The Observation Deck

I am sure that the schools were trying to provide healthy food, but I never got to that part of the line.

Cleveland

Elementary school lunch service began in Cleveland, Ohio, on December 6,1909, when the Cleveland Federation of Women's Clubs began serving breakfasts to 19 children at the Eagle School. One additional school was added in 1910, and by 1915 meals were being provided for all special classes in the grade schools, excepting the school for the deaf. In total about 710 children were being provided for each day.

School lunch services in Cleveland took on a unique aspect. The Board of Education furnished the equipment and provided the lunchrooms. However, "For crippled and open air children the Federation of Women's Clubs provides food and at each school employs a woman to prepare it. For the blind, the Society for Promoting the Interests of the Blind takes charge. The committees, in consultation with principal, medical inspector, and supervisor of high school lunches, make out the different menus. The Board of Education contracts with these committees to furnish meals to exceptional children in specified schools at so much per child per day, according to the kind and number of meals supplied. 16

In some schools the meals were served at 10 a.m. and again at 2 p.m., and the children went home for their noon lunch. In other schools the lunches were served at noon. Apparently "open air" children received the two lunches each day, and the noon meal was supplied for the blind and crippled children who did not go home at noon.

The meal generally consisted of "bread and jam and a hot dish, such as beef stew, minced meat with potatoes, thick soup, or macaroni with tomato sauce. A few, on order from the medical inspector, get milk in the morningâ€Â￾. 17

In the summer of 1909, lunchrooms were installed in seven high schools in Cleveland. For 16 years prior to this, lunches had been provided by "lunch wagons" going to the schools or by stores in the vicinity serving hot meals at noon. In some schools the "basket lunches" were served on the school premises by caterers. Even after the installation of lunchrooms and equipment in the seven high schools, the operations in the schools were actually conducted by the former caterers under contract with the Board of Education on a concessionaire basis.

In the contract the Board of Education agreed to furnish all the necessary equipment, as well as heat, light, gas and water, sufficient for the proper maintenance of the lunchrooms, and to replace all equipment rendered useless through natural wear and tear.

In 1914-15 the normal school and all high schools except two were provided with lunch services. This involved a total of 6,715 students. All items served were priced a la carte and a typical "menu" offered a selection from about 15 items, including milk. "In some schools the range of choice is too great, in others too small. In all it is uneven. Vegetable soup is always vegetable soup and the price is 4 cents; but price is the only constant factor, for the materials used vary from school to school. That is, a nickel will buy more food, often of better quality, in one school than it will in another.â€Â￾ 18

Milk was furnished to all schools by one dairy selected by the lunchroom supervisor.

"All other supplies are chosen by the individual concessionaires, who are entirely responsible for the service. In a number of schools they prepare the food themselves, which increases their difficulties for they are frequently interrupted by trades people, by lunchroom helpers asking questions, by stray students who need attention, and by teachers on diet who want beef juice or an eggnog, or by other teachers who have a free hour and want a special meal. Lunch has to be prepared in between these demands and dishes are sometimes ready long before the regular lunch period.â€Â￾ 19

Naturally, concessionaires had no guaranteed, minimum income. During the 1914-15 school year, concessionaire's profits ranged from $942 in one school to as little as $124 in another. The median for 10 schools was $605. The comments of a survey committee concerning the "Place of Lunch Service in the School System" is worthy of special note: "School lunches meet a natural need of all children. The purpose of the service is to teach children to choose wisely the food they buy. The conduct of school lunches is a business, an art, and a science.... The Superintendent of Lunches should have the same rank as the director of any other special division and be compensated accordingly. She should be subordinate to the educational department, for her work bears a direct relation to all health teaching in the schools and offers an opportunity to teach children the ethics and economies of spending, and various factors affecting the price of school meals and restaurant meals." 20 In the summary of its findings and recommendations the survey committee states, among other things. "The school lunch division should reach all children; it should provide wholesome and nutritious food for them at cost, train them in sane habits of eating, and teach them to choose wisely what food they buy.â€Â￾ 21

Today, it is still hard to find skim milk in school cafeterias, even though its recognized that the fat in whole milk is undesirable and uneccessary in the diet.

The National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) and the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA) applauded the introduction last month of the Child Nutrition Improvement Act (S.1367), a bill to amend the National School Lunch Act that would establish programs to promote increased consumption of milk in schools and to improve the nutrition and health of children.

provides incentives to schools for increased milk consumption:

However, the report contained recommendations pertaining to milk's role in the school feeding program, namely to "increase the availability of low-fat and skim milk in federal feeding programs targeted to children, which currently favor the provision of whole milk (e.g., the National School Lunch Program)" and establishing a maximum saturated fat content for entrees in school meals.

"Basically, it's a welfare program for suppliers of commodities," says Jennifer Raymond, a retired nutritionist in Northern California who has worked with schools to develop healthier menus. "It's a price support program for agricultural producers, and the schools are simply a way to get rid of the items that have been purchased."

I was speaking of schools in general, not just Lakewood.