Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1919-12-16
CHILDREN
GET AMERICAN FOOD
Kitchens Provide Meal Which
Must Sustain Little Ones
All Day.
BY A. II. DECKER.
BY Cable to The Star and Chicago
Daily News. Copyright. 1919.

VIENNA. Austria, December 10
Lieut.. Stockton of the United States
Navy and Lieut.. Burland of the Unit
ed States Army are in charge of feed
ing the hungry children of Austria.
Their task is no light one. They are
kitchens in all the large cities of Aus
tria. Two hundred and eighteen thou
sand underfed children come to the
long bare tables and get their rations
of soup. beans. bread and cocoa, of
which 100000 are in Vienna. Accord
ing to the food on hand or to the ro-
tation necessary to give a little va
riety. the dose" (portion) as the Aus
TRANS call it. constitutes $50 calories,
or Just one-third what a child needs.
Lieut.. Stockton said n great many Of
the children have to depend upon this
meal for their existence, although it
is only expected to serve as a supple
mentary meal to what they get at
home.
L can understand the scarcity of
food in the homes. A little incident
will show this. In Gratz, where we
stopped for the night on the way to
Vienna from Trieste, / threw d piece
of Italian bread out of the car. 1t
was half of sandwich that had been
white before being walked upon. A
man who was helping fill a gasoline
tank salvaged the bread and ate it
with relish. A few days of Austria n
black bread, which can only be eaten
toasted, shows me what white bread
means.
The staff of the American officers
is composed almost entirely of Aus
TRANS, who are intensely loyal. the
chaufeurs even calling themselves
American. The bookkeeper is Aus
trian and the entire force in the kitch-
ems are Austrian. The Austrian gov
a ha niSh
which pays the general expenses, leav-
ing the American donation free to be
invested in food. The overhead
charges. including supplies such as
potatoes, amount to only a little over
per cent.
Kitchens in Old Palaces.
Old palaces seem to be the choice for
the kitchens l visited two, one in
Franz Ferdinand's Belvedere palace
and the other at Schoenbrunn. the
historic summer place. Austrian wom-
en- presided over immense pots pre-
pairing the brew. A swarm of chill
dren came from all directions, their
common objective being large corri-
dor rooms. furnished with long, bare
tables and benches. It looked like a
banquet. Women ladled out "dosen"
into all kinds of receptacles, most of
them military dishes. The children
who had all been examined by doctors
70 eliminate those who were not I'M
derfed. showed their identificatio
cards at the door. and submitted to a
cursory search as they went out. The
food must be consumed on the prem
lSeS, and not carried home to supply
the families. When a child has eaten
enough to bring him out of the under
fed class he is disqualified to make
room for another. Periodical exam
ination by the doctors ascertains this
and L do not think it is a happy mo-
ment in the life of a child when he is
told that he has had enough.
One Meal for Cents.
The kitchens are scrupulously clean
ana well organized. 1t requires a large
stan to operate a kitchen feeding 900
children but the cost of the $50 Gallo
RES amounts to only about 3 cents
This is counting freight. carriage,
cost of the food
1t is hoped to continue the work
throughout the winter until June,