Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1918-08-13
HOW TO FINANCE
A CANNING KITCHEN
A Professional Marketer Buys FOR
The Kitchen, Receiving A
Commission

4 Peck Chapel started canning kitch-
en- last summer, The chapel is IN
} Georgetown. the oldest part of Wash
I ington. ID. c. During the coming sea
son food was so expensive there that
the women could not AFFORD TO buy in
quantity and can for winter use. But
this community kitchen enabled them
TO do so.
They had to pay for nothing but the
food and containers.
I Overhead expenses, such as stove,
heat and the table space. were paid by
the church, which listed them with
running expenses of the building. The
minister gave 500 for equipment.
The organizer of the work was also
purchaser of supplies. Every morning
she went to market, starting at about
six o'clock. when retailers were max
I ing their purchases from the farm
I wagons She bought at barrel rates
whatever was cheapest that morning.
She carried the expenses of the mar
keting. to be repaid bit by bit as the
workers claimed their food from the
store room the following winter.
Each worker was entitled TO her
share of the products or any day she
helped. But if Mrs. White happened
to come on Tuesday and Thursday
when they packed string beans, and
was unfortunate enough TO miss the
peach marmalade days, she arranged
Z to exchange five quarts of her beans
for an equal amount of some ones
marmalade. There was never any diff
fculty in arranging that part of the
work. which seemed to take care Of
itself automatically. At the end of
I the days work the cost of materials,
sugar and jars was determined and the
book keeper entered each workers
share opposite her name, with the
! price of that amount. Then in the
winter Mrs White would buy her
beans, paying for the number of quarts
\ she took with her at the time.
I This season finances have been ar
ranged differently, and the kitchen is
on a more business-hke basis. An APP
peal was made for Liberty Bonds, 5000
worth, 10 be used as security for a
! loan to purchase materials. Bonds
were offered in such quantity that ten
! times as much could have been had
/ Next spring, these will be returned to
their owners, after the food has been
bought by the women Gamers, and the
loan repaid. This removes any possi-
BILE suggestion of personal charity
which might have resulted from &C
cepting one woman's loan.
Buying is done differently also. A
professional barketer buys for the
kitchen, receiving a five-per cent COM
mission. This charge is paid by the
church and not added to the cost of
the product, as it might be elsewhere.
In the spring the kitchen borrowed
money to buy eggs for putting down
in water glass. This requires large
initial expenditure, which is rather
alarming at first. But the final cost,
including the jars and solution, will be
35 cents a dozen, when winter prices
range anywhere from so cents up.
Beginning with the personal, tact
full management of a woman whom the
outside-of-the-home enterprise, the en-
workers knew and trusted in their first
enterprise has been brought tn an inn
personal business basis. The first
method necessary to gain confidence
and avoid any disconcerting efforts of
the unfamiliar words loan and com
mission"