MID-MORNING LUNCH IN RURAL SCHOOLS 19 



ANALYSIS OF DATA AND FINDINGS 



Changes in General Nutritional Condition of Children 

 During the Experimental Period 



The number of children who were in excellent, good, fair, poor, or very poor 

 general nutritional condition at the time of the fall examination and again in 

 the winter and at the end of the school year have been ascertained for each 

 school, and the percentage at each nutritional level calculated. The results 

 of this analysis are shown in Table 4 and are given in some detail as they indicate 

 the general condition of the various groups of boys and girls at the beginning of 

 the investigation as well as the comparative changes during the experimental 

 period. 



Nutritional Status of Children at the Beginning of the Study 



The records of 985 children who were examined in the fall and again In the 

 spring were complete enough for the children to be used either as control or as 

 experimental subjects throughout the year. Of this group of almost a thousand 

 children 6 per cent were rated as in excellent condition and 49 per cent as in good 

 general condition, that is, 55 per cent were good healthy youngsters with no 

 serious defects that could be ascribed to nutrition, and a small group were superb 

 specimens; ii per cent were in only fair condition, being obviously more or less 

 below par in general condition or very thin and much underweight; 11 per cent 

 were judged to be in poor condition and certainly needed attention; while 1 per 

 cent were considered very poor, being in most cases not only very evidently 

 poorly fed but also in need of medical care. Much the same story was found 

 when all controls were compared with the whole experimental group, approximately 

 55 per cent in each being rated as e.xcellent or good and 45 per cent as fair to 

 very poor at the beginning of the study. 



On the whole, the relative numbers of children who were in satisfactory or 

 in unsatisfactory condition were comparable in the various schools. It may 

 be noted, however, that there were more children in poor or in very poor condition 

 and at the same time more superior ones in control school D than in the others, 

 while a relatively large group (55 per cent) in school C were in good condition. 

 The group indicated as "other controls" was made up of older children in school A 

 who had offered to serve as controls, together with all those in any of the groups 

 who had consistently refused to take the feedings. It is interesting that this 

 group of "other controls" contained a smaller proportion of children in fair or 

 poor condition than any others and accounts for the larger percentage of children 

 at these levels of nutrition in the two groups receiving evaporated milk and 

 tomato. It was natural that more pressure was used by both parents and teachers 

 to get children who were obviously in poor condition to take the feeding, and that 

 it was more difficult to persuade children who were well fed to take the lunch if it 

 did not appeal to them. It would appear also that more of the children who 

 seemed least in need of the feeding in school A in the first fall were given tomato 

 and more who were underfed were put in the milk group, probably all uncon- 

 sciously. 



The condition of the boys as compared with the girls varied somewhat from 

 school to school. However, when all were considered, the difference between 

 the two sexes was not great, although slightly more (5 per cent) girls than boys 

 were judged excellent, and fewer fair (Table 5). Perhaps the fact that the boys 

 tended to be leaner with less fat padding may account for this. 



