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APPENDIX III.
REPORT OF THE RESULTS OF AN ENQUIRY INTO THE
FOOD EXPENDITURE OF CERTAIN BETHNAL GREEN
FAMILIES.
(Being a preliminary to a special nutrition investigation
under the direction of Sir John Boyd Orr.)
In May 1937, an enquiry was instituted into the amount of
money actually expended upon various foodstuffs by certain
families resident in the Borough who were known to be in poor
economic circumstances. The families in question were those
in which the mother and/or some young child was receiving a grant
of milk under the Borough Council's Maternity and Child Welfare
scheme and were therefore families in which the father was either
unemployed or earning low wages. A form of enquiry was drawn
up with a view to eliciting the amount spent on the principal
items of food grouped according to their nature. At the same
time, with a view to obtaining information as to items which
might affect the money available for food, the enquiry was extended
to cover the principal items of domestic expenditure apart
from food. As particulars of the family income were already
available on the Milk Grant records there was no need for special
enquiry on this point.
The forms were distributed to the mothers with an explanatory
letter from the Medical Officer of Health by the Health
Visitors who also assisted the mothers in filling up the required
figures. The original intention was to obtain returns for four
successive weeks from each family so that any abnormal expenditure
in one week might be counter-balanced or any variation
in quantity or choice of foodstuffs might be noted. While adequate
four week returns were obtained in a few cases, in the majority
of instances the four weeks were largely a "wooden" repetition
of one another indicating that some attempt had been made to
strike an average or else the return consisted of a single week's
figures or a statement either that the mother was unwilling to
fill up further forms or that "every week was much the same."
At the outset it was hoped to obtain particulars in respect
of about 500 families. Unfortunately, for various reasons, only
223 adequate returns were obtained. These returns have now
been classified and analysed. The forms were first grouped
according to the net income per head of the family after deducting
rent. The sex and age composition of the family was calculated
according to a food cost scale based on various scales of coefficients
for food requirements on a man-unit basis. The actual