FOOD SERVICE IN MASSACHUSETTS RURAL 

 ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS 



By Esther Davies^ 

 In Charge of Home Economics Research 



The Scope of the Study 



The 236 towns of less than 5,000 population which make up rural Massa- 

 chusetts have over 66,000 children enrolled in their elementary schools. With 

 10 per cent of the total state population, these towns have 11 per cent of the 

 elementary school enrollment. In every 1,000 inhabitants there are 164 grade 

 school pupils. 



During the years 1927-1928 and 1928-1929 members of the staff of the De- 

 partment of Home Economics Research visited the schools of 155 of these 

 towns, to study the arrangements for food service and their relation to the 

 health of the pupils; for it was believed that conditions would differ radicaUy 

 from those which had previously been found to exist in city school systems, 

 and that the problems of food service in the rural schools might be more dif- 

 ficult than those of the larger communities. Through correspondence with the 

 school superintendents, enough information was obtained for 67 more towns 

 to warrant their inclusion in this study; giving a total of 222 towns, with an 

 elementary school enrollment of 57,600 pupils, as the basis of this report. 

 The geographic distribution of the towns is shown by the accompanying map. 

 (A New England town, it should be remembered, is comparable to what else- 

 where in the United States is called a township.) 



The scattering of the rural school children in a large number of small and 

 frequently isolated buildings greatly increases the per capita cost of provid- 

 ing adequate equipment for lunch rooms or any other type of food service; 

 and the largest consolidated school in any of these towns is a comparatively 

 small unit. In a discussion of the defects in the practices of the rural schools 

 it should always be borne in mind that the burden of financing the school 

 system is proportionately heavier in the country than in the more populous 

 centers, and they must be criticized from the point of view of what improve- 

 ments might be made without appreciable added expense rather than by com- 

 parison with an ideal based on a large budget allowance. 



The 57,600 pupils of the 222 rural Massachusetts towns are housed in 800 

 school buildings, of which 370 (46 per cent) are one-room, one-teacher build- 

 ings; 208 (26 per cent) have two or three rooms; and the remaining 222 (28 

 per cent), four or more rooms. It is evident that, in spite of Massachusetts' 

 history as the first state in the Union to establish a consolidated school, the 

 one-teacher building, with from four to eight grades, is still frequently found 

 in the Commonwealth. However, what may be termed partial consolidation 

 has taken place to a great extent. Instead of six or eight or ten one-room 

 buildings per town there are now likely to be one or two larger schoolhouses, 

 with only a few of the one-room type left. In 28 of the 222 towns complete 

 consolidation has taken place, so that all the elementary school pupils attend 



^ The author wishes to acknowledge the help of Cornelia B. Church, Laboratory 

 Assistant in Home Economics Research, by whom part of the field work of the study 

 was done. 



