66 MASS. EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN 263 



A little thought as to the order in which the foods were brought to the 

 pupils' notice, some way of making it easier for them to choose hot food or 

 milk, and less stress on the desirability of sweets, would have done much to 

 improve this lunch room. Here it might be wise to have the same rule as 

 that of the lunch room in Schoolhouse G — that no child may buy dessert only. 

 It would also be well to have the desserts themselves more simple and better 

 adapted to the digestive powers of the children. 



All decisions regarding a food service should not be left to the judgment 

 of an employee chosen without reference to her knowledge of nutrition and 

 health, and it is the part of wisdom to make certain that some one directly 

 connected with the educational system — the school nurse or a teacher — gives 

 enough supervision to the lunch room to insure the serviiig of suitable as 

 well as palatable food. 



The lunch room of Schoolhouse G has the best equipment seen in any of 

 the Massachusetts towns of less than 5,000 population. The town in which it 

 is located is conparatively wealthy and has been generous with funds for 

 school purposes. Even in this town, though, there were four buildings with- 

 out any food service. Few of the small towns could be expected to provide 

 equally expensive equipment or as large a space as the one lunch room has, 

 but the scheme which makes this food service worthy of special note is one 

 which could be applied anywhere. 



The cafeteria is in the high school building and serves the pupils of both 

 senior and junior high schools in addition to those in one elementary school 

 situated some three-minutes' walk from the high school. All responsibility 

 for the management rests with the high school home economics teacher. Two 

 regular helpers are employed and some high school pupil labor used during the 

 serving period. Food is sold at prices sufficiently higii to meet all running 

 costs except the time of the teacher. Each pupil pays daily for whatever food 

 he selects, the money being collected as he leaves the serving line. 



High school pupils are all served and out of the lunch room before any of 

 the smaller children come, tlie session schedules having been planned with 

 this in mind. The candy counter. Which the high school students may patron- 

 ize to any extent they can aflford, is closed and the contents locked up before 

 the elementary school pupils arrive. Certain dishes prepared for the older 

 ones are not offered at all to the younger pupils (e. g., salmon wiggle, pie, and 

 cake). All such rich foods are cleared away, completely out of sight, and 

 the elementary school pupils have no opportunity to purchase any of them. 



Approximately 75 pupils come from the grammar school, marching over 

 with their teachers. Milk or soup is served to the small children at the tables, 

 to avoid spilling. The older ones get their food at the cafeteria line. No 

 elementary school child is permitted to buy any dessert whatsoever until he 

 has either milk, cocoa, soup, or hot vegetable, and a sandwich. The desserts 

 offered are almost entirely raw or cooked fruit and plain, hard cookies. On 

 the day of the visit, 50 of the 75 children bought milk, 25 took soup or hot 

 vegetable, and 50 fruit. A few children had sandwiches carried from home; 

 the others bought them, the choice that day being bet-wieen jam and peanut 

 butter. 



The method of restricting the choices of the grade school children is most 

 admirable and is a plan which could both easily and advantageously be ap- 



