64 MASS. EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN 263 



This school is one of the few having a mid-morning milii service, and milk 

 is also always available at noon. On the day of the visit, the hot disih was 

 spaghetti and tomatoes. The pupils pay for the food each day: 10 cents 

 without milk and 13 cents with milk. Charge accounts are discouraged, al- 

 though sometimes permitted. Generally each child has the money ready when 

 he comes for his hot food. The pupils also bring lunch boxes, for there is 

 neither time nor space to permit expansion into meal service. Nearly all the 

 pupils who stay at noon patronize the service regularly. 



Here, except for the help the two older girls give, all responsibility is 

 shouldered by the primary teacher. She decides what shall be served, does 

 all the marketing, collects the money, and pays the bills. Without her will- 

 ingness thus to increase her work this smoothly-running service would not 

 exist. She told the investigator that she had her reward in the improved 

 dispositions and conduct of the children throughout the afternoon session of 

 school. 



3. Buildmgs of more than one room, with some lunch room, facilities. 

 Schoolhouse E has been chosen as an example of supplementary food service 

 in larger buildings with some lunch room equipment and a special employee 

 to do the work. This building, located in the village, has 220 pupils in eight 

 grades, with seven rooms and seven teachers. From 75 to 80 pupils are 

 furnished transportation and always remain over the noon hour; in the win- 

 ter 10 to 15 more children often stay. 



The food service is sponsored by the school committee, and the wages of 

 the M'oman managing it are paid out of school funds. She is expected to 

 charge enough for the food to cover the full cost of food supplies. Equip- 

 ment and fuel are bought by the school committee. The service is run from 

 November to April. 



The cooking is done in a gloomy corner which has been partitioned off the 

 basement. There is no lunch room and the children eat in the class rooms. 

 The manager puts the individual dishes of food on trays, and two pupils 

 from each room are sent down to carry them up and distribute the food to 

 the pupils who have ordered it. Orders are taken by the teachers and the 

 number reported to the manager at the morning recess, when she comes to 

 the building to begin the work of food preparation. The serving is careless- 

 ly done, and the food is so often spilled that its appearance is very unpleas- 

 ing by the time it reaches the consumer. This, along with the monotonous 

 menu, is probably why only one-half of the children remaining at noon 

 patronize the service. 



There are always three things available and for more than four winters 

 exactly the same three things: milk, sold for three cents a glass (not bottle); 

 cocoa, also three cents; and one brand of canned vegetable soup, at four 

 cents a bowl. In view of the numerous kinds of canned soup on the market, 

 is would seem quite unnecessary never to have any variation in the sort 

 served. A soup as highly flavored as the one selected for this constant use 

 will after a few weeks cease to appeal. The cocoa did not sell very well, and 

 the investigator believed that the diificulty lay to a great extent in the choice 

 of recipe; the product was too strong of cocoa and too sweet. This is a 

 criticism which applies equally well to the cocoa served in a number of other 

 schools in the state. 



