BIG FOOD BILL.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 19942, 31 May 1930, Page 16

BIG FOOD BILL.

needs of the public HOSPITAL. ATTENDANCE OF 1100 PER DAY. To feed the inmates of a big hospital needs as much effort and expense as providing the daily rations for a small town. Last year there were on the average 1100 people, excluding staff, to be fed each day. This cost thousands of pounds in food alone, apart from cooking and serving it. But, like a camp, a big hospital is self-contained, except that it . must go beyond its walls for primary produce. In Christchurch there is tho "cabbage patch" of course, possibly so named because it does not produce cabbage, but vegetables and meat are supplied from outside.

It is surprising, however, what work the Hospital does for itself. Down in the cellars one may see shelves upon shelves of provisions. There is not one cellar, but many, and the Hospital authorities are so blocked for storage space that they hardly know where to go next, tho buildings having grown out of themselves both above and below ground. The supplies for this immense larder are imported direct and the Hospital thus gets the middleman's profit. It is from these shelves that those who apply for charitable aid obtain their stores. Meals for both staff and patients are cooked within the Hospital. But not only does the Hospital do its own cooking but also its own laundrying. This is an immense work in such an institution. All the clothes are washed by machinery and dried by a steam process. The laundry from the Sanatoria is also washed here.

There are many other minor departments in the Hospital which make it domestically one of the most self-con-tained units in the community.