Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-10-13
Armstrong School Pupils Pro-
vide for Midday Repast.
MUCH FOR LITTLE CASH
Dishes and Equipment to Be Bought
With Profits.
MORE FOR MONEY AFTER THAT
Culinary Glass Declares War on
Provender From Little Store
Around the Corner.

War has been declared on dill pickle
sour pickle. cheap candy, boiler plate pie
the "sinker" and several other things
sold in the little stores around schools.
For long time the Western High
School has insured the lives Of student
stomachs by furnishing a school lunch -
The latest recruit in this novel pure food
struggle is the cooking class OF the Arm
strong Manual Training School
The school lunch furnished at 1890
o'clock every school day at the Armstrong
School is unique in that II is altogether
the work of the students. Six girls are
detailed every week to prepare the lunch.
Cooking is done in the room devoted to
study and practice of cookery.
Every girl in the cooking classes of
course has the training and experience
with her small individual menus every
day Preparation Of school lunches.
larger quantities and really practical
work
Two Weeks Of Trial.
Credit for the idea belongs to Dr. Bruce
Evans. superintendent Of the Armstrong
School. and Miss Shaw, assistant director
of cooking.
The first lunch was served about two
weeks ago. The student body Immediate
ly reached at the chance to get really
good food at very small prices. Since
then the success OF the lunch has been
more than assured
There is no attempt to make any
money. Just at present whatever profit is
In the sale of soups sandwiches, pudding,
etc, goes toward paying for thirty
dollar equipment OF dishes and spoons.
About $11 has been made so far So II
is readily seen that the big bowl of soup
that the student restaurauteurs sell for
cents does not net a large percentage of
profit.
When the $50 Is cleared up there will be
bought $50 worth more Of equipment
After the quantities sold for nickel will
be increased.
Have to Buy Provisions.
Not only do the young cooks have ex-
perience in making up menus. preparing
food and cooking it. but they are expected
to keep their eyes upon market condi-
lions and prices. and buy to the best ad-
vantage. This. of course. gives them prac-
tical experience Of kindred sort.
The menus at Armstrong are simple,
but varied enough to bar out that famous
text oft quoted by boarding house vic
Tins, the same today. yesterday and
sandwiches. bread pudding. ginger bread.
pie and cake is fair sample of their
daily spread.
For 8 cents they sell a bowl of
soup, for cents they will sell larger
order. Two sandwiches cost cents. A
large portion Of bread pudding costs
cents.
With the soup comes a paper napkin
and bread and butter sandwich. The
food Is good, too.
Cooked in a classroom kitchen that
would do credit to Spotless Town and
served in shining dishes, the school lunch
is making heavy inroads upon the old
fashioned soggy pie and doubtful dough-
nuts of the push-cart or the dingy corner
store.
DR.. Evans has arranged serving tables
at the Armstrong school, SO that the boys
are separated from the girls Two big
classrooms on the first floor are turned
over to- the boys every noon, and the
desks become temporary lunch tables. The
same space has been given to the girls
on the second floor.
When the Bell Rings!
When the bell rings for recess the girls
in charge of the lunch for the week take
places behind serving tables in. the halls.
Two girls become cashiers. They sell
brass checks, which are exchangeable for
food.
The accounts Of this lunch business
are kept by the students of the business
department of the Armstrong Manual
framing SCQOOl, WHICH Is now HOuScu III
the old Mott school building.
In this way every detail of preparation.
cooking and serving of lunch is looked
after by the students. with the happy
exception of dish washing. The half hour
recess does not allow sufficient time for
that. 1t is loss which none OF the stu
dents deplore.
Dr. Evans is authority for the state
ment that out of the entire army OF
girls that has passed through the domes-
tic science department of the Armstrong
school there have been only three girls
who really liked to wash dishes.
The school lunch had its first beginning
with Mrs. Ellen H. Richards In 1894. in
the high schools of Boston. Since then it
has been adopted in every up-to-date
school system. A booklet on the subject
has been published by the United States
bureau of education.
The push-cart lunch gets a heavy rap in
this booklet, as the paragraph quoted
here will show:
''The principal of the Friends School in
Washington had trouble with push-cart
men. One day a pupil whose father Is
manager of large hotel said In speech
before the school that a push-cart man
had offered to buy all the ice cream left
on the plates in his fathers hotel. This
statement put an end to the push-cart
trouble in that school"