single company location several "estab- 

 lishments" may be represented. 



Feeding facilities, however, are 

 rarely associated with a specific "estab- 

 lishment". Almost invariably, such facil- 

 ities are made available to all employees 

 at a given location of a company, even 

 though some of these employees may be en- 

 gaged in different activities than others, 

 i.e., may be employed by different "es- 

 tablishments". It was therefore necessary 

 to shift the frame of reference from "es- 

 tablishments" to "plants". A plant is 

 defined as all of the manufacturing activ- 

 ities of a given company at a single well- 

 defined location. (This definition is 

 obviously subject to interpretation. In 

 general, management's interpretation of 

 the scope and size of a plant has been 

 accepted.) 



The number of employees at any spec- 

 cific plant location was obtained from 

 companies originally contacted during the 

 "T" interview and subsequently interviewed 

 in person. An estimate of employment 

 offered by a qualified representative of 

 management at the time of the personal 

 interview was accepted. 



Subsequent Interviews With Feeding and 

 Non-Feeding Plants 



The "T" telephone interview was, as 

 previously noted, primarily designed as 

 a screening interview and its primary 

 objective was to determine the incidence 

 and nature of feeding facilities among 

 869 establishments with which such inter- 

 views were made. 



Subsequent personal interviews with 

 companies with 250 or more employees 

 during the first quarter of 1956 were 

 made with sub-samples of the 809 plants 

 which had 250 or more employees in both 

 1956 and 1953. Four types of interviews 

 were conducted with these establishments: 

 An "A" interview with management of plants 

 with feeding facilities; a "B" interview 

 with the managers of feeding facilities in 

 plants which have such facilities; an "R" 

 schedule which collected information on 

 inventories and purchases of food during a 

 four week period; and a "C" interview with 

 management of plants which did not have 

 feeding facilities. (Complete findings 

 of the "A", "B", and "C" interviews are 



shown in the first publication of the 

 series entitled "In-Plant Feeding Facili- 

 ties". Relevant subjects and passages 

 from this report, however, are included in 

 the "commodity reports".) 



The "A" interviews with plant manage- 

 ment covered a variety of topics. Princi- 

 pal among these were the reasons for es- 

 tablishing feeding facilities for employ- 

 ees, the advantages and disadvantages of 

 maintaining these facilities, and their 

 future plans with respect to feeding 

 facilities. Information was also obtained 

 on the characteristics of the employment 

 and the availability of nearby public 

 eating places, which were considered to 

 be factors possibly related to the estab- 

 lishment of feeding facilities. 



In the "B" questionnaire the primary 

 emphasis was on the actual physical 

 operation of the feeding facilities. 

 Respondents were questioned on the types 

 of facilities operated and the hours at 

 which facilities were open to employees, 

 the types of meals served, the existence 

 of bakery and butcher shop facilities, 

 etc. They were also questioned on their 

 buying practices, their sources of supply, 

 and the terms of purchase used. 



Cf the 3li3 plants without feeding 

 facilities identified during the telephone 

 screening operation, a systematic sample 

 of 85 were selected for more intensive 

 personal interviews. These interviews, 

 designated the "C" questionnaire, had 

 covered substantially the same ground as 

 "A" interviews with management of plants 

 with feeding facilities. That is, these 

 interviews explored the attitude of plant 

 management towards feeding facilities, 

 their previous experience, if any, with 

 feeding facilities and their future plans. 

 In addition, information describing the 

 characteristics of the plant and the avail- 

 ability of nearby public eating places was 

 also explored. 



As to the "R" questionnaires, all of 

 the plants with which both "A" and "B" 

 interviews had been completed (378 plants 

 representing 390 establishments) were re- 

 quested to make available information on 

 their inventories of foods on hand on two 

 dates, approximately h weeks apart, in 

 January to February, 1956 and also on food 

 purchases during this period. In a number 



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