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78
Increase in unemployment was most marked as the year drew to a close, and the number
of necessitous cases rose in proportion.

Below is given an occupational percentage list of the parents whose children were fed during
December, 1920, with a comparative column for December, 1919.

Kilburn Feeding Centre.— As before, the children from South Kilburn are fed at the Presbyterian
Mission Hall, Granville Road. As the school doors open at 12 noon, a stream of from two
to three hundred children pours down Granville Road, and disappears into the cellarlike basement
of the Mission Hall. Each child is eager to be first and to escape the wearisome ordeal of the long
queue waiting admission.
The meal supplied is served on enamelled plates with the minimum of table appointments,
one spoon. The children sit packed closely together on narrow high forms and scramble out before
the last mouthful is swallowed.
The Mission Authorities increased the charge from 3½d. to 4d. per meal from week-ending
November 22nd, 1920, on the grounds of higher administrative costs, but' agreed, on request, to
introduce certain improvements, namely, a more varied dietary.
Some meat is now given and occasionally fish, while the puddings are generally improved.
Suet with treacle or raisins varies the monotony of the watery, unsweetened rice that appeared two
or three times a week before, these changes were made. The service has been expedited by the
voluntary assistance of several ladies, two of whom attend daily from 12.0 till 1 p.m. The educational
and social aspect of the meal is still entirely lacking.
The Mission Hall authorities were asked to arrange for the provision of breakfasts for the
most necessitous, but they were unwilling to make the necessary changes in staffing arrangements
to admit of this being done. The children are therefore given breakfasts at the Carlton Vale School
House, the arrangements being undertaken by the caretaker. The food provided is the same as that
given at the Feeding Centres. The children assemble outside the school gates and are admitted
through the playground at 8.15 a.m. The meals are partaken of quietly, and in good order; the
quantity of food consumed is not limited.
Owing to the large demand and need for the breakfasts in South Kilburn, there is insufficient
accommodation at the caretaker's house for the numbers fed, and the children are top crowded for
comfort. The need for a large, well equipped Feeding Centre in this district, that can be properly
controlled, is a most pressing one.