Administration of School Luncheons
- Author:
Alice C. Bougiitojn”,
Philadelphia, Pa.
There are approximately 170,000 children in the primary schools of Philadelphia. Over one-tliird of this number come from homes below the poverty line; one-third more are just above it; the remaining one-third are comfortably situated. The work in school feeding, which has been done here for the past few years under the Home and School League, has been largely among the first two groups of children?those near the poverty line. Despite this fact, the amount spent by each child in the schools where lunches are served, is $1 a year, and this is by 110 means all the money that the child has to spend. It is then a simple matter to calculate that the money spent by the children in the public schools of our city is about $170,000 a year. This is a very large sum of money and worthy of consideration on the part of the Board of Education, as to the possibility of making this expenditure a strong factor in the scheme of public education.
Penny Lunches. There are nine schools where penny lunches are served at the 10:30 recess, The luncheon consists of milk, one hot dish each day (the portion being one-sixtli of a quart), crackers and fresh or cooked fruit. The kindergarten and first grade children do not have recess with the others, but they can buy a graham cracker and a cup of milk for a cent. This luncheon grew out of the demand of the children for something to eat at 10:30 and has been the means, in all the schools where it is served, of driving the push-cart man away from the door. It is very popular and is used by from 40 per cent to 75 per cent of the children in attendance at the school.
Three-cent Dinners. Three of these schools have, in addition to the penny lunch at 10:30, a dinner at noon. The dinner consists of a hot dish,?soup, stew or fish, or a meat substitute,? bread and fruit, or a cooky. The charge is three cents. There is only one hot dish for the day, but the children are told what they are going to have when they buy their tickets in the morning, and the few who do not like the dish for the day are easily satisfied by having, in its place a large bowl of milk, or a cup of cocoa.
Experiment with Five-Cent Dinners. The service so far considered is confined to primary schools. In two grammar schools with enrolments of 800 and 1G00, an experiment is now being conducted to see whether or not the luncheon can be made entirely self-supporting if a charge of five cents is made for practically the same dinner as is served in the elementary school for three cents, the difference being that the older children receive a little larger quantity of the hot dish and a roll instead of the bread. The aim is to make a profit of a cent per meal over the cost of the food. Penny Extras. In connection with both dinners, there is a table arranged like the penny luncheon counter where there are always milk, cocoa, crackers and fruit, and sometimes a simple dessert for one cent, so that the children who have brought their lunch from homo may supplement it by getting something hot, or those children who do not have the necessary three or five cents may get a small amount of nutritious food for a penny at this time.
Number of Children served. In all the schools served there are about G000 children who have the opportunity to buy the lunch or dinner and of that number fully 3000 patronize them daily. So far, the problem of providing food for the children too poor to buy the food has not been satisfactorily solved. Under the system of the Home and School League no child receives a luncheon who does not pay for it and there are some undernourished children in each school who have not even the necessary penny. To find a practical solution of this problem is one of the next steps to be taken.
Equipment and Plant. The equipment is very simple. The serving dishes,?cups, bowls, pitchers, and large trays,?are all of white enamel. White enamel ware is more expensive than agate but well worth the difference in cost. It not only adds greatly to the attractiveness of the food, but .also has a positive educational value through training the children to appreciate and desire neatness and cleanliness about them. Another point not to be overlooked is the effect upon the worker. ? The glistening whiteness of the cups and bowls when kept in good condition well repays her for the labor involved in their thorough washing and daily sterilization. Needless to say the work of the superintendent is hereby lightened. The saleswomen are very human,? they respond to attractive surroundings immediately, nnd the standard of work in a light cheery kitchen is always higher than can be obtained in a dark, airless basement. The small trays for tlic dinner are of black lacquer. The cooking utensils are agate or block tin and consist for the most part of one or more large sized double boilers and a sauce pan in which to cook fruit, in addition to the necessary measuring cups, spoons, etc. Dinner tables are covered with white oilcloth. Tables for cooking and serving purposes can sometimes be found at the schools, but in case they have to be provided they generally consist of adjustable tops and trestles of different heights, according to the size and age of the children. In a school ranging from the kindergarten through the grammar grades the tables are of different sizes and so are the benches which go with them. The four schools where the dinners are served and a couple of the schools having penny lunches alone, have tables and benches. The counter consists of a table top on trestles.
Accommodations. Because the school luncheon is not yet a recognized part of the school, and is not provided for in the architectural plans, accommodations are of necessity makeshifts, though not always unsatisfactory. In one school the cooking is done in the teachers’ dressing roon and the serving in the fire tower; in another the cooking is done in the teachers’ dressing room and the serving in the hall; in another the cooking is’done in the teachers’ dressing room, third floor front and the serving in an unused class room, second floor back. In yet another school the cooking and serving arc both done in an unused second story class room, etc. In one school only is there anything resembling a kitchen. This room is in the basement and the luncheon is served in the play room across the hall. If this good kitchen and the sunny second story class room shown in the picture on page 49 were together, it would be the beginning of an admirable school luncheon plant, but so far accommodations have been remnants of space not needed for any other purpose.
Cost. Supervision, service and equipment are provided by the Committee on school lunches of the Home and School League. The Board of Education gives overhead charges, gas and water. The food must pay for itself.
Supervision. The luncheons are under the supervision of a graduate dietitian who buys the food materials, pmpares dietaries, recipes and menus, visits the schools frequently, and acts as treasurer for the Committee.
Service. There is a woman in charge of the actual work at each school who prepares and serves the food and receives the monev from the children. The money with an itemized weekly account on a regular record card (p. 50), is turned in weekly to the superintendent. A monthly account of the receipts and expenditures for each school is kept by the superintendent. As a reward of merit, some of the older boys and girls are permitted to help in the serving, and for this their meal is given to them. At the penny lunch they help serve and at the dinner they keep the children in line and see that each one takes the necessary tray, napkin, and spoon and turns in his dinner ticket. They also see that 110 child leaves the lunch rooms without putting his soiled dishes and spoons in the pail of water, kept near the door. The dishes soak until the attendant is ready to wash and boil them. Administration. In Philadelphia with its limited number of schools served, a very simple system of administration has worked well, but as the number increases it becomes more and more difficult to maintain in every school a high standard of serving and cooking. No one person can visit the schools as frequently as they should be visited to maintain such a standard. Type of Saleswomen. The saleswomen for the most part are middle aged women who are glad to add to the family income by doing part time work and who would be unable to give a full day. They receive from $5 to $8 a week and are on duty from 8 :30 a. m. until 1 to 4 p. m. according to the needs of the school. They are extremely interested in their work, are fond of the children and do all in their power to make the luncheons a success, but they should not. be called upon to meet emergencies nor decide important questions as they must do if they cannot consult frequently with the superintendent. There are, of course, points in favor of this system. The saleswoman, doing the work in the school each day becomes part of the school and the children come to regard her in very much the same fashion as they regard their teachers and are guided by her judgment in the matter of food. This is particularly important in dealing with foreign children Xo matter how good the equipment or how careful the service, the luncheon will fall flat if the children do not have a friendly attitude toward it and this is especially true when an outside organization attempts to do any kind of work in the public schools. It does not have back of it the moral support of the Board of Public Education.
In Boston for the past fifteen years food has been very successfully distributed from the New England Kitchen to high schools, all over the city. Up to the present in the elementary schools where the movement has been an experiment rather than
EVEN THE LITTLEST CHILDREN CAN SIT DOWN ON THE FLOOR WITHOUT SPILLING A DROP FROM THEIR CUPS. THIS ROOM IS USED ONLY AT LUNCH AND THE FLOOR IS ALWAYS CLEAN. EVEN THE LITTLEST CHILDREN CAN SIT DOWN ON THE FLOOR WITHOUT SPILLING A DROP FROM THEIR CUPS. THIS ROOM IS USED ONLY AT LUNCH AND THE FLOOR IS ALWAYS CLEAN. 50 THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CLINIC.. RECORD KEPT DAILY BY SALESWOMAN AT SCHOOL, SHOWING MENUS, NUMBER OF LUNCHES SERVED, AND RECEIPTS. THE CARD SHOWN IS FOR A GRAMMAR SCHOOL, WITH NO KINDERGARTEN, AND THE DINNERS COST 5 CENTS. Northwest School Saleswoman M.A.B. SCHOOL LUNCHES.
March, 1912 Mon. 25 Tues. i 2G Wed. 27 Thurs. | 28 Fri. 29 Menu for Day Penny lunch:?Milk; cocoa; crackers; fruit. Dinner:?Baked beans; roll Penny lunch:?Milk; cocoa; crackers; fruit. Dinner:?Vegetable soup; roll Penny lunch:?Milk; rice pudding, etc Dinner:?Creamed dried beef on toast; roll Penny lunch:?Milk; cocoa, etc. Dinner:?Corn chowder; roll… Penny lunch:?Milk; cocoa; baked apples, etc. Dinner:?Creamed salmon; roll
Totals. Kindergarten Aids Teachers (10c.) lunch ^ Dinners 10 644 493 535 578 559 50 34 29 41 37 2809 191 Receipts 9.04 6.63 6.90 7.83 7.44 37.84
an accepted institution, little along the line of centralization lias been done. In Europe where elementary school feeding is now accepted and where the boards of education have taken over the work, the luncheon is very generally forwarded to the school from a center. It would seem as if this were the logical line along which to develop. By having a center a standard of cooking and serving can be maintained, for the amount of work done would warrant putting in charge of each center a graduate of domestic science who would control the local situation, supervise the preparation of the food in her center and the serving of the food in her schools. The food cost would be considerably lessened by buying in large quantities and delivering to one place instead of ten or more. Whether the increased service cost would be balanced by the lessened food cost cannot be known until this scheme has been tried.
In Philadelphia the city is divided by the Board of Education into ten districts with a District Superintendent in charge of each. The number of children attending the schools in these districts varies from 14,000 to 20,000. The school districts correspond fairly well with the national localities so that one district includes most of the Italian children, another the bulk of the Jewish children and so on. By having an Italian Center or a Russian Jewish Center, special attention might be given to race tastes and race prejudices, at the same time that the effort is being made to teach the children to use and like the distinctively American foodstuffs and cooking. Each day the movement for school feeding is increasing in power and every superintendent of school luncheons is receiving frequent inquiries from all parts of the country.?inquiries not as to the history or present status of school feeding, but a definite request for detailed information which will throw light on the practical side of the work. It is becoming increasingly difficult to answer these questions because, while considerable work is being done, up to the present there has been no correlation of experiments in different cities, and the only means that new cities have to get this information is by the long and tedious method of writing to every city doing the work and asking for a detailed plan. This is an unnecessarily wearisome method of procedure and it is time to have the heterogeneous mass of material on this subject collected and edited so that the different cities need not repeat each other’s experiments nor duplicate each other’s mistakes.
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