FOOD SERVICE IN RURAL SCHOOLS 63 



hoair. The building has running water, but no spa'ce or equipment for a lunch 

 room. On fhe advice of the school ^urse, the plan in use was worked out, 

 and word sent to all the parents that any food the children brought to school 

 in pint or half-pint covered glass jars would be heated for them; and a 

 suggestive list of suitable foods was added to the mimeographed sheet given 

 eadi pupil to take home. 



Th^ three-burner oil stove, sligilitly battered yet still efficient, was donated 

 by a friend of the school When it was discarded to make room for a new one. 

 The wash boiler was acquired in the same way. To the question of the in- 

 vestigator about finances, the principal of tlie building said that the school 

 committee had voted ten dollars for the purchase of fuel. As is so often the 

 case, the school authorities did not believe there was any advantage in hav- 

 ing hot food except during the winter months, and the service was only from 

 the first of January to the first of April. 



The equipment had been set up in a corridor of the schoolihouse, and the 

 procedure followed was simple. Upon entering the building in the morning, 

 each pupil placed his jar of food on the floor beside the stove. At recess 

 two of the older boys lifted the boiler onto the stove, put a little water into 

 it, adjusted the rack which kept the glass from breaking, and stacked the 

 jars carefully. Later, one of the teachers left her class long enough to light 

 the' stove, and just before noon another teacher or an older pupil turned oflF 

 the fire. At the lunch hour the children fiJed past, selected their own jars, 

 and carried them back to the school rooms, where each pupil ate at his own 

 desk. Spoons and jars were taken home daily, and no dishwashing was done 

 at the school building. 



On one day, a list of "the foods found in the 50 jars heating in the boiler 

 included: lamb stew, clam diowder, tomato soup, beef stew, Indian pudding, 

 vegetable soup, peas, creamed potatoes, cocoa; and two jars of apple sauce 

 for children who liked it hot. 



The plan has the advantages of almost no work for teacher or pupils at the 

 schoolhouse; little or no extra expense to the' families; and chance for con- 

 siderable variety in the hot dish which supplements the rest of the food which 

 the children bring for lunch. It has the disadvantage of requiring the children 

 to transport food and containers and possibly offers less educational op- 

 portunity than a hot dish shared by all alike. It is, nevertheless, tlie simplest 

 solution for the building without facilities for food service. 



A third method of obtaining hot food in buildings with no space or equip- 

 ment is found in Schoolhouse D. This is a four-room, four-teacher building, 

 with 150 pupils in the first six grades. As the building is located at the center 

 of the village where most of the children live, all except a few go home at 

 noon. For the 15 or so who remain, several years ago the teachers began 

 serving one hot dish daily throughout the greater part of the school year. At 

 the beginning, the dishes and all other equipment were loaned by the teachers; 

 later the school committee purchased a supply of disihes and an electric hot 

 plate. The supplies are kept in the primary room, and the food is prepared 

 there each morning between half past eleven and twelve, after the pupils of 

 that room have been dismissed. Two fifth or sibcth gra,de girls are assigned, 

 weekly, to the task of helping the primary teacher get the food ready and 

 to wash the dishes. For this, they receive food free during their week of 

 work. 



