MILK SALES IN ALASKA’S SCHOOLS

Abstract

When offered more than once daily and at five cents a half-pint, Palmer school children consumed fresh milk at the rate of 1.1 half-pints per day, an increase of 138 percent over normal. Seward school children customarily eating lunch at school consumed 1.5 half-pints per day. Sixty Alaskan schools - comprising 90 percent of the Territory's school enrollment - can be supplied with fresh milk. The market potential existing in these schools is estimated at 5,000,000 half-pints (2,500,00 pounds or 300,000 gallons) annually. This is 8 to 10 times the amount now consumed in Alaskan schools. Increased consumption of fresh milk in Alaska's schools means stepping up imports from surplus producing Stateside milksheds. Alaska's dairy industry now supplies less than two-thirds of the Territory's fresh fluid milk.