dairy... so every time we drove by that dairy I kept looking for the cows... I was pretty keen on getting one and had all kinds of ideas how I was going to look after one... so I was pretty disappointed a year or so later when I finally asked one of my country cousins what he thought I'd have to pay for a "brown cow" and I think they still laughing about that up in Lot 16... so I was driving home from Saint John today with my Princess of 28 years and I started thinking about this chocolate milk story... so I asked her how many times she ever see me pour a glass of white milk and drink it... and she couldn't remember me doing it once other than pouring it into some cereal but on the other hand she easily sees me drink at least 3 glasses of chocolate milk a week... so I'm all for lower chocolate milk prices in the schools... and I'm still looking to get one of those "brown cows"....
Schools look for equal treatment for chocolate milk
Monday, November 2, 2009
CBC News
Some P.E.I. parents and educators are calling for a more affordable price for chocolate milk in Island schools.
White milk has been subsidized since the 1980s through the work of the P.E.I. School Milk Foundation, but chocolate milk isn't.
In the cafeteria at Summerside Intermediate School, it costs $2 for a 500-millilitre bottle of chocolate milk, as opposed to $0.75 for white milk. Principal Doug Doyle would like to see it made more affordable.
"I would love to see the chocolate milk subsidized," Doyle told CBC News Friday.
"From what we understand, the nutritional value is the same in chocolate and white milk. So if we want them to drink milk, they're drinking the chocolate milk but they're paying more for it."
Charmaine Campbell, a registered dietitian with the Healthy Eating Alliance, said the attitudes of health professionals towards chocolate milk have changed. It used to be seen as a sugary treat, but it does have the same nutritional value as white milk, with a few extra teaspoons of sugar.
"We have heard some complaints from parents about the pricing of chocolate milk," said Campbell. "The Healthy Eating Alliance would be supportive of having chocolate milk subsidized."
The P.E.I. School Milk Foundation, funded by the Department of Education and the Dairy Farmers of P.E.I., has a budget of a little more than $100,000. Almost half of that goes into subsidizing the cost of white milk.
Program co-ordinator Barbie Bevan said there is no room in the current budget to subsidize chocolate milk.
"We are not opposed to having chocolate milk subsidized in any way shape or form. It's just we know that at the present time, as a board, we are not able to go forward with that," said Bevan.
Bevan said the school milk foundation has not approached the P.E.I. government for more funding towards subsidizing chocolate milk.
The idea of subsidizing milk in schools is not without precedent. Newfoundland and Labrador and New Brunswick subsidize both white and chocolate milk in their schools.