The Helena independent., 1889-12-24
CHARITY THAT PAYS.
Cheap and Nice Restaurants for the
Poor of the Austrian
Capital.
Ten Central Cooking and Eating
Houses in Vienna Run
At a Profit
An Association Under the Patronage Of the
Empress which Does an Immense
Amount of Good.

What Mrs. Frank Snoad described as a
burning need of the working classes in
London, and what has been put into prac-
tioe, as solitary experiment, in Battersea,
has existed in Vienna ON an elaborate scale
for not less than seventeen years, and is
lust now undergoing further expansion,
says the London Standard.
An association, undee the patronage of
the Empress Elizabeth, called Erster
Wiener yolkskuchen-Nerein,o opened in lsI2
A central cooking kitchen for the benefit of
the poorer classes. Ii has now five such
kitchens in different districts of the city.
Several district associations, founded later
ON the same principle, have established ive
more such Kitchens among them one where
food is cooked according to the Jewish rites,
40 that altogether ten cooking kitchens
exist ut the present moment IN TINS capital.
The parent institution only last week trans
ferred its offices and one of its kitchens 10
spacious building of its own. erected at the
cost of 10000 Aorins, while the other kitch-
ems and eating houses are still IN hired
premises.
These kitchens are distinct from the soup
kitchens of which we have many IN Vienna.
As TO these il is unnecessary To say more tuan
that soup, tea, coffee, and bread are served
morning and evening at liked prices. Several
million cups of tea are thus yearly sold, and
the institution, which is worked by the Soup
Kitchen Association, has been self-support-
ing from the beginning.
The Wiener Volkskuchen-Ne Nerein has 373
life members Tor founGersl, who gave 800
forms each; ordinary members subscribe
yearly between one aud five HORNS ttwo to
ten shilIinpsl. The l00O forms sprn. no
the new bnilding ware p ovid9d in comunem-
Grafton Of the emperof's jubilee of forty
years reign. The kitchen appointments nre
provided from the founders donations, and
the association requires no monetary help
to carry il on: indeed, il even makes a small
To- oft, which amounted in the year 1883 to
one thousand eight hundred and twenty
three fiorins (about one hundred and eighty
two poundsl. This surplus will be used this
year in increasing the quantity of meat and
dainties supplied 10 the customers. The
money turned over last year was not less
than four hundred thousand ioriDs forty
thousand pounds, and this sum, as all the
others L shall use, refers only TO the five
kitchens kept by the Erster Wiener Volks-
kuchen- Verein, 10 that the tot Al must be
doubled if applied 10 all the kitchens exist
ing in Vienna.
The association is under the management
u
Meals are served in e.ch Of the kitchens
three times a day-from q to IN the morn
ing, from half past IL till 2 and from till
half past ) in the evening. Tn each oc-
casion two lady members of the committee,
or two members of supporting commit
tee" of young ladies, can be seen in the
kitchen during the whole time it is open.
One of the ladies sells tickets, without which
no customer can be served; while the
other lady superintends the serv-
ing out Of the dishes, correspond
ing to the tickets, by the paid
servants of the association. There are
tickets for one kreuzer (equal to the fifth
part of penny. for which ten decigrams
Of good bread can be bought; there are
tickets for three kreuzers (the price OF
plate of soup, for four kreuzers tthe price
of portion of meat with vegetabes) and
for eight kreuzers (the price of n piece of
"Mehlspelsen"). The greatest sum any
visitor can spend in kitchen at dinner
time is twenty-five kreuzers( four pence
farthing), as the menu for each day con-
sists of soup, meat with vegetables, joints,
and sweets; but il has never occurred that
a customer has required two sorts OF meat,
as the best appetite can be satisfied with
one.
The average cost of dinner at these
Kitchens is eighteen kreuzers (threepence
three farthings), including bread; and the
average cost of supper IL ten kreuzers
(twopence), and for that piece of meat,
with vegetables. left from dinner, can he
had, as of fresh-cooked dishes only vege-
table soup is served in the evening. besides
tea and bread as at breakfast in the morn
ing. What n variety of dishes, however, is
ia the yearly menu of the association!
calendar is published, giving the four dishes
prepared for dinner for each day of the
year. Not less than fifteen kinds Of soup,
sixteen different vegetables. fifteen kinds of
ordinary meet, five of roast meat, two of
fish, six of salads, and twenty mine of
"Mehlspeisen," are mentioned in this list.
as we'll as IN the list of recipes published by
the association for the use of its own cooks
and of those who voluntarily assist in the
cooking in order TO learn the art. The por-
tions are regulated by weight and measure
and care is taken that the food hall be as
savory, palatable, nourishing and whole
some as can be found ON the table of any
middle-class family. There is no broken
meat and no drippings from restaurants or
the houses of the rich as the cooking
Kitchens of the poor can afford TO buy "A
good article in the cheapest market.
Nearly 1900 persons sit down 10 dinner
every day In the five kitchens of the Central
association and 5000 more in the other
kitchens, and nobody is able 10 distinguish |
between the workman who pays for his din |
ner out of his earnings and the poor stu |
dent or needy man, woman or child who |
are given the tickets by tie Vienna Burgo- |
master, the association for the relief of |
students, the society Tor the feeding of |
hungry school children, or by some benevo-
lent private individual. II is becoming the |
fashion in Vienna TO give aims in the form |
Of tickets for the Volkskuchen instead of in
money. Whoever enter one of the kitchens
must be either provided with ticket or
must buy IL, and he can then sit down in a
warm and well ventilated room, at a clean
table, and be treated in a manner that can
give him no feeling Of humiliation. Who
ever likes 10 take home food in his own
vessels can do SO three times day. The
number of kitchens in constantly increas
inc. so TINT the nnnrer districta will snnn