Browning chief., 1944-05-05
Eqq G|ut Calls Attention
To SChoo|-LunCh Question
House of Representatives Decides Against
Spending Taxpayers Money on Food for
School Children After July l..
By BAUKHAGE
Ne,Us Analyst md Commentator.


the four or five million school chill
dren won't get hot lunches after July
of this year.
Not all the parents of all of the
four or five millions of school chill
dren are taxpayers. In fact, the
truth is that many of them are too
poor to buy a decent, or in some
cases any, lunch for their children.
The richer ones who can afford
lunch will have to be satisfied with
cold one and the chances are they
won't get nearly as healthy one
as if it were provided by a school
where parent-teacher and other
groups have seen to it that a bal
anced diet is provided.
Educators Worried
This worries the Office of Educa-
ton which is still working on con-
gress to get an appropriation
through to continue the school lunch
idea.
School lunches started as "made
work" back in the days of depres-
sion and the WPA. The original idea
was to provide employment for
women. But as the idea developed,
it was discovered that here was an
opportunity to do two things; to i'm
prove the health of school children
and to absorb farm surpluses.
So the WPA furnished the woman
power and some equipment and the
Department of Agriculture fur
| richaI fIa l.
partment took the actual RESPONSE
bility of buying the food and de-
livering it. Later, when the WPA
went out of business, and in many
cases local sponsors took care of the
service, the Department of Agricul-
ture merely contributed a certain
amount of money (nine cents per
child, matched by nine cents from
the local community. This came
out of funds provided for the pur-
chase of surplus commodities and
the school bought the food itself.
The proponents of the school lunch
point out that on the principle that
as twig is bent the tree is in
clined, furnishing balanced lunch
to school children will build good
eating habits which will affect the
whole community. 1t also points out
that now that SO many schools, espe-
cially in rural areas, have been con-
solidated with one school and bus
service drawing children from
many distant places, children can't
60 home to get good hot lunch.
Many can't afford to bring food with
them.
Of course, the community ought to
look after this question itself and
in most communities great interest
has been shown and local authori-
ties have cooperated. But in the
poorer communities which have the
greatest need, it is impossible, and
even in the richer locations it isn't
easy, to get money for things per-
tanning to the schools as school
teachers salaries all over the coun-
try testify.
Unless the appropriation bill now
before the Senate Appropriations
committee is accepted and passed
by both houses, the next time the
hens step up production, the school
children won't benefit nor will they
feast at federal expense even if
other farm products are so plenti-
full the government has to buy them
up to protect prices.
NelUs From London
The London Daily Mail sets up a
little special edition for the United
States-a digest. 1t is photographed
in London on microflm, flown over
to this country, enlarged to four to
six page brochure, about the size
of ordinary typewriter sheets.
I do not know how large a cir
culation it has obtained so far or
whether it is achieving its purpose
of mutual understanding but it often
contains some rather interesting
items. For instance:
John Henry Jones, a 40-year-old
steel smelter, came to America with
other British trade unionists to visit
our war factories. The Daily Mail
quotes his reply to one of his wife's
questions when he got back: "How
about wages? Is the American
worker really better off than the
British worker?" And this is what
Mr.. Jones replied:
Taking a chap with the same
size house, same number of chill
dren, doing the same job as his
counterpart over here - No. Our
house here would cost $l8 month
clear, in rent. A similar house in
the States would run away with $50
MONTH"