The school lunch; its organization and management in Philadelphia

Front matter

HOOL LUNCH

ITS ORGANIZATION AND MANAGEMENT IN PHILADELPHIA

By EMMA SMZDLEY

Foreword

THE material in this book does not attempt to cover the whole subject of the school lunch, but is the summing up of the author's eleven years of experience in directing the school lunches in the city of Philadelphia. It has been written in response to innumerable inquiries that have come into the office of the director in regard to the Philadelphia system.

As school lunches in this country are still in the developing and, to a degree, experimental stage, no word on the subject can be final, and especially while conditions are still fluctuating as a result of the war, all statements bearing upon labor, equipment and cost must be subject to a margin of change. Those of us who have served as early volunteers in the work need frequently to share and compare our experience and pass it on to the newcomers in the field. It is with the hope that this material may serve such purpose of comparison that it is presented.

The reader must bear in mind that the system in Philadelphia differs from most others in that though a part of the school system, the Department of School Lunches functions separately, having full power and responsibility within itself. The committee of the Board of Public Education under which it operates acts chiefly in an advisory and co-operative capacity. To this method of operation is largely due the rapid development of the school lunch, but it must be taken into account that in such a system the personnel is of great importance, whether or not the whole corps of workers is imbued with the spirit of the work. In that particular Philadelphia has been peculiarly fortunate, and the author wishes to express here her gratitude to her assistants and co-workers who, from the highest to the lowest, have reflected in every duty the ideal of the work — ^to build up the health of a city's children.

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Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

1 — History and Aim of the School Lunch ... 1

Aim of the School Lunch.

Chapter One HISTORY AND AIM OF THE SCHOOL LUNCH

HISTORY AND AIM OF THE SCHOOL LUNCH

THE introduction of the school lunch into the educational systems of large cities marks a milestone in our social progress. Education within the school, once interpreted merely as "book learning" and intended to supplement the varied training which a child of earlier days got in the home, has gradually expanded to meet new conditions arising from rapidly changing industrial developments and from the growth and extension of cities.

Our educational plan is still in a state of expansion. American public schools today include not only academic teaching but physical training, manual and technical courses, and medical supervision. They also provide for the exceptional as well as for the normal child, with special classes for the subnormal, the tubercular, the blind and the crippled.

It is natural that the school should in time extend its function to include feeding, once exclusively the business of the home. The need for school feeding first arose through recognition of the fact that many children were receiving little benefit from the education offered because they were not properly fed. Benevolent organizations in our large cities from time to time concerned themselves with this subject of school feeding. The school lunch, or the penny lunch, as it has most frequently been termed, has become more or less familiar in most of our large cities during the past twenty-five years. In Europe school feeding became a recognized part of the school systems as long ago as a century or more.

Most of the early efforts at school feeding in this country were directed towards special groups of children, those who showed signs of undernourishment. The need to provide food for all children in schools has only gradually emerged and is not yet fully recognized.

Various conditions have brought about this need: the increasing distance of the school from the home; the abolishing of the old two-session system, which gave the children time to go home for a leisurely noon meal ; and the large number of mothers who have gone into the factory or other kinds of work. Many children were accustomed to eating cold and frequently unwholesome lunches brought from home, to going hungry, or attempting to satisfy their appetites with the wares of street venders.

School authorities, recognizing this need of the children for some kind of food, during school hours, allowed street venders access to school

HISTORY AND AIM

premises and even in some cases sold concessions to them. Janitors or other individuals whose chief concern was profits, with little regard for the stomachs of their patrons, reaped large sums by catering to the appetites of school children. The food sold was rarely wholesome and often actually unclean.

The beneficial results to the children who received wholesome food provided by reliable agencies, and the general focusing of public attention on the subject of malnutrition in chil- -^dren, gradually awakened school boards to the fact that feeding was a legitimate part of the educational plan. From a mere standpoint of economics vast sums of money were wasted through the inability of many children to assimilate knowledge on an empty or discomforted stomach.

Nothing has given a greater impetus to school feeding than the glaring physical defects of many of the boys examined for the draft in 1917. It was proven at that time that if we are to expect a sturdy nation, the function of our schools must be extended to the care of bodies as well as minds.

Aim op the School Lunch .

The aim of the school lunch is two-fold : to meet the food requirements of the child, helping to lay a foundation of physical vigor upon which the structure of mental training can be effectively built; and to serve as an educational factor, instilling wise food habits, offering an opportunity for lessons in courtesy and consideration, and providing a laboratory for the practical demonstration of allied subjects of study such as cooking, hygiene, buying.

The school lunch should supplement home feeding to whatever extent that may be needed. The plan must therefore be flexible enough to meet varied conditions. In the high school where the hours are from nine to two or two-thirty, and where many of the pupils live at some distance from the school, the school lunch must be so planned as to offer a hot noon meal which may be the substantial meal of the day ; or merely to supplement the lunch brought from home. In the elementary schools it must provide a few wholesome things, soup, cocoa or sweets, which a child wants in addition to home meals; or a noon meal must be provided for those who for some reason cannot get that meal at home. The school lunch system also should be elastic enough to supply breakfasts to special groups of children and to serve suppers to night school classes.

The food provided in the school must be wholesome and assembled with an understanding of the needs of the particular group served. It must be well prepared and attractively presented, appealing to the eye and yielding a good return in energy and health. It must stand for something much

HISTORY AND AIM

more than a mere satisfaction to eye and appetite. It must represent an ideal in food selection and preparation and in cleanliness of surroundings, utensils and service, thus subtly implanting in the child's mind a liking for good food properly served and a distaste for any other kind. The school lunch must also be considered from the angle of a practice school in buying. The lunch room is a business venture in which pupils have the important role of principal patrons, and since, within the limits set, they have freedom of choice, they gain valuable daily lessons in how to buy for values, self-restraint in buying, and responsibility of selection, as well as getting an understanding of the factors that enter into the selling price of the food purchased.

School Lunches a Vast Business

The importance of the school lunch as a factor for either good or ill in the future of the child may be realized from the vast volume of business which the daily pennies spent on school lunches represent. According to a report of the United States Commission of Education, high school pupils in eight American cities spend a million and a half dollars each school year for lunches. That million and a half dollars may be a medium for laying the foundations of good health, or of undermining the digestions of the future generation. It may be the means of accumulating impressions of carelessness, dirt and poor values from the push cart vender, or impressions of cleanliness, attractiveness and good values in the properly conducted school lunch room. Is it not an important job to direct that million and a half dollars and the unestimated other millions which school children spend, into channels of health and education?

The school lunch system is as yet in a formative stage in this country. Each city is trying out its own experiment to fit its own needs and no two have exactly the same plan. Many cities have not yet attempted school feeding on any considerable scale. It is safe to predict, however, that with the general tendency of the functions of the school to broaden and extend, the school lunch will become an integral part of the educational systems of all large cities, if not of smaller cities and of many rural communities. One can picture the day not too far distant when each school building will include in its plans the equipment for kitchen and lunch rooms, and the school lunch will be an important and assured adjunct to school work, correlated with the educational scheme in many ways as yet undeveloped.

Chapter Two DEVELOPMENT OF THE SCHOOL LUNCH IN PHILADELPHIA

DEVELOPMENT QF THE SCHOOL LUNCH IN PHILADELPHIA

THE school lunch first came into existence in Philadelphia much as it has all over the country, as an effort on the part of a philanthropic organization to meet the problem of malnutrition among school children. Philadelphia was one of the pioneer cities to serve school lunches. As early as 1894 the Starr Center Association, a benevolent organization, started penny lunches at one school in a poor district of the city, and later extended the service to another school. Out of this work developed in time a Lunch Committee of the Home and School League, which gradually enlarged upon the experiment of school feeding until penny lunches were being served in nine schools of the city.

In this way ground was broken for the school lunch system, although it was from a different impetus that school lunches on the plan they are now organized came into existence.

In 1909 when the William Penn High School for girls, one of the largest schools in the city, was completed, the principal. Dr. Cheesman A. Herrick, now president of Girard College, voiced a protest against the old form of lunch room which had prevailed in the high schools, that of allowing concession to the janitor or a caterer. He wanted a different type of lunch room and finally won the consent of the Board of Education to try what was considered an experiment. The Board made the condition, however, that it should not be called upon for any expense beyond that of the original equipment. Thus the first school lunch on the present plan was started and the condition of the Board struck the keynote of the present lunch system^ laying the foundation of the self-supporting policy which has been maintained from the beginning.

Rapid Growth of the Plan

Dr. Herrick's plan was to have a home economics graduate as director of the lunch room and to serve lunches planned on sound food principles. The present director of the school lunch system was asked to take charge of the lunch room. Light, heat, gas for cooking and the original equipment were provided by the Board of Education. Otherwise, the lunch room was to be self-sustaining, all assistants and helpers to be employed by the director, with prices for food fixed at such a scale that the receipts should cover overhead charges.

Within a year Dr. Herrick's experiment was vindicated and the corner-stone of school lunches

DEVELOPMENT IN PHILADELPHIA

was laid in Philadelphia. The next fall the committee on Boys' High Schools of the Board of Education asked that a similar school lunch service be opened for what was then the Southern Manual Training School. Shortly after that was installed, the service was extended to three high school annexes, two of the William Penn and one of the Southern Manual Training. By the spring of 1912, the Board of Education voted to establish a Department of High School Lunches and authorized the extension of the system to all high schools in the city, under the supervision of the director who had operated the other lunch rooms.

The School Lunch Committee of the Home and School League had in the meantime continued serving lunches in nine of the elementary schools. In May of 1915 it reported to the Board of Education that it had demonstrated the need of a lunch system but that such a system could not successfully be carried on by an organization apart from the school management. The Board, in consequence, authorized the continuation of the work started by the Committee and its extension to other elementary schools, the system for both high and elementary schools to be consolidated under the direction of the head of the High School Lunch System.

The school lunch has thoroughly proved itself in Philadelphia and the system is developing as rapidly as physical conditions will permit. At the present time uniform school lunches are being served in all of the sixteen secondary schools of the city, including the ten high schools and three annexes to high schools, the Philadelphia Normal School, Trade School for Girls and the Junior High School; and in thirty elementary schools; or, in forty-six out of the total of two hundred and thirteen public schools of the city. To operate the lunch rooms there is a staff of three hundred workers, and the lunch system caters to fifty thousand school children, who spend about two thousand dollars a day.

Chapter Three PLAN OF ORGANIZATION

THE school lunch system in Philadelphia operates from one central office, with a director in charge, who is empowered to employ all workers necessary for the department, to buy all supplies, fix and pay all salaries out of the receipts of the lunch room and in general to direct and supervise the work.

She has under her a corps of workers including :

One general assistant.

One assistant in charge of elementary lunch rooms.

A secretary and two clerical assistants. Dietitians in charge of high school lunch rooms.

Assistant dietitians in larger high school lunch rooms.

Helpers in high schools.

Helpers in elementary schools.

Student aids.

Relation to the Board of Public Education The Department of School Lunches is a branch of the Department of Education operating under a sub-committee on School Lunches, which has supervisory powers. The director of school lunches is appointed by the Board of Public Education and her salary is fixed by the Board, but paid out of the receipts of the lunch rooms.

The Board of Education is responsible for : All initial equipment.

Space for lunch room.

Heat, light, gas and steam for cooking.

This connection with the Board gives prestige to the Department of School Lunches in the schools, in the community and in the markets.

Relation to the Superintendent op Schools

The Department of School Lunches is subject to the superintendent of schools to the extent that the initiative for lunch service in a new school comes from the superintendent or must have his approval, and any extension of the service involving additional expenditure also must receive his approval before being passed upon by the Board of Education. His sanction of the department greatly facilitates its successful operation.

Relation to the Individual School

The benefit to be derived from the school lunch depends to a great extent upon the co-operation of the school itself and consequently upon the attitude of the principal, teachers and students. The principal is largely responsible for stimulating co-operation. Through his or her interest and good will the activities of the lunch room may be linked with the activities of the domestic science department, with manual training classes or shops and with other branches of the school. Also, the principal and teachers may do much to mould the attitude and behavior of the students.

By winning the help and interest of the students the lunch service becomes a co-operative venture. Where student government is in operation, the students take over much of the discipline and the work of keeping the lunch room in order.

In inaugurating a lunch service in a school, the director of School Lunches presents to the pupils the whole plan and invites their co-operation. She explains to them the business principles on which the system operates, acquainting them with the factors that enter into overhead charges and showing ways in which the pupils can help to keep down labor costs as a means of making the food cheaper. Thus the pupils get a sense of values in relation to the food they daily purchase which is much more effective than any mere class room study.

Relation to Private Agencies

It is not the policy of the school lunch system to receive money directly from any private agencies, although it co-operates with organizations in several instances in providing for the need of individuals or groups of children who cannot afford to buy lunches. In one or two instances, in schools where the school lunch has not yet been authorized by the Board, organizations which in the past had served lunches to the children, continue the work either independently or in conjunction with the school lunch system. One organization, for instance, pays for breakfasts and lunches served by the School Lunch Department to the pupils in an open air class, and another for lunches served to children in an orthopedic class. The policy, either where there are individual children or whole classes to be provided for, is to have the benefactors give the money to the principal who pays the School Lunch Department for providing and serving the food.

The general plan of the system is that it is better for children of parents who can afford to pay for lunches not to learn to expect unreasonable returns for their expenditure, but that it is unfair to make the prices of food higher to these children in order to provide for the less fortunate.

General System of Management The system of school lunches in Philadelphia operates as any business would, all costs of materials, labor, renewal and upkeep of equipment being covered by the receipts of the sales. The scale of prices must cover these items, but as there are no profits to be made and as rent, heat, light and the original equipment are provided by the Board of Education, the prices can be made much lower than prices in other eating places. If these items provided by the Board had to be paid out of the school lunch receipts, prices would have to be increased.

The whole system is centralized under one office, which is the buying and administrative center, acting as a clearing house for all records and accounts and offering constant supervision and direction of the work. The benefits to be gained from this system of centralization are :

Economy and better values through large scale buying.

Advantageous prices through reduced service costs to firm.

Higher food standards maintained.

Uniformity of food and service in all schools.

Lower prices of food possible to students through advantageous buying and reduction of labor costs.

Reduction of clerical help.

Saving of dietitian's time.

Checking of waste through central records.

Stimulus of competition among workers.

Under this system of management all buying is done wholesale by the central office except for perishable supplies which have to be delivered daily and which the dietitian can best control.

This periodical and large scale buying is an important factor in obtaining the best prices from dealers and in upholding a standard of quality. Delivery service by the dealer is thereby greatly reduced and also his salesmanship costs, additional factors in securing better prices. The dietitian's time is saved for her more specific duties through not having to meet and deal with salesmen nor check prices, this all being attended to by the central office.

Through the system of records and accounting maintained in the central office the inventory of supplies in each school is shown from week to week and any leakage is soon revealed. Also, where one school becomes overstocked with a commodity part of it can be transferred to another school whose supply is diminished.

Another very decided advantage of the unified system of management is that the small school which may not be self-supporting gets the benefits of the profits of the large school and receives the same service and food.

Though the system is uniform, a judicious measure of elasticity is permitted. Menus in the various high schools differ at the discretion of the dietitian and she has a large degree of authority within her school, while relying upon the central office for advice and help.

All labor is employed by the director's office, that burden being lifted from the workers in

PLAN OF OEGANIZATION

charge of schools, yet all employees are made responsible to their immediate superiors.

Through this general centralization of the work, clerical help is very greatly reduced and duplication of effort is eliminated. Being fitted with labor-saving devices the director's office can reduce work to a minimum.

Arguments for and Against the Central Kitchen Plan

The practicability of the central kitchen plan with food distributed from one or more centers to the different schools is frequently argued. Points in favor of this are :

Uniformly prepared food.

Saving of labor.

Slight saving on cost of food.

The arguments against the plan, on the other hand, are:

More limited menu.

Food less appetizing, because of the necessity of reheating.

Expense of distribution.

Uncertainty of delivery through mishaps and labor difficulties.

More difficult to take care of special needs.

The arguments pro and con have been considered in Philadelphia and it has been decided that the individual school kitchen is more feasible.