View report page

School Meals.
The provision of meals to school children in Edmonton began in 1894
when a Free Meal Fund was established and opened with the sum of £34
for the purpose of providing a free meal to necessitous school children. The
total expenditure in the first year was £10.
In later years new Education Acts provided for the supply of meals
to necessitous children (mainly on economic grounds—the cost being borne
by rates and taxes), and immediately before the recent war a mid-day meal
was being supplied to 650 Edmonton children from 1 Central Kitchen.
"With the advent of communal feeding in 1941 four additional Central
Kitchens were erected and the number of children receiving meals at school
has increased until at present 5,200 (approximately 45% of the number of
children attending school) are being catered for daily. The annual cost for
this year is estimated to be £65,000, of which approximately £25,000 will be
recovered from those children who pay 5d. per meal.
"The feeding of such large numbers of children in school inevitably
brought forth many difficulties, particularly so far as dining accommodation
was concerned. When Edmonton schools were built the ' School Meals
Service,' as it is now known, was not envisaged and so makeshift arrangements
had to operate entailing the use of halls, classrooms and, in some instances,
corridors.
"As part of Social Insurance it is the intention of the Government to
make dinners free of charge to all day pupils at the earliest possible date, but
it is realised that this cannot be done until school canteen facilities are sufficient
to meet the expected demand. Education Authorities have therefore been
asked to press forward with the utmost possible speed with the formulation
and carrying out of proposals to extend present facilities. A scheme has been
drawn up which will provide a kitchen and dining rooms at each of the schools
and the Ministry of Education have given their approval to the first part of
the programme which caters for those schools where classrooms and corridors
are at present being used.
"When the whole scheme is completed, there will be kitchens and
properly equipped dining rooms to accommodate 10,000 children and another
step forward in the social life of the school will have been made.
Supply of Clothing, Footwear, etc.
"In accordance with Section 51 of the Education Act, 1944, clothing,
including footwear, may be supplied by the Authority in the case of children
who are found to be inadequately clothed and thereby unable to receive the
benefit of full-time education at school.
"In November, 1945, the Education Committee began the supply of
footwear to necessitous children. Arrangements were made for the purchase
of stock which is kept in a store at the Brettenham Road School. Applications
are received from parents on the appropriate forms and these are forwarded to
the Education Office with the observations of the Head Teacher. In suitable
cases parents are notified and the children are called for the supply of the
footwear. Arrangements were also made for repairs to footwear and suitable
applicants are provided with an official order which authorises the repair at
their local repairers.
"Arrangements have since been made for the supply of clothing in similar
cases by means of vouchers given to parents enabling them to obtain clothing
at a local outfitters.
55