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XI.—PROVISION OF MEALS.
The Feeding Centre in White Hart Lane was open throughout
the year, providing a hot mid-day meal to a large number of the
less fortunate of the school children. These children are, for the
most part, selected on economic grounds and are usually recommended
by the teachers in the schools, but they are all approved in
the first instance by the School Medical Officer and seen by him at
regular intervals. The Feeding Centre is administered by the
Director of Education, but responsibility for the food being wholesome
and nutritious rests with the School Medical Officer. The
dinners supplied are, in my opinion, good both as regards quantity
and quality, and the use of a menu covering a period of three weeks
ensures variety in the meals provided. The food is served and the
children waited on by a number of ladies, most of whom are members
of the Care Committee.
The number of children who received meals at the Centre
during the year was 169, and of this number 136 were fed free, 30
for part payment and 3 for full payment. The total number of
meals provided was 19,954, and of these 16,455 were provided free,
3,481 for part payment and 18 for full payment. The average cost
per meal was 5.18 pence, of which 2.53 pence represented the
actual cost of food, and 2.65 pence the cost of administration.
In addition to the meals served at the Feeding Centre, 4,189
meals were provided at the School for the Partially Sighted, in
Lordship Lane, for the children attending there. Of these, 2,328
were given free, 201 for part payment and 1,660 for full payment.
These meals are cooked at the Feeding Centre.
Apart from this provision of meals, an average of 240 children
were provided with milk at school free of cost daily throughout
the year, and a number of others with malt and cod-liver oil at
the School Clinic, either free or at cost price, on the recommendation
of the School Medical Officers.
XII.—CO-OPERATION.
(a) Of Parents.
The parents are usually interested in the school medical
examinations, and fifty-eight per cent. of the children examined at
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