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Improvement in mentality cannot be judged by observation at the Feeding Centres, but
require more exact recording during school hours.
It is a very noticeable fact that where a varied dietary and abundance of food is given as at
the Education Committee's Centres, there are not anything like as great a proportion of children
suffering from sores as among those attending the Kilburn Feeding Centre.
Other factors doubtless contribute to the unhealthy appearance of many of the children
drawn from the Kilburn district, but the poor food value of the meals supplied to the children, together
with the housing accommodation, are responsible for the unsatisfactory condition of many attendants
at the Feeding Centre.
The training value of the meals should have an effect on the home life of the next generation.
There is, no doubt, a very marked contrast, perfectly apparent to a child, in the well ordered, quietly
served meal of the Feeding Centre, and the disorder and discomfort in many homes.
It is quite a usual sight at any time in the day to see the remains of a meal set out at one end
of the living room table, while " a bit of ironing," or washing, is carried on at the other. Vegetable
paring, and household refuse are often in evidence in the living room at meal times—the table boasts
no special cloth—the bread no plate—the margarine is served in its paper, and a single receptacle
for food is common to the family assembled. A piece of bread and jam may be handed to the child,
who then leaves the table with the alloted portion to eat it elsewhere. The social aspect of the meal
time is entirely lacking.
Habits of self-control, cleanliness in feeding and order, can never be learnt in such homes,
without a great advance in social circumstances and education. The provision of meals for school
children should bring about these necessary changes, but it is questionable whether five meals per
week under the happiest conditions will counteract the effect of something like twenty meals per week
under such conditions as those described. To make the educational value of the feeding felt, the
meals should form part of the curriculum for all and not only the necessitous.
A taste for plain wholesome food is inculcated by a carefully selected dietary. Economy, as
represented by the use of the frying-pan instead of the oven, has contributed to a particular partiality
for a certain type of food, and it is by no means uncommon for a child to decline to eat the boiled fish
dinner of the Feeding Centres, stating, " We never have fish at home." Further catechism generally
elicits the information that fried fish and chips and kippers are, however, enjoyed. Plain food seems
rather tame and insipid to the child compared with the highly flavoured and very greasy food shared
from some small eating house. Similarly, there is to be observed at the small grocers, or provision
shop, a considerable trade in vinegar and pickles, and such like additions to the home fare, the children
partaking with their parents of much that in better homes would not be given to the younger members
of the family.
The effect on the parents is difficult to express an opinion upon, but the value of the meals
to the parents is evinced in many ways. It may be that better clothing and better other meals are
provided on account of the relief afforded by the school meals, or possibly the improvements are more
in the nature of cleanliness and general comforts, but there seems no reason to suppose, except in a
very few exceptional cases, that the provision of meals for children relieves the parents of any sense
of responsibility, nor leads them to neglect their children on this account. Indeed, the persistent
application of some parents shew an appreciation of the value to the child of the meals supplied,
and it is an oft repeated statement that " They couldn't get dinners like that at home."
Actual statements as to home improvements effected or to be effected on account of the
relief afforded by meals are made not infrequently.
Meals for Expectant and Nursing Mothers and Children under 5 Years of Age.—
2,432 meals were supplied at the Feeding Centres to mothers and 11,023 to children under five years
of age, making a total of 13,455 meals during 1919.
These meals are served after the school children are dismissed, except where the non-scholars
are brought to the Feeding Centres by elder brothers and sisters.
At the Kilburn Feeding Centre the mothers are served with a more substantial meal than the
children, the soup dinners being varied with meat stews or pie. At the Education Committee's Centres
the meals are similar to those provided for the school children, due regard being paid to the quantity
supplied.
Application is sometimes made by mothers for permission to continue in attendance at the
Feeding Centre after the child that was breast fed has been supplied with other food.
Where the eldest child in a family is under school age, the mother often states the impossibility
of making use of the dinner forms given at the Clinics, and availing herself of the doctor's recommendation
for meals for her children. In many cases, more particularly in the Lower Place and Stonebridge
districts, free meals are refused for the children because the mother herself is not eligible for
meals. There appears an unavoidable gap of about three years in the life of many children, during
which time a child is liable to suffer from a poor or insufficient food supply.