FOOD SERVICE IN RURAL SCHOOLS 59 



Attention may be given to the choice of foods. If there is a food service 

 the teacher is often in a position of authority regarding what is served, 

 especially in the small buildings where the teachers directly supervise or actu- 

 ally do the work. If there is no food service, needed reforms in the contents 

 of the lunch boxes can be brought about gradually. Even the smallest child 

 can be taught a few of the principles of good nutrition; why food is import- 

 ant and why some kinds are particularly valuable for growing boys and girls. 

 It must be remembered that in a great many homes the choice of what goes 

 into the lunch box is left to the child. Even if the lunch is nutritionally very 

 poor, the teacher can control the speed with which it is consumed and also 

 the order in which the foods are eaten, so no youngster bolts cake or pie 

 first and then omits the sandwich. Neither should a pupil be allowed to throw 

 food at his fellows or scatter it promiscuously about the premises, as is now 

 all too often the case. 



The supervision of the lunch hour will insure some deliberation in eating. 

 If all the pupils must remain at least 15 or 20 minutes before they are per- 

 mitted to go onto the playground, the habit of consuming lunch in three or 

 four minutes is broken. The best managed lunch hours seen were those where 

 the children were required to spend a fixed minimum amount of time at 

 lunch. This of itself is conducive to sociability and to learning that a meal 

 eaten with others should have some degree of formality. If the classroom 

 becomes a friendly dining room with the teacher or an older pupil as hos- 

 tess, talking and pleasantness without boisterousness can be encouraged. 

 Through supervision of the lunch hour the children may be taught much about 

 what to eat and how to eat it. There are in rural Massachusetts some schools 

 where it is most successfully done. 



Methods of Food Service in Use 



Man agemen t — p e r^o mne I 



In 176 (80 per cent) of the 220 buildings which have a noon food service of 

 some sort, it is both sponsored and managed by the teachers, with no help 

 except that of their pupils, and many times without any appreciation on the 

 part of school authorities or parents. In 15 buildings, all of which have both 

 elementary and high school pupils, the management of the food service is one 

 of the duties of the high school teacher of home economics. The school com- 

 mittees of nine towns employ a* woman specially to manage the food service 

 and do the work involved. Sometimes her menus are supervised; sometimes 

 not; and the service is for only one building in each of the nine towns. In 

 two buildings (one in each of two towns) the lunch room has been let as a 

 concession, and there is no supervision of the food served. The school nurse 

 of one town sponsors the service in each of three buildings, while the teachers 

 attend to the work. The 4-H club girls in two buildings manage the serving 

 of hot drinks or soup, with the help of the teacher. In the remaining 13 of 

 the 220 buildings with noon food service the work is done by teachers and 

 pupils, while the following organizations help financially: Grange, two build- 

 ings, onei in each of two towns; American Legion, one building; Parent- 

 Teacher Association, seven buildings, two in one town and five in another; 

 Red Cross, one building; Woman's Club, two buildings, one in each of two 

 towns. 



