FREE MEALS AT SCHOOL

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 54, 5 March 1937, Page 3

FREE MEALS AT SCHOOL

HEALTH OF CHILDREN

THE SYSTEM IN ENGLAND

(From "The Post's" Representative.) LONDON, February 6.

One free meal a day for every child attending an elementary or secondary school in England would cost the Government £40,000,000' a year. It wa3 the size of this figure, and the assertions that free meals should not bs made compulsory and that parents would have no desire to be relieved of the duty of feeding their own children, which induced the House of' Commons to reject the suggestion made by a Labour member this week.

Although the motion was.rejected a3 being "impracticable, unnecessary, and grandiose," a great deal of attention is devoted to the feeding of children in schools in England. The progress that has been made was described by Mr. G. Shakespeare, Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Education, when replying to : the motion.'

In eleven years, Mr. Shakespeare said, the number of education authorities providing free meals had. grown from 132 to 235, the number o£ children fed had increased sevenfold, tha number. of meals provided ■ had increased eleven times, and "{he cost had quadrupled. There were three "times the number of free meals provided today compared with 1931.

With regard to milk in schools, over 2,500,000 children were provided by the existing facilities. He had been into dozens of classes in the last few months, and it was astonishing the number of boys' and girls who did not take milk, did not like it, and would not drink it- if it were provided free.

The Government encouraged the provision of meals at .school canteens and the building of school canteens where there was a local demand. The senior schools as a rule had, canteens, at which the children, could get at least a good dinner .at a reasonable charge.

Mr. -Shin-well, mover of the motions, gave as his, reason : the considerable variation in the conditions of school children up and down the country- In the special areas the deterioration was most marked. In the London area during 1935, 189,203 school children were medically examined and only 32,934 were found to be in good health. Mr. Shin well submitted that improve-ment-.undoubtedly manifested itself when more and better food was regularly supplied. The Labour Party declared that the existing provisions were hopelessly inadequate. There were two conditions laid down before meals could be provided. One was an income condition—the parents' income must not go beyond a certain scale. The other condition was that irrespective of the income, however low and inadequate it., might be, it must be firmly established as a result of medical inspection that the child was unable because of its physical condition to absorb education.

"I saw that both those conditions are highly objectionable. But if it is found necessary to impose conditions I would rather have the income condition than the other," he added.; •

Miss Cazalet, a Conservative member, who moved the rejection of the motion, said it did not appear to be common sense to ask the Government to feed every child irrespective of whether it was needed or not. ■: It was not the function of an education authority to feed anyone, but to see that all children attending school were in fit and proper condition to take advantage of the' education' "provided. That was surely the' main- basis of health and medical inspection in the schools. Before : such a huge sum was spent they would be sure of a real demand.

Investigations, according to Mr. Shakespeare, have proved • that lack of enthusiasm for milk is due either to the indifference of -parents or, more usually, to distaste on the part of children. The Government is examining ways of making milk more popular in schools, whether "by introducing a more delicate flavour into the milk," or by more vigorous publicity.