Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1932-03-24
THOUSANDS LIVING
ON 6 CENTS A DAY
Tulsa Finds Health of Those
on Charity Rations Better
Than in Big City.
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
TULSA. Okla, March 24.-Ten thou
sand persons have been living here
since November 1 on charity ration
costing 6 cents day per person and
their health is better than the average
Tor the entire city Of 10000 popula-
ton.
This statement has for its authority
the Tulsa County Medical Society. the
Community Fund and John H Leavell,
business man who evolved the COM
miSSary plan.
The same authorities say these 10000
persons get fresher foods, better pre-
pared. than many of their more for
tunate brethren of the city.
The secret of reducing the cost lies
in the purchasing, Leavell said
The commodity market, he explains,
is flooded at all times with some one
vegetable that has about the same
value. from the standpoint of food. as
higher-priced vegetables. An eye is
kept on the market and the lower
priced foods are obtained-in quantity.
We're buying food values. not mer-
chandise." LeavelI explained.
Skim milk is bought in powdered
form, costing an average of eight
tenths Of cent a quart. The vitamins
lacking in this milk are supplied by
rations of cod liver oil.
In the commissary mill. wheat and
corn are ground into flour and meal
daily, for freshness.
Cheap grown beef is killed at the
abbatoir, boned and ground. The
ground meat is mixed with lean pork
trimmings" and about II per cent
powdered milk, to give a sausage or
meat loaf rich in animal protein con-
70, dc ha bind Of
distributed.
Each family cooks the food from
weekly ration of the various necessities.
Here's the food received for the young
child for a week:
Two pounds of whole wheat, one-half
pound of oatmeal one pound of beans,
two punds of white potatoes, one-and-
a-quarter pounds Of ground lean meat
without bones, two-flfths of a pound
each of sugar and health compound.
pound of four other fresh vegetables,
half pound of bacon, nan pound OF
turniEs, more than a pound of powder
ed milk, a quarter pound of cocoa and
one or two teaspoons OF cod-hver oil.
Leavell formed the CommiSsary Com
mittee last Fall, borrowing $4,000 as
test loan from the community fund
to set up a central purchasing and dis
tributing food agency.
RationS were established, based on
information supplied by the medical
society and by national organizations.
Diets to suit children, adolescent and
adults were framed.
Direction for preparing and preserv-
ing foods were printed ana school for
housewives set up to instruct them in
these arts.
Twenty workers needed in the school
warehouse, abbatoir and -four and grlst
mills are taken from the registered I'M
employed.
Fewer than per cent of the persons
living on the ration have complained,
Leavell says.
I'VE started feeding them whole
wheat bread" he said, "and We got
some complaints from people who said
they didn't want to eat that chicken
feed
After a time We decided we would
give them a change to white bread
for two weeks. Before the end Of the
first week the ones Who mad objected
began asking for more chicken feed
There are several millions Of people
in the United States whose health will
be permanently impaired because Of
malnutrition due to faulty diet this
year alone" Leavell declared.
''Yet our dependents are enjoying good
health despite poor conditions in their
homes and lack of proper medical at
tentiOn."