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Nutrition
Before 1906, the teachers of London, faced with the difficulties of endeavouring to
educate children who were obviously suffering from lack of food, undertook extensively
to give some nourishment to such children with the aid of voluntary funds. The meals
given varied widely but were restricted in scope and in nutritional value by the
inadequacy of the funds contributed to cover the whole of the needs of the schools.
The School Board had made special enquiries, in 1889,1895 and 1898-99, into the
subject of feeding children who could not profit from teaching through lack of food.
As a result of the 1889 enquiry, the number of school children in want of food was
estimated to be 55,000 and it was decided that a central organisation was required to
prevent waste and overlapping of voluntary effort, and the London School Dinners
Association came into being.
After the more extensive enquiry of 1898, when it was recorded that, in addition to
the London School Dinners Association, there were four associations operating in various
parts of London, a Committee of the Managers was appointed for each 'necessitous'
school to draw up lists of necessitous children and to apply to the Central Associations
for funds for meals if these were found to be needed. A Permanent Joint Committee
of Underfed Children was appointed in 1900 and dealt with applications for assistance
from the school committees. In 1904 the voluntary or non-provided schools came within
the sphere of the Joint Committee and the scope of the 'Relief Committees', as they
were then known, was enlarged to include the provision of boots, clothing and other
kinds of assistance in addition to food. In 1905 the Council decided to seek powers from
Parliament to provide food when necessary for children attending rate-supported schools
in London.
The Education (Provision of Meals) Act, 1906, gave powers to local education
authorities to provide meals for children who were 'unable by reason of lack of food
to take full advantage of the education provided for them', and care committees (first
formed in July, 1907) were made responsible for the work. It was not until 1908 that (as
voluntary subscriptions were beginning to fail) it was decided to utilise public funds for
the purchase of food. The system then introduced for the feeding of necessitous children
continued for over thirty years with little alteration.
During the winter of 1909-1910, the school doctor at Wolverley-street school,
Bethnal Green (Dr. Hawkes), finding so many children in the school at that time
suffering from malnutrition, suggested that they should be given milk in school. The
head teachers and the care committee of the school took up the suggestion and milk was
provided. The results were so good that the practice of giving milk on the school
doctor's advice, spread, first to neighbouring schools, and eventually to the whole of
London. Before the second world war, voluntary milk clubs existed in most schools to
enable the children to buy milk as cheaply as possible.
During that war, the Government sponsored a nation-wide campaign to encourage
children to have meals at school which resulted in a very rapid expansion in London, as
elsewhere and the Government also introduced a scheme whereby one-third of a pint
of milk was supplied at a reduced price for children attending school.
Present legislation is embodied in the Education Act, 1944, under which local
education authorities are required to provide meals of a high nutritional standard for
those children who want them and for which parents pay a standard charge fixed by
the Minister of Education which may be remitted partly or wholly. Over 200,000
school children in London received subsidised school dinners in 1954, as compared with
about 10,000 before the war. Since 1946 milk has been issued free and nine out of ten
children in London take advantage of the scheme.
Vitamin capsules are purchased by the Council for school children and a charge is
made to cover the cost unless they have been prescribed by the school doctor. Children
under five may have cod liver oil and orange juice free.
School meals
and milk
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