The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1909-05-13
roop FoR SCHOOL CHILDREN.


GOOD FOR SCHOOL CHILDREN.
There is n form of paternalism
which will be heartily commended when
its nature is fully explained. Two or
three times during recent years the peo-
pie of the United States have been
startled by the information that thou
sands Of children were sent to school in
some of the larger cities upOn empty
stomachs, and that their minds could
not be built up While their bodies lacked
n-ourishment. Various plans were put
into operation and the hard conditions
ameliorated to some extent in the cities
named.
But It Is not in panic years alone that
the school children suffer from lack of
proper food. The o we have always
with US, and it viii continue 20 be so
until the end of time. The children,
through no fault Of their own, lack
things to eat as well as things to wear.
That something should be done is uni
versally conceded. and the publication
by the United States bureau of educa-
ton of a monograph upon The Daily
Meals Of School Children" by Caroline
L. Hunt. supplies the necessary infor-
nation as to what is needed and how
it could be supplied at a minimum of
cost.
Miss Hunt has gathered material for
a good-sized volume. giving the results
attained by eachers in various public
schools and other educational institu-
lions, and Of her work the commissioner
of education, Elmer Ellsworth Brown,
says: p
This monograph is not to be regard
ed as a special plea for the feeding of
school children at public expense nor
for any other special project or reform.
II may be expected to contribute to an
intelligent discussion of such plans, and
il is TO be hoped that it viii further any
good measures which may be projected
for dealing in an educational as well as
an eleemoosynary way with such actual
need as may be brought tosHght among
the children in our public schools. On
the other hand there are undoubtedly
many children coming 20 school from
well-to-do homes who suffer from un
wise practices touching their daily food
1t is believed that the suggestions of.
fered in this publication will be vel
coined in many such homes, and if ap.
piled with common sense, will work t
I fha adv-unH1D o. % Al. 1AT1I~a- --t- -
daily sent from those homes to publ,
or private schools"
The various examples given by Mis-,
Hunt of course cannot be fully treated
here, but it Is interesting to note tina.
the same subject has been discussed il
other countries. notably France anC
Germany. and that plans have beef
worked out in Paris and other cont
mental cities. Indeed. the French cap
ital has had a school canteen in opera
ton for thirty years, which is said t
3 excel all the other school kitchens Il
the quality of food sold for a givel
-, price, and many other important par
, ticulars. chief among which being tn
humane plan by which the feelings o
the children receiving free meals ar
, spared. In the Paris school eonteens
, the cost OF a meal consisting of a bow
! lof good soup. a plate of meat, two kind
t, of vegetables. and bread nbitum, is
centimes, equivalent to 8 cents in thi
! country. Small tickets for the meal
are issued, each child going through
9 little box Office which only permits @
one being in at a time If a little DO
. or girl claims to be too poor to pay 70
4. a meal ticket, no questions are asked
n the ticket is issued, the child's nam
and address noted. BY next day, or a
! most in two days, inquiries have bee
made. If it is found that the parent
= can afford it. they are compelled to pa
the full price and 10 refund whateve
sum may be due to the canteen for tn
meals their child has had. If they al
found to be really too poor to pa,
tickets are issued to the child for a
T. long as 1t may be necessary. In sue
eases the account is not charge
against the parents.
l. The municipality Of Paris appropr
K ates about $500, 900 yearly for the pul
t pose Of the schools conteens. and it
t said that they are maintained as
matter of educational policy rather tina
It as a Measure OF relief. and are patror
lied by the children of the well-to-C
n as well as the offspring Of the poor,
le classes.
In most parts of the United Stat,
r existing conditions do not justify Il
u application OF the Paris plan. but Il
lie population Of the great cities is col
stantly increasing and the time is n
d far distant when this subject will ha7
le TO be discussed and relief given,