View report page

108
Strictly speaking, the selection of school-children for free meals should at present
be made by a system of selection by the Authority's medical officers, who, of course,
would select any child who showed any symptoms, however slight, of sub-normal
nutrition.
Evidence of sub-normal nutrition can only be detected and investigated by a
fairly complete medical examination, and the cost of this service would be
considerable. Moreover, your medical officers are trained especially in the
promotion of health, and naturally look upon the provision of free meals from this
standpoint rather than from the standpoint of correcting sub-normal nutrition
when it has become established, however slightly.
The question to my mind might become one of finance. The extra cost of
medical service would perhaps be found to be far more costly than the cost of a few
meals which under a means test may be given to children who do not
demonstrate evidence of sub-normal nutrition.
The provision of meals is a very gratifying aspect of the school life of the modern
child. It is over fourteen years ago that I first began to take a personal interest in
school-children. It has been my privilege to work together with head teachers who
have been dealing with them for forty years, and I find that the nutrition of the
children is better today than ever it was and this is not only reflected in the increased
heights and weights of the children but also in their increased vitality in the
playground and, as I am told, their increased keenness in the classroom.
(b) Milk.—In addition to free meals as such, free milk is given in certain cases
and in this way 52,064 bottles of milk have been distributed.
It may be thought that where we have an efficient scheme for providing mid-day
meals the provision of free milk should not be necessary. As a matter of fact, I
myself could not concur with such an opinion.
You have made provision for any child to have one-third of a pint of milk in
the middle of the morning at a cost of one half-penny.
These arrangements have been made because we are positively persuaded that
this one-third of a pint of milk is very highly desirable, even in cases where children
come from a good breakfast and go to a good mid-day meal. If the provision of
this milk is highly desirable in such cases, how much more desirable must it be in
cases where we are doubtful whether the children have come from a good breakfast,
even if we know they are going to a good mid-day meal ?