Torrential rain hammered the roof of Manaia View School, Whangarei, during the launch, as Chris Farrelly, chief executive of Manaia Health, thanked the 10,500 Fonterra farmers.
"They are out in the rain today working to produce this food, not only for the world but for our children," he said. "Neither tropical storm nor rains will stop the milkman."
Kelvin Wickham, Fonterra group director supplier and external relations, says the farmers are out there every day producing milk and supporting the co-op in Milk for Schools. Wickham stood in for chief executive Theo Spierings, unable to attend because of the weather.
Fonterra has been "overwhelmed by the response", not expecting the support it got from schools, parents, teachers and community, Wickham says.
"It's a huge exercise in logistics," he said of the pilot scheme in 112 of Northland's 133 primary schools, providing a 250ml Tetra Pak of milk to 10,000 children each day. Fonterra has given a fridge to each school and will collect the packs for recycling.
Farrelly earlier said he was proud to be part of Whangarei and Northland but the area also had poverty, inequity and injustice. Not everyone there had enough to eat every day.
"We live in a land of milk and honey; we were asking 'can't we share that milk and honey?'
"Our voices spoke, Fonterra listened – it listened deeply, then acted. This gesture is quite stupendous, the historic day we bring back milk to schools."
To the children he said all of them dreamed of being "an All Black, a Silver Fern, the prime minister or even chief executive of Fonterra".
"Part of that dream is to drink milk every day."
Studies showed every one of Northland's 13 decile 1 and 2 schools had to provide food to its students daily, and all except three of its decile 3 and 4 schools did so. It should not be the schools' job to feed children but was part of the "cycle of poverty".
He said Spierings is a "courageous, visionary man" who saw something had to be done and would have been "gutted" not to be at the Milk for Schools launch.
Manaia View School principal Leanne Otene says growing children aged two years and older need to drink at least two or three glasses of milk a day.
Nutrition is a key focus area for the school which runs many initiatives and has won Gold Heart awards for promoting good nutrition every year since 2004.
"Now the school will be not only a water-only school but a water-and-milk-only school," she says.
Milk monitors will deliver at 9am; the children will have it on their desks and be encouraged to drink it in the morning session then recycle the cartons. The children have been learning about the nutritive value of milk.
Spierings says the co-op will monitor the pilot for three terms and intends a nationwide start in 2013 "to get more Kiwis drinking more milk, and this starts with our kids."
Fonterra is still accepting registrations for the pilot. For details or to register a school visit
www.fonterramilkforschools.com.
