MINER’S MEAL

Grey River Argus, 28 August 1946, Page 8

MINER’S MEAL

“In the early days of this last war someone asked —I think it was in the House of Commons —why the Ministry of Food could not arrange to serve hot meals to the miners at* the coal face. Well, the Minister being a realist, asked me to .go and see what happened normally in the matter of the miner’s food. A little ascertainment elicted, the fact that the last thing the miner wanted for his snack when down below was a hot meal; in Yorkshire the answer to the question —what did he want most as basis of his snack —was dripping; in South Wales the answer was sweet cake. In short the miner, when his wife or his mother had the world of food to choose from, chose fat and sugar. We know the reason; although they did not. Experience had taught them to take to their work in the hot moist atmosphere of the pit. to be eaten quickly in a crouched position, one or other of the foods that produced the maximum energy in the minimum time.” —(An extract from Lord Herder’s speech at “The Primary Producers’ Conference, broadcast at the BjB.C. overseas microphone).