SOCIAL ASPECTS OF NUTRITION 



good foods so scarce that they had to be rationed. That our at^riculture 

 can produce the foods we need if there is an effective detiiand was 

 shown by the fact that, in addition to the greater suppHes available 

 for civilians, huge amounts were allotted to the armed forces and 

 Lend-Lease. 



Having accepted our responsibility as the nation which spon- 

 sored the Hot Springs Conference, the basic problem now is how the food 

 adequate for health can be made available to our low-income families. 

 That it can be done has been shown by war experience. We must 

 leave the method of doing it to our legislators. Once it is done, we 

 can expect the greatest era of national well-being and agricultural 

 prosperity we have ever known. 



The attack on the problem is already under way. During the 

 days of the food "surpluses," one outlet for food was the school lunch 

 room. At that time, this use of the food did not conflict with the usual 

 trade channels and much food was disposed of in this manner. Now, 

 the school lunch program is just beginning to stand on its own feet in 

 the sense that the need for such a program is recognized: it is not being 

 carried out as a means of disposing of food surpluses. Many people 

 are at last seeing the fallacy of providing expensive buildings, equip- 

 ment, instruction, and books to a child with a mind and body retarded 

 by malnutrition. Yet, in many places, the idea still persists that it 

 is no concern of the educational system to make an adequate meal 

 available at the school. In many schools the child does not even have 

 the opportunity to buy an adequate meal, although the modern school 

 is often a long distance from the child's home; there are no feeding 

 facilities whatever. In other schools the lunch room is operated by 

 volunteers or with poorly paid and poorly trained personnel with 

 neither the necessary knowledge nor funds to supply the needed food. 

 Every medical appraisal of groups of school children reveals large 

 numbers with evidence of malnutrition. Children are found arriving 

 at school without breakfast, while many do not have the funds to 

 purchase an adequate lunch. Those who carry lunches from home 

 frequently bring inadequate food for lack of knowledge of nutrition in 

 the home and because of the difficulties of packing and carrying an 

 adequate, appetizing lunch. An obvious step would be a method of 

 supplying an opportunity to obtain an adequate lunch to all school 

 children throughout the country. 



