FOOD SERVICE IN RURAL SCHOOLS 61 



separate accounts kept. The money from sales of food is turned into the 

 general home economics fund and in some schools tihe teacher is una'ble to 

 tell whether the lunch service is run at profit or at loss. In the larger 

 sdhools, separate accounts are kept for the lunch room, but no distinction is 

 made between the service for high school pupils and that for tlie elementary 

 grades. Although the two sets of pupils usually eat at different hours, there 

 was only one lunch service seen (page 66) where any difference was made 

 in the type of food served. 



When a woman is employed especially to manage tihe food service, she may 

 be ebcpected (1) to charge just enough to cover the cost of food, her salary 

 and other overhead being paid by the school conunittee; or (2) to make suf- 

 ficient profit to pay her own wages as well as meet the cost of food supplies. 

 No school was found in which the selling price of food was expected to be 

 high enough to make a profit out of which to buy permanent equipment or 

 to pay for fuel; not even when Hhe lunch room service was run as an un- 

 supervised concession. The school committee may legally spend funds for 

 permanent equipment such as stoves, dishes, tables, and for most of the larger 

 lunch services these supplies had originally been purchased from school funds. 

 The larger schools lliave been more fortunate in securing equipment than 

 have the isolated, stnall buUdings. 



An idea of the foods served, the mefliods of financing, and the equipment 

 in different types of school can be given most \'ividly through description of 

 existing services. Many of the better features of these could advantageously 

 be adapted to the needs of the 567 buildings now without food service of 

 any kind. 



Types of service 



1. The one-room school. Schoolhouse A is a one-room, one-teacher build*- 

 ing, with 20 pupils in eight grades. It is located in the country and is with- 

 out conveniences of any sort. As there is no running water in the building, 

 paCs are used for the water supply, the ehildren filling them at the well of 

 a nearby house. The one stove is flat-topped and therefore can be used for 

 simple cooking. At the beginning of the school year each pupil brought from 

 home a large cup or mug and a spoon, and these are kept in a cupboard im- 

 provised from a packing box. The equipment for cooking — two large sauce 

 pans, a pail, a couple of big spoons, a paring knife, and some half-worn towels 

 — was contributed by the parents of the pupils from their household supplies. 



The pupils, acting on the suggestion and with the supervision of the teach- 

 er, divided themselves into four committees of five, each group having both 

 older and younger children. These committees, in turn, plan one hot dish for 

 each day of one week. During the first of the year, the teacher furnis'hed 

 most of the ideas and recipes and gave the work considerable attention, but 

 after a few weeks the children were able to assume most of the responsibility. 

 The committees meet at the afternoon recess to do the planning. When it is 

 a committee's week for the food service, the members devote to the work of 

 food preparation ten minutes before school opens plus the first twenty 

 minutes of the morning session; and at the noon hour help the teacfher serVe 

 whatever has been prepared. Almost all food supplies are contributed by the 

 pupils. Every committee assigns, for each day of its week, the food to be 



