54 MASS. EXPERIMENT STATION BUI>LETIN 263 



one building. On the other hand, 20 towns have no building larger than the 

 one-room, one-teacher schoolhouse. In the remaining 174 towns there is 

 partial consolidation. 



Among all these rural towns, consolidation has progressed to the extent 

 that over 15,000 pupils, or 28 per cent of the total enrollment of the grades, 

 attend schools so far from their homes that the school authorities are by law 

 obliged to provide transportation. In addition to these 15,000 children for 

 whom transportation is furnished (and who, of course, cannot go home at 

 noon), approximately 1,000 cliildren who walk to school in the morning bring 

 their lunches because the distance is too great to permit returning home for 

 lunch. There are, therefore, 16,000 pupils who must remain at the school- 

 houses during the noon recess, and who constitute the problem of noon food 

 service. 



The schools in 109 of the rural towns have no food service whatsoever; in 

 60 towns, some service exists in part of the buildings; while in only 53 towns 

 (including the 28 having one building each) is there service of any kind in 

 every schoolhouse. A fairer and more significant unit for the study of school 

 food services, however, is the building. As said above, in 60 towns the fact 

 that one building makes provision for a food service has not led to the es- 

 tablishment of the service in all the other buildings; and a service in a school 

 at one end of a town is of no benefit to children going to buildings in other 

 sections. The reason for this lack of imiformity in the practice in the various 

 buildings of any one town will be discussed later. 



Taking the building as the unit, it is found that in 567 (71 per cent) of the 

 800 buildings there is no food service of any sort at any time during the 

 school year. Over 6,000 of the children who attend these schools without any 

 food service must remain through the noon hour during all the year, and more 

 stay when the weather is severe. 



The amounts and the kinds of food service in the buildings of the 222 towns 

 are shown in the following tabulation: 



Per cent 



Number of of total 



Type of food service buildings buildings 



None 567 71 



Hot drink or soup, 



during winter only 185 23 



Meal, entire school year 23 3 



Milk only, entire school year - 25 3 



800 100 



In 13 of the 25 buildings having milk service only, it is a mid-morning service; 

 in 12, a noon service. 



There is no uniform relation discoverable between the availability of a serv- 

 ice to the pupils and its popularity. As will be seen in the discussion of the 

 lunch rooms where food is served (page 61), the proportion of pupils tak- 

 ing advantage of the opportunity varies widely; with the attitude of the 

 teachers, the success of the management in serving palatable food at low cost, 

 and the willingness of the parents to provide money, as well as, at times, the 

 proximity of a hot dog stand. In general, in the isolated one-room school the 



