Tiie School Feeding Movement
The Psychological Clinic Copyright, 1912, by Lightner Witmer, Editor. Vol. VI. No. 2. ‘ April 15, 1912. :Author: Louise Stevens Bryant,
7n Charge of Social Work, Psychological Clinic, University of Pennsylvania.
Three years ago the author of a German book 011 school feeding opened her discussion of the movement in other countries with the remark that she would begin with the United States, as so little was done there. Since then the number of cities having begun the practical experiment of furnishing lunches in elementary schools has grown from three to thirty. Moreover, the work is under consideration in about thirty other cities. Judging by the rate of expansion of analogous activities in the socialization of public schools, such as medical inspection and open air schools, it seems safe to assume that in another year the present number of cities with school feeding will be trebled. Obviously the movement needs no propaganda. But it does need a basis of correct information and for its workers the control of free discussion, comparison and mutual help if statistics are not to outrun the development of technique and efficient administration. This number of The Psychological Clinic has been planned as a contribution to help meet these basic needs.
Early Beginnings.
The provision of meals in the public elementary schools is neither new nor rare. The very first provision of which we have any record was made in Munich in 1790, when municipal soup kitchens were started as part of the international campaign against vagrancy initiated by Count Kumford. The kitchens were designed to meet the needs of the people of all ages, and from the start the schools were encouraged to send groups of children to them for a warm meal at noon, for which the children paid 01* not as they were able. This work, which antedated compulsory education, was unorganized for a long time, but it was never discontinued, and in the seventies the obligation of providing meals was put upon the school authorities. ISTow there is a municipal ordinance in Munich requiring that every new school house shall have a kitchen and dining-room. Begun thus, the school feeding movement has spread throughout the German Empire until now it is national in scope and about one-half of the cities contribute to support wholly or in part school breakfasts or dinners.
School feeding in France began in 1849 when the National Guard in the Second District of Paris presented to the city the unexpended balance in their treasury with the request that it be used to help poor children get a schooling. One of the first uses of this money, which was increased by other contributions, was to furnish a warm dinner at noon to the poorest children of the district. This was the beginning of the Caisses des Ecoles, or school funds, which in 1882, at the time of the passage of the compulsory education act in France, were made obligatory throughout the country. The purpose of the school fund was to increase the efficiency of the school system in any way the local authorities might see fit?to aid, for example, in medical inspection, to finance vacation colonies and school excursions, to provide scholarships and prizes for brilliant children. But for the most part, the “School Funds” have been used in maintaining the Cantines Scolaires or school restaurants that are now universal in France. From the beginning the cantines have been real restaurants where all children may come and buy warm meals, and only in exceptional cases are the meals given free. In the large cities particularly, care is taken that no visible distinction shall be made between the children paying and those not paying, this being assured by the simple device of having each child pass through a little box office to buy his meal ticket. When a child claims to be unable to pay, he is given the ticket, but his* name and address are noted. Immediately a school officer visits the family, and finds out whether the parents are able to pay regularly for their child’s meal. If so, they are forced to pay; if not, they are furnished with tickets for as long a period as may be necessary. In any case the child is never made to feel that he is an object of “charity” in receiving meals any more than he is in being educated or medically “inspected”. This practice,- which illustrates the instinctive delicacy of feeling among the French people, has always been commended though not always followed in other countries. The founder of the school feeding in England was Victor Hugo, who in the early sixties provided warm meals in his own house in Guernsey for the children attending a nearby school, and so gave the initial impetus which led to the establishment in London in 18GG of “The Destitute Children’s Dinner Society.” During the next forty years similar charitable societies were formed, until in 1905, when tlie Provision of Meals Act was under consideration, there were in London alone no less than 158 voluntary organizations for school feeding and a total of 360 in England. For the most part these societies were conducted by teachers in the different schools with little attempt at central organization and no aim beyond the immediate relief of acute distress. The Provision of Meals Act, passed in 1906, gave the local educational authorities permission to install school restaurants as part of the regular school equipment. This resulted in the rapid development of a system similar to the French cantines, which by March, 1909, has extended to over one hundred towns and cities. Wide Extent.
From these early beginnings in Germany, France and England and with the various objects of charitable relief, promoting hygiene, and encouraging school attendance, the work of school feeding has spread until now, grown beyond a local issue, it has received national recognition and been made the subject of national legislation in France, Bavaria, Denmark, Switzerland, Holland, and Great Britain. It is national in scope with support by the municipalities in Germany, Italy, Sweden, Norway, Austria, and Belgium. It has been started in Spain, Russia, and the United States.
Prominence of Movement.
The movement for school feeding is by no means an obscure one, and during the past two decades has been the subject of serious and extensive investigation in most of the countries mentioned. In England, the Provision of Meals Act came as the crystallization of public opinion that had been shaping for forty years and had been tremendously stimulated for four years by the activities of four Parliamentary Commissions appointed to investigate the physical condition of the people. The lioyal Commission on Physical Training in 1903 declared that malnutrition and not lack of gymnastics was responsible for the low physical standard obtaining throughout the nation, and suggested school meals as a necessary accompaniment to any possible scheme of physical training in the schools. The Committee on Physical Deterioration in 1904 corroborated the findings and suggestions of the earlier commission. During the next two years two national bodies, the Interdepartmental Committee on Medical Inspection and the Feeding of Children Attending the Public Elementary Schools, and the Select Committee on the Provision of Meals Bill, made specific inquiries into the subject of school feeding. In reports as ponder32 THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CLINIC. cms as their names, these two committees declared that voluntary effort could not meet the need, and that this might only be dons by the school authorities. In London alone, by March, 1910, no fewer than 55,552 children were eating daily at the 842 meal centres.
In Germany the problem has been given wide publicity ever since 1890, when a national congress of vacation colonists was held and it was agreed that if the children were to receive permanent, benefit from their country outings, they must be assured good food all the year round. In 1897 the Social Democrats introduced a bill in the Reichstag providing for school feeding in cities, but this was defeated on the grounds that such a measure would increase the migration of jieople to the large cities. However, since England has passed her act, the subject has been exhaustively studied in Germany and there is now serious and widespread agitation for compulsory national legislation.
Beginnings in America.
The movement for school feeding is very young in America, if we except purely charitable work like that of the Children’s Aid Society, which in 1855 began to furnish free lunches to the children of the industrial schools of jSTew York City. Almost from the beginning of his superintendency of the New York schools, Dr William II. Maxweill has urged the installation of lunches in the elementary schools where all who wish might buy at cost a warm nourishing meal at noon. In 1908 permission was given to a committee of social workers, physicians and teachers to try the experiment of serving three cent lunches in two of the New York schools. After two full years of trial, it was found that the meals might be made self-supporting to the extent of having food and service covered by the three cents, and the board of education agreed to allow similar luncheons to be established in any other of the city schools. At present the committee is serving luncheons in seven schools. The Starr Centre Association started penny lunches in two Philadelphia schools over fifteen years ago; a work that has continued and grown with the co-operation of other societies until at present there are nine schools with some form of school lunch, attended on the average by 40 per cent of the school enrolment. After two years of agitation and investigation, the Board of Education in Chicago, in the fall of 1910, appropriated twelve hundred dollars for the experiment of installing lunches in six city schools. The experiment was a success and the work has continued. In twenty-seven other cities in ten different states women’s clubs, teachers and medical inspectors have organized to introduce lunches; in the elementary schools and in about thirty other places they are under consideration. This work is not limited to the large cities nor to any section of the country. It is found in cities as diverse in size and locality as New York and Eau Claire, Wisconsin; Boston and Memphis; Chicago and Houston. A beginning of lunches in the rural schools is reported from Minnesota, but no statistics 011 this are at hand. The national character of the interest roused in the problem is indicated by the fact that the United States Bureau of Education published a bulletin in 1909 on “The Daily Meals of School Children,” and that Commissioner Claxton has under way an investigation of the cost, administration and efficiency of the service where it has been developed.
Such in brief is the general history of the School Feeding Movement. Begun over a century ago, it has in the last twenty years attained such momentum that it is now in the forefront of social and educational activity in Europe and is attracting increasing attention in our own cities. In vcstigation of Underfeeding among American School Children. In this country, as elsewhere, there have been two main channels of interest leading to the introduction of the lunches. On the one hand, workers seeking to extend the influence of the schools have seen in the noon hour an unrivalled opportunity for reaching the whole child at the most vivid point in his consciousness: the food interest. On the other hand are persons with sympathies, poignantly awakened by accounts of children forced to attend school with bodies and brain weak and without energy from malnutrition and underfeeding, who see in school meals a partial remedy for this unquestioned evil. Because the latter interest is the most widespread and most debated, it seems well to marshall the results of the more notable investigations in this subject, with no further comment than to disclaim any attempt at conclusive statistical deductions other than the most general estimate of the extent of the condition.
The Number of Underfed Children.
General public interest in school feeding began with the publication in 1904 of Robert Hunter’s book, “Poverty”. I11 trying to give some estimate of the amount of suffering that must exist as a result of poverty Hunter made the statement that there must be “very likely sixty or seventy thousand children in New York City alone who often arrive at school hungry and unfitted to do well the work assigned to them.”1 This statement has received more publicity than any other one sentence in the whole book, and it was all too often translated by the newspapers into “70,000 starving children in New York City come breakfastless to school.” As a result many so called investigations were made and most conflicting reports published which alternately refuted, corroborated and outdid Hunter’s original statement. Shortly after the publication of this book, John Spargo undertook to find out by personal investigation the real facts about underfed children in New York City.2 He first confined his attention to the subject of the usual breakfasts eaten by school children. He was able with the cordial co-operation of principals and teachers to gather fairly reliable information in regard to the breakfasts of 12,800 children, in sixteen different schools.
The method used was as follows. Each child was questioned privately by the class teacher, as to what he had for breakfast that day. If he reported no breakfast, the fact was noted, and also if he reported an inadequate breakfast. For this investigation, an inadequate breakfast was defined as one not containing any of the following articles: milk, eggs, meat, fish, cereal, butter, jam or fruit; it further meant one consisting of coffee or tea, either alone, or with bread or cake or crackers. Each teacher reported to the principal the number of children with no breakfast, and those with inadequate breakfasts, omitting so far as possible children of fairly good circumstances whose lack of breakfast was accidental or unusual.
The inquiry revealed the following facts: of 12,800 children, 987 or nearly 8 per cent had no breakfast; 1963 others, or over 15 per cent had inadequate breakfasts. This made a total of 23 per cent of all the children in those schools who were badly fed, so far as this might be indicated by breakfast alone. Mr. Spargo then tried to find out what sort of lunches the children had. He was assured by teachers and principals and by his own observation that many children did not go home at noon, but remained playing about the school yard, with no lunch at all. No exact figures were gathered on this point. Erom questioning by the teachers, it was found that anywhere from 10 to 20 per cent of the children were given pennies to buy their own lunches. He watched what they bought and reports this special illustration as a fair example of their choice in winter. Fourteen children, eight boys and six girls, in one delicatessen store, bought, seven of tliem pickles and bread, four of them pickles alone, two of them bologna and rye bread, and one pickled fish and bread. On a.summer day he saw a group of nineteen buy, six of them pickles, two of them pickles and bread, six ice cream, two bananas, and three candy. Mr. Spargo found that another way the lunch pennies go is in gambling, especially among boys.
This investigation was followed by many others, both in New York and in other cities, which may be grouped in two classes; the first being confined, as was Mr. Spargo’s, to a study of the kind of breakfasts and lunches eaten by the children, and the second a survey of the children’s nutrition, made by physicians. The following is an account of various other inquiries into the subject of the breakfast of school children: In 1906 Dr Lechstecker, acting for the New York State Board of Charities, examined 10,707 children in the twelve industrial schools of the Children’s Aid Society. ITe found that of these, 439 had had no breakfast on the day of inquiry and 998 others had had breakfasts of coffee alone or with bread. These children, who formed 13 per cent of all examined, showed marked anemia. Dr Lechstecker declared that ho found that only 18 per cent of all children had started the day with what he considered suitable and adequate meals.
In a similar examination made in 1905 in Chicago of 5150 children in five schools, 1586 or 31 per cent reported an entirely inadequate breakfast or none at all. In Buffalo, of 7500 children in eight schools, 5105 reported a breakfast of tea or coffee and bread. The principals in these schools asserted that there were 1150 or 15 per cent of all examined who were obviously handicapped by poor nutrition. In Philadelphia 4589 children Avere examined and 189 reported no breakfast, and 2564 tea or coffee and bread, making a total of 59 per cent coming to school inadequately fed.3 Beginning with the year 1906, medical inspectors in New York public elementary schools, have recorded cases of malnutrition. During these five years from 1906-1910 inclusive, in a total number of 860,728 examinations the average percentage of cases found was five. This means that in the proportion of one in twenty cases examined, the condition of malnutrition was so marked that it was entered on the official records as one of the physical defects of the child.4
3 The Hunger rrohlem in tho Public Schools?What the canvass of six his cities reveals?Special correspondence in tho Philadelphia North American, May 31, 1905. * Reports of the New York Superintendent of Schools, years 1906 through 1910. In 1907 the ISTew York Committee on the Physical Welfare of School Children found oil examination of 1400 typical New York school children that 145 or 10 per cent showed marked symptoms of malnutrition, and visits to the homes showed that the daily food of many others was unsatisfactory. A few months after the first examination 900 of these children were re-examined more carefully and of those 128 or 13 per cent were declared to ho suffering from malnutrition.5 In 1909 Dr E. Mather Sill, at his clinic on the lower east side of the city, made a very careful medical examination of 1000 children whose ages ranged from six years to twelve years and found 400 children who were badly undernourished.0’ Finally, in the early part of 1910, the School Lunch Committee made a special examination of 2150 children in the lower grades of two ISTew York schools, and found 283 of these or 13 per cent were marked cases of malnutrition. These children weighed on the average nine pounds less than the normal for their ages.
In Chicago in 1908, of 10,090 children in twelve schools, 825 children were found by medical inspectors to be suffering seriously from malnutrition, due to deficient food. In addition, 353 others were found who were undernourished, but for whose conditions other causes than inadequate food might be responsible. This means that a total of 1178 or 12 per cent of those examined were badly nourished.
One striking fact shown by the Chicago investigation was that the number of acutely undernourished children decreased in the higher grades. An analysis of the distribution of the 1178 children in flic different grades follows:7 Underfed Grade Number Per Cent Kindergarten 70 15.5 First grade 502 14 Second ” 235 11 Third ” 195 10 Fourth ” 91 9 Fifth and above 85 0 Total 1178 12 c The Physical Welfare of School Children, Quarterly publication of American Statistical Association. Boston, 1007. 0 Sill, E. Mather, M.D. A Study of Malnutrition in the School Child. Journal of the American Medical Association, Vol. LII, No 25 p 1081 7 Reports on Underfed Children. Reprinted ‘from ‘Minutes of the Hoard of Education of the City of Chicago, October 21, 1008.
In Philadelphia, in 1909-10, a special investigation of 500 children in one school in a poor district, including a medical examination and a visit to the home of each child, revealed serious underfeeding in 119 cases, forming 24 per cent of the whole. In Boston, the routine medical inspection of all children in 1909 revealed between 5000 and G000 cases of underfeeding and anemia,, among a total of 80,000 children.
In St. Paul, in 1910, Dr Meyerding, head of the Medical Inspection, made a special examination of 3200 children in schools frankly chosen from the poorer district. lie found that 644 or 20 per cent of the whole showed marked underfeeding.
In Rochester, in 1910, Dr Franklin Bock examined 15,157 children. Of these he designated 752 or 5 per cent as showing evident lack of nutrition, and 1285 as anemic.
As a general conclusion from these investigations it seems fair to place the probable number of seriously underfed school children in New York and other American cities where official inquiries have placed it in European cities,?at 10 per cent of the school population. This number doubtless includes many who might be able to pay for an adequate lunch at noon, if the opportunity were provided. Poverty, Ignorance and Malnutrition.
No one doubts that there is a close relationship between poverty and underfeeding?the terms are practically synonymous. Many persons, however, insist that the immediate cause of most of the underfeeding among the school children in American cities is not poverty but. ignorance?that if the majority of incomes, slender as these are, were expended wisely, the children might be properly fed.
Light on the general problem of the relation of income to nutrition was thrown by Dr Cliapin’s study of the Standard of Living among Workingmen’s Families in New York City.8 His investigation involved keeping a detailed account during one week of the actual expenditures for and consumption of food in one hundred typical families of a dozen nationalities. So far as possible “normal” families consisting of a father, mother and three children were chosen. The material gathered in this investigation was submitted to dietetic experts, who estimated the actual food value consumed each day per family, and by each member of the family. These results were compared with the American standard ration of persons of different ages as computed by Atwater. In 8 Cliapin, Robert Cort. The Standard of Living among Workingmen’s Families in New York City. New York, 1907. Pp. 123-101.
this computation the unit taken is the daily food need of the father of the family, a man at moderately active muscular work. The needs of the women and children are then calculated in progressive fractions of this unit, varying from three-tenths for the child under two to eight- and nine-tenths for the women and adolescents in the family.9
When the expenditure for food was compared with the actual amount of food purchased, it was discovered that in general the families that spent on food less than 22 cents per man per day, were underfed, that is they were unable to buy enough to support life on a plane of physical efficiency.
The yearly expenditure for food in each of the 391 families was then determined, and it was found that applying the minimum standard of 22 cents per man per day, the families might be grouped as follows, according to the income and the percentage of necessary underfeeding, as estimated by the amount spent on food: Annual Total No. Underfed Families Income of Families Number Per Cent $400- 599 25 19 70 600- 799 151 48 32 800- 899 73 10 22 900-1099 94 8 9 1100 and over 4S 0 0 Totals 391 91 23.2
The figures in this table indicate that with less than $G00 a year to spend, an adequate food supply is not provided in three families out of four. On incomes from $G00 to $800, one family in three is underfed, while less than one-tenth of the families having $900 to $1000 to spend fall short of the minimum allowance for food. The income of $1100 for a family of five is apparently a safeguard against underfeeding. Incomes of Families of Underfed School Children The study made by Dr Chapin was not directly concerned with the problem of underfed school children. So far as specific investigations have been made of the family incomes of underfed school children Cliapin’s findings have been corroborated. The most careful study of the kind yet made was that conducted by the l^ew York School Lunch Committee in 1909, This study covered 2G2 cases of undernourished children. Records were made of all 9 United States Department S. Agricultural Farmers’ Bulletin, No. 142, p. 3:5. the details in their liome life which might bear on their condition. Some of the results were as follows:
Of the families of 10G children, it was found that in G9 per cent of the cases the yearly income fell below $825. The families were grouped according to incomes as follows:
Annual Income Number Per Cent $825 and over 33 31 500-800 38 3G 400-500 11 10 Less than $400 24 23 Totals 10G 100 Home Feeding.
A study of the food given to these 2G2 undernourished children at home showed that 93 per cent had tea or coffee every day and of these nearly 40 per cent had it twice a day.
Given a breakfast of tea or coffee and bread, a great many of these children had to wait till night time for a real meal. In nearly 10 per cent of the cases the mother worked away from home all day and could not prepare any lunch at noon. In 23 per cent there was no prepared lunch at home and the children had to get it for themselves. In a still larger number of cases forming 38 per cent of the whole there was no available lunch at home of any kind and if the children did not have pennies they had nothing at noon. This makes a total of G8 per cent for whom there was no regular provision for a noonday meal at home. From accounts given by the mothers, the evening meal was not of such character as to make up for the other poor and irregular meals. Detailed accounts of the actual food eaten at home by 141 children showed that 77 per cent were receiving too little food of any kind, leaving suitability out of the question.
Housing.
But poverty may affect nutrition in other ways besides mechanically limiting the food supply. Poverty means narrow living quarters and even a limit to the supply of air. This was well illustrated during the same investigation, when details were gathered of the housing of 217 families with undernourished children. The following table shows the number of persons to a room No. Per Cent 1 person or less per room 17 8 1-1.5 person ” ” 47 22 1.5-2 persons ” ” 03 2S 2-2.5 ” ” ” 39 18 2.5-3 ” ” ” 38 18 Over 3 ” ” ” 13 0 Total 217 100 In 42 per cent of the families there were more than two persons to every room in the house. This means that the sleeping rooms were even more crowded because the kitchen is included in the number of rooms. In seventeen families there was a room for each member of the family. The number of rooms taken by itself is only a rough indication of the actual condition of crowding and bad air, because of the fact that many rooms are windowless. Further, in the old style “railroad” flat, which still outnumbers any other type in New York, the “rooms” are simply vaguely defined sections in a long corridor.
Similar investigations into the social and economic factors making for underfeeding in New York and other cities have given results like those just outlined. Among the conditions making for underfeeding in school children, especially in large cities, are overcrowding, irregular and bad food habits and actual lack of enough to eat. These are not the only ones, but they are the important ones, and in a majority of cases are directly traceable to poverty.
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY.
Atwood, W. 0., Ph.D. (Special Agent in Charge of Nutrition Investigations, Office of Experiment Station, U. S. Bureau of Agriculture):?Principles of Nutrition and Nutritive Value of Food. Farmers’ Bulletin No. 142 (corrected to April 5, l!)0(i). Washington, Government Printing Offices. (Popular introduction to the study of food values, standards used being based on observation of what people do eat, not ou experimental work.) Bradford Education Committee-.?Report for 1000. Education Office, Manor Bow, Bradford, Eng. (Statistics of school feeding in Bradford, 1008-0. Descriptive account of plant.) Also Recipes, compiled by Marian E. Cuff” (Superintendent of Domestic Subjects) and used in the preparation of the Seventeen Dinners served in the School Dining Rooms. Published at Education Offices, Manor Row, Bradford, Eng., February, 1008. Bryant, Louise Stevens:?School Feeding in Europe. Journal of Home Economics. April, 1010, pp. 140-150. (A summary of the present condition of school feeding in Krance, England, Germany, Italy and other European countries, with description of typical organizations.) Bryant, Louise Stevens:?The Feeding of School Children. The Dietetic and Hygiene Gazette, September, 11)10, Vol. XXVI, No. 9, pp. 527-530. Bkyant, Louise Stevens:?Some Recent Experimental Work in Children’s Food Needs. The Dietetic and Hygiene Gazette, June, 1911. (An account of work on children’s diet analogous to Crittenden’s work on diet of adults. Comparative study of requirements of fifteen standard authorities on children’s diet. Four tables.) Bonnell, Henry H.:?First Annual Report of the School Lunch Committee of the Home and School League. Philadelphia, December, 1911, 19 pp. (Account of Lunches in Philadelphia Schools. Particular reference to experimental work and study of home conditions.) Bougiiton, Alice C.:?Penny Luncheons. Tiie Psychological Clinic, Vol. Ill, No. 8, January 15, 1910. School Luncheons, Journal of Home Economics, Vol. Ill, No. 1, February, 1911. (Plan of lunches under auspices of Home and School League in Philadelphia.) Burniiam, Wm. II. Ford:?Cyclopedia of Education, New York: The Macmillan Co., 1911. Vol. II. pp. 027-030, Food and Feeding. (Section on Nutrition, School lunches in America and England. Bibliography. Feeding. Careful argument for school feeding as part of school life and equipment.) Cornell, Walter S., M.D.:?Health and Medical Inspection of School Children. Philadelphia: F. S. Davis Company, 1912. School feeding, pp. 100114. Chapter on Nutrition, pp. 479-498. Crowley, Ralph E.:?(Medical Dept. of Board of Education, tvreat Britain.) 1. The Hygiene of School Life. London. Metliuen & Co., 30 Essex St. W. C. 1910. (General treatment of nutrition of child, p. 12 fl”. Chapter on the Provision of School Meals. This chapter represents the author’s conclusions in regard to the subject, reached after several years of practical experience in organizing meals in Bradford.) 2. Report by the Medical Superintendent (in conjunction with Superintendent of Domestic Subjects, Marian E. Cuff) on a Course of Meals given to Necessitous Children from April to July, 1907. l’ub. by City of Bradford Education Committee, Bradford, Eng., and September, 1907. (Out of print.) (This is an account of an experiment to determine the efTect of food alone on the health and growth of school children. It is notable in being the first experiment where propsr precautions were taken to isolate the factor of food, and to have control records kept. The original report is out of print, but a summary of its conclusions and the chart in the original are given in Progress, April, 1908. See also in this Bibliography articles by L. S. Bryant.) CnAriN, Robert Coit:?The Standard of Living among Workingmen’s Families in New York City. Pub. by the Russell Sage Foundation. New York: Charities Publication Committee, 1909. (The factor of food is treated prominently. Estimates are given of the percentage of “underfed families” in New York City, grouped according to income. Underfeeding exists in 70 per csnt of the cases where the family income lies between $400 and $000, and is found to lessen as the incomes rise, until only 9 per cent of the families receiving $900?$1000 a year are underfed, and disappears with the income of $1100 and over.) Frere, Margaret (Member of of the Education Committee, London County Council) :?Children’s Care Committees. London: P. S. King & Son, Great Smith Street, Westminster, 1909, 80 pp., Is. net. (Unofficial handbook for members of “care committee having charge of social and charitable work in schools.” Ch. II on “How to Feed Necessitous School Children.” Appendix giving typical menus.) Gorst. Sir John Eldon:?The Children of the Nation: How their Health and Vigour should be promoted by the State. London: Metliuen & Co., 1907, 207 pp. Gastpar, Dr (of Stuttgart) :?Die Beurteilung dcs Erniilirungszugtandes der Scliulkinder. Zeit. Scliulges., XXI, Jahr., 1908, pp. 689-702. (The correlation of thirteen diseases found in 8000 school children with their nutritional condition. Four times as many cases of disease arc found among the badly nourished as among the well nourished. Six tables. Practical method of classifying nutrition. A remarkable, and highly significant piece of work, and the first of its kind.) Great Britain, Parliamentary Reports. (These all to be obtained from Wyman & Sons, Fetter Lane, E. C., or Eyre and Spottiswoode, East Harding Street, Elect Street, E. C.) (Reports of work of the Official Commission leading to the passage of the “Provision of Meals Act,” and dealing with its subsequent carrying out.) 1903 (Cd. 1507) :?Report of the Royal Commission of Physical Training (Scotland). 1904 (Cd. 2175) :?Report of the Inter-Departmental Committee on Physical Deterioration. 190G (288) :?Special Report and Report from the Select Committee on the Education (Provision of Meals) Bill, 1900; and the Education (Provision of Meals) (Scotland) Bill, 1900; together with the Proceedings of the Committee, Minutes of Evidence, and Appendix. (Methods and administration in England, particularly in voluntary systems of feeding, reported on by 28 witnesses, all with practical experience. Valuable and suggestive for practical workers.) 1907 (Cd. 3037), Mackenzie, W. Leslie, M.D.:? Report on a collection of statistics as to the Physical Condition of Children attending the Public Schools of the School Board for Glasgow. (Most extensive investigation of the kind ever made, including 72,800 cases. The heights and weights of the children classified according to housing and nutrition.) 1910 (Cd. 5131):?Report of the Working of the Education (Provision of Meals) Act, 1900, up to the 31st of March, 1909. (Includes a classified report of information received from over one hundred towns having adopted the act. Administrative, financial and educational issues.) Hunt, Caroline L.:?The Daily Meals of School Children. Washington, Government Printing Office, 1909. (Main emphasis on food values and dietaries for children. Bibliography and index.) Hutchinson, Robert:?Food and the Principles of Dietetics. London, Arnold, 1906. (G’eneral textbook on nutrition. Not written especially for the trained reader. Considerable matter on children’s diets.) Kaup, Dr Med. I.:?Die Ernahrungsverhiiltnisse der Volksschulkinder. (Vorbericlit und Verhandlungen der 3. Konferenz der Zentralstello fur Volkswolilfalirt. 1909. Darmstadt.) Berlin: Carl Heymanns Verlag, 1909, 170 pp., 22 tables. (Ibis is an account of the most extensive investigation of school feeding that has ever been made in any country. Tt covers the reports of school feeding organization in all towns of 10,000 and over in the German Empire (these are analyzed and the results tabulated); an account of the daily food of about 500.000 school children; the report of a special examination of the nutritional conditions of 170.000 children. The causes and effects of malnutrition are discussed at length. Plans and outlines for future work; the correlated social reforms, etc., arc given. Critical analysis of the food values in the meals of some 25 towns.) Kittridge, Mabel H.: Experiments with School Lunches in New York City. Journal of Home Economics, April, 1910. Lancet Reports: Hie Free Feeding of School Children. A reprint of the reports by the Special Sanitary Commissioner of The Lancet on the action taken by the municipalities with regard to the provision of meals for the children attending the elementary schools of Paris, Brussels, Milan, THE SCHOOL FEEDING MOVEMENT. 43 Vercelli, San Remo, Mentone, Nice, Cannes, Toulon, and Marseilles. Sec: ond edition, 1907. The Offices of the Lancet, 423, 424, Strand, London, W. 0. (Tiiose interested in the important questions of the popular and political reactions to the introduction of meals into the schools will find these reports most valuable. The political and financial dangers and complications as well as their final solution are given in detail for each place.) Mayer, M. J.?Vital Question of School Lunches, III, Rev. of Rev., 43, 455-9, April, 1911. (See also Edit.) Pa. Sell. Jour., December, 1911, ?. 261. Organisation des Cantines Scholaires S, Paris. A report in manuscript manifold issued by Direction de l’Enseignement primaire, 3me Bureau. Prefecture du departement de la Seine. (An account of the origin and history of the cantines in Paris from 1879 to 1903, with a detailed description of their conduct in the 18th district, regarded as the model in this respect.) Simon, Helene:?Schule und Brot. 1908, Leipzig, Leopold Yoss. 1st edition, 1907, 112 pp. (General treatment of the whole problem from the social, economic and legal points of view. Propagandist rather than statistical. Historical and descriptive account of English, French and G’erman systems to date.) Simon, Helene:?Die Schulspeisung. 1909, Leipzig. (Oct.) Duncker und Ilumblot. 93 pp. Appendices. (General treatment of whole subject, taking into account the latest German reports. (See Kaup.) Social, economic and legal aspects and implications. Other countries.) Simon, Helene:?Schulspeisung. 1911. Enzyklop. Handbucli des Kinderschutzes usw. Englemann, Leipzig. II, pp. 206-213. (Material of Die Schulspeisung, 1909, condensed for an encyclopedia and brought up to date with bibliography.) Tokrey, Emmeline E.:?Penny Lunch Movement (Illustrated). Good Housekeeping, Vol. 52, pp. 242-4. February, 1911. (Describes lunches in Boston Schools.)
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