SCHOOLBOYS’ FOOD

Evening Star, Issue 21992, 30 March 1935, Page 20

SCHOOLBOYS’ FOOD

“TUCK BOXES' 1 DENOUNCED Dismay will fill many a schoolboy heart when he learns that that cherished institution, the “ tuck shop,” is under grave suspicion. Its usefulness was assailed at the conference of educational associations recently held in London. The leader of the assault, Mr W. A. Sibley, head master of Wycliffe College, Gloucester, revelled in the fact that at his own school this stumbling block to a reformed dietary had gone, and gone for ever. Nor will he tolerate the “ tuck bos.”

But his prohibitions are not entirely free from the breath of inconsistency. No pepper, mustard,, or vinegar arc allowed to the boys in his ‘.‘house.” On the other hand, he explained that he had not quite, cut off salt, because “there is a point beyond which one cannot expect the British schoolboy to offer himself on the altar of experimental science!” , ~ Mr Sibley, whose school has had'a “ food reform house ” for the past twenty-fivo years, was speaking at a sectional meeting of tho Food .Education Society. Before him, on the floor of the lecture theatre, were tables laden with dishes, but they were all of the vegetarian variety. As food reformers the speakers seemed' to be more or less unanimous in laying down the following general rules which should be followed in regard to school dietary;— Three meals a day. No drinking with meals. Water to be sipped on rising and before retiring for the night. Potatoes cooked in their jackets. Raw carrots and artichokes.

Plenty of salads. According to one speaker, salads were started at Christ’s Hospital as a luxury for the masters, and then the boys wanted them. Another master produced from his hat three brown rolls such as his own pupils appear to crave. Mrs Guthketch, senior warden of the University Students’ Hostels, North Wales, started the meeting on another trail by complaining of the amount of vinegar consumed by women students. They took it, she said, with fried fish, salads, and many other kinds of foods.

Mrs C. E. Hecht, the chairman, suggested that if they were not deliberately using it for slimming purposes lemons might be used as a possible substitute. BETTER COOK. During discussions on problems of school and university diet, a letter from Mr Frank Preston, head l master of Malvern College, was read. “ The most important element in all school feeding,” he said, “is the cook, and unless this nation is going to improve tho supply and quality of cooks beyond the few incompetent people who toy with a gas cooker it is almost a waste of time to consider a diet suitable for anybody.” This applied even more to schools than anywhere else. Mr H. N. P. Sloman, head master of Tunbridge School, wrote: “Things must bo moving a hit in the homes, as I find more and more boys ready to enjoy salads, and tuck-boxes arc fast disappearing.” After covering a wide dietetic field, tho meeting got back to the vital question of the “tuck shop.” “Is it not tho proper business of schools,” asked Mr Sibley, “ to feed the_ hoys instead of leaving them to their own devices? Can one trust the unregenerate, uncontrolled appetites of boys to feed themselves wisely if they have access to tuck shops and tuck boxes?”_ Such opposition as there was to his policy, ho stated, came from the school shop authorities rather than from tho boys, because so many schools depended on the profits of tho school shop—mainly derived from tuck —to finance games and other interests. That seemed entirely wrong. If boys were allowed to bring back tuck boxes, some more richly stocked with potted foods and jams than others, it would lead to an undesirable form of competition.