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103
PROVISION OF MEALS.
Meals are provided for necessitous children. Until July, 1935,
the arrangements were made by the Care Committee, but subsequent
to that date the arrangements were taken over by the Education
Committee itself and are now in the hands of the "Provision of
Meals Sub-Committee."
42,657 dinners were provided in 1936.
During 1935 arrangements were made for the provision of milk
to children at ½d. for one-third pint. The children took advantage
of the arrangement to such an extent that 892,743 bottles of milk
were provided and paid for; in addition to which 96,974 bottles
of milk were provided free to those children whose circumstances
were such that their parents could not afford to pay. The milk
supplied was in every case pasteurised, regularly tested by the
Public Health Department to see that it conformed to the prescribed
standard for pasteurised milk, and was delivered in one-third pint
bottles and drunk through a straw. Those children who are receiving
milk free of charge are examined by one of the Medical Officers of
the Staff in order that the necessity may be ascertained and the
condition of the children observed.
It is very difficult to assess in figures the value of this scheme.
Children do not gain weight and height entirely according to the
milk with which they are provided, and each child has its own
personal rate of gain. Under the circumstances a comparison on
the above lines between children who receive milk and children
who do not receive milk would denote very little. In the first
place it is natural for all children to gain weight, and in the second
place it would be fair to assume that the children who do not receive
milk in school may have come from wealthier families and receive
it at home. Without, therefore, being able to give an opinion
based on fact, I can only say that I consider the scheme to be worth
while. Medical opinion is almost unanimous in its appreciation
of the value of good milk as a food.
There has been some difficulty about the time at which milk
should be given. If it is given in the middle of the morning it
upsets the children's lunch, whilst if given earlier it upsets the
school routine. On the whole I am inclined to advise that the milk
should be given as soon as possible after arrival in school. Whilst
many children in Enfield have a good breakfast, there are many,
and especially those coming from poor homes, for whom a breakfast
consists of a slice of bread, sometimes with margarine or jam, and
a cup of weak tea. For these children, and they are the ones with
whom I am most concerned, a cup of milk early in the morning
is of great value.