The Bemidji daily pioneer., 1914-11-27
FEEDING OF $1,000
WARDS DIFF. vt
Board Of Control Confronting ".
No Easy Problem in Providing
Meals for State Institutions.
WOULD PROVIDE SMALL TOWN
Each Hospital, Asylum and Prison
Inmate Given Food Varying in
Character-Cost Totals High.

TO prepare and cook meals three
times a day for approximately 10000
people, to vary the menu so that all
specialize in the case of the sick, is
no ordinary task, yet that is one Of
the details looked after by the state
board of control, through those in
charge of the various institutions.
What the preparation of a days
victuals for state institution means
as we'll as the care that is excerised
in the cooking of the same, is exem-
plified at the state prison, where
nearly 1,4OO persons are fed daily.
Their average daily consumption
of bread is 500 loaves, each loaf
weighing five pounds. This bread
is prepared and baked in. one of the
most up-to-date bakeries in the Unit
ed States, and the -four which enters
into it's composition is laboratory
tested as to gluton quality and puri-
ty. Then follows in order, the meat
for the day, vegetables by the ton,
and soup which runs into hundreds
of gallons. The tea and coffee con-
sumed alone would be sufficient to
satisfy the population of a small
town.
Vary in Character.
Every day in the year the state
board of control has before it the
bills of fare for that day Of every
state institution under it's jurisdic-
tion These are prepared by the in
stitution officials a week in advance
and cover the twenty-one meals for
the next weekly period.
Naturally these meals vary in char
acter, as a dinner served to the chill
dren at the state school at OWatonna,
or the hospital for crippled children
at Phalen Park, would hardly salts
fly the more lusty appetites of those
confined in the state refOrmatOry at
St. Cloud, or the more exacting de-
mands of the inmates Of the several
insane hospitals and asylums.
How the state feeds it's wards is
best told in the following sample
bills, taken at random from the files
in the office of the state board Of con-
troll. They represent meals served
during the week of September 26,
and include vegetables then in sea-
son:
At the Reformatory.
State reformatory, st. Cloud
Breakfast: Steamed potatoes, oat-
meal, gravy, bread and tea. Dinner:
Roast beef, mashed potatoes, green
cabbage, corn on the cob, turnips and
carrots, bread and coffee. Supper:
Tomato soup, hot biscuits, onion
dressing, syrup and dressing.
On Sunday the 500 or more in
mates of the reformatory had water
melon for dinner. For breakfast on
Wednesday they had pork and beans,
oatmeal and milk, roast potatoes,
syrup, bread and coffee. For supper
on the same day cinnamon rolls,
sliced tomatoes, apple sauce, coffee,
bread and rolls. For the seven days
Of the week there was different
meat order for each day. In order,
they were pork sausage, roast beef,
roast beef hash, stewed beef, stewed
lamb, hamburger steak and spare ribs
of beef.
A Question of Diet
In the case of the state hospital
for inebriates it is more question
of diet than anything else, for here
the employment is not SO strenuous.
Selecting Wednesday of the week
named, the inmates had for dinner,
roast beef, gravy, mashed potatoes,
creamed onions and rice pudding.
Tuesday. the day preceding, the
breakfast consisted of cracked wheat,
baked hash and fried potatoes. The
evening meal included Spanish stew,
escalloped potatoes, spaghetti, toma-
toes and hot biscuits. Coffee and tea
were also served and milk when the
patients demanded it.
In the correctional institutions,
which includes the girls training
school and the boys training school,
the meals vary as to the conduct OF
those confined in the two institutions
The inmates are graded as to their
privileges and food is served accord
ingly. It is all, however, whether
limited or not, of a substantial and
nourishing character.
For the Cripples.
Those confined at the state hospital
for crippled and deformed children
are as a rule little tots and there
is a specialized diet for the most OF
them Meat enters largely into the
daily diet. For dinner on Septem.
ber 80 the youngsters had sirloir
steak, potatoes, beet pickles, cottage
pudding and milk. For breakfast
pancakes and syrup were served, ant
at supper, baked beans, chilli sauce
graham crackers, apple sauce ant
milk. Chicken was feature of thu