The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-03-05
WOMAN HOLDS UP
SCHOOL FOOD PLAN
City Authorities Gave $4,000,
Which Mrs. Emma Murray
Refuses to Use.
NOW SHE FACES FIGHT
Says Lunches Are Not Needed,
but Experts Find Many Chill
dren Under NOurished.

Shall a committee Of three persons de.
prive the undernourished children in tn,
New York public schools of the moor
lunscheons which the Board of Estimate
and Apportionment has said they shall
have?
That is tho question that is troubling
the Child Health Organization, tho New
York City Woman Suffrage party, tn,
Women's City Club and many other pub
lie spirited bodies and leaders in medi
cine and In education. The varioui
agencies are preparing to night the issu,
to a finish and to-day's meeting Of tn,
Board OF Education will see the begin
ming Of the fray.
The recalcitrant committee OF thre<
which is holding UP the appropriation o,
$4,000 that the Board Of Estimate ant
Apportlonment made January l to 90
tablish bureau OF school lunches within
the Board of Education Is composed o.
members of the board but Mrs Fred
erick Peterson Of the Cosmopolitan Clut
says II In the chairman, Mrs Emma Muir
ray. II East Ninety-eixth street. who Il
responsible for the impasse.
Mrs. Peterson Is known as the god
mother OF the school lunch movement
eho hno bcN " hfoub hltnObt blnCe u
first saw the light. She said:
Mrs. Murray last week made a
report for her committee to the
Board OF Education in which she
declared that the demand for school
lunches is wholly sensational; that
the principals don't want them. She
seems to think that certain inter-
ested agencies ara inspiring the de-
mand.
"One only has to read the testi-
mony OF DR.. l. Emmett Holt head
OF the Child Health Organization
and we'll known child specialist, to
realize how much q nourishing meal
In the middle OF the day at school In
needed by many children Why, tho
price OF milk alone Is enough to con-
vince US that thousands of parents
can't feed their little ones properly.
Didn't Deputy Police Commits
sioner O'Grady testify after she
made the rounds of tenement dis
tricts last winter that she found
many children suffering from hum
ger? Yet Mrs Murray. raised to
the position Of chairman of the COM
rnittee on lunches. can keep that
$4,000 lying idle.
II believe that Mrs. Ruth r. Rus
eoh VI Aoo MUMMY ouSut- DIoohlyu.
the other woman member Of the
Board of Education and serving with
Mrs. Murray on the committee on
lunches. 10 In favor OF trying out the
plan. but SO far Mrs. Murray has
been dominant. and she holds that
there Is no malnutrition In the ranks
of New York school children.
And We haven't ben able to get
at Mrs. Murray. At a meeting mold
February 10, attended by repre-
santatives OF the New York Acad-
envy OF Medicine. the National Civic
Federation and n score Of organiza-
tons, a committee was formed con-
sisting Of Mrs Alfred Hess of the
women's City Club, chairman Mrs
Simon Guggenheim, Mrs Abraham
Blur. Mrs. Francis Wood and Or
Mary Swartz Rose of Teachers Coll
lege, and instructed to call on Mrs
Murray and try to convince her that
school lunches are wanted by pro-
gressive educators. Mrs. Murray re-
fused to see this committee"
Arthur S. Somers, president OF tn
Board OF Education, and w L. Ettlnge
Superintendent Of Schools. are in fsvo
OF the bureau school lunches.