FREE MEALS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23106, 4 February 1937, Page 12

FREE MEALS

THE SCHOOL CHILD ENGLISH RESULTS DEPRESSED AREAS Sj? Arthur MacNalty, the Chief Medical Officer of the Board of Education, in his report for 1935 on The Health of the School Child," has some interesting comments on the free meals provided by school authorities (states the Manchester Guardian). Whilst many authorities, great and small, make good arrangements and provide excellent meals of sufficient variety, in many cases there are serious faults, which includes inadequacy, monotony, or sloppiness, he writes. A certain monotony in hash, stew, and soup meals is a fault of many schemes of provision of meals in which otherwise the arrangements of dietary are satisfactory. In some cases the dietary, in addition to being monotonous, is ill-balanced and deficient even in calorific value.

Sir Arthur gives the following examples from reports received:— "The meal provided is much the same as when I reported seven years ago. On three days a week it consists of soup made from bones (the same bones used throughout the week), with some peas or beans put in. . . . Into this the children press two or three slices of bread."

After describing a dinner of potato hash and milk, another report adds: "Bread and butter is always given, and while I was there I saw it thrown to one or two children. There were no greens."

A third example, stated to be " obviously wrong in almost every respect," reads:— "The meal served (called Irish stew) consisted of a thick soup, containing potatoes, onions, a little barley, and an infinitesimal portion of meat, (about loz per head), and a piece of bread. I tasted it and came to the conclusion that it was a very poor meal, mainly carbohydrate and of very little nutritional value. The other meals are similar, namely, soup with about loz meat per head, and some vegetables. The soup had been made in a wash boiler, and at this centre had been poured into a slop pail, and from there ladled into the children's bowls or plates." THE POOR RELIEF TRADITION " The service has suffered from the Poor Relief Tradition," states Sir Arthur. " The" fact that a child recieves free milk need not be known, but his attendance at a free meal centre is known to all his neighbours. Moreover in some places, apart from the prejudice against re ceiving what is regarded as a form of relief, the conditions, of which examples have been given, deter self-respecting children who really require the provision, and their parents. " In such places not only do these children suffer, for the undernourished child is deprived of his full health, strength, and growth of mind and body, and of his proper resistance to disease, but the school is deprived of the valuable educational advantage of the children receiving with clean hands and good manners a well-served and well-balanced meal, with the decent regime and reasonable equipment civilisation demands. NUTRITION STATISTICS

A new method of classifying the school children into four classes was generally applied in all areas for the first time in 1935, and 1,687,331 children were examined on this basis. In 14.6 per cent, the nutrition was assessed as " excellent," in

74.1 per cent, as "normal," in 10.6 per cent, as "slightly sub-normal," and in .7 per cent, as " bad." , The second-age group (eight-year-old children) made the poorest showing, while the 12-year-olds made the best, with the exception of the still older " leavers." Children in London and the south showed a higher average level of nutrition than those in the industrial cities of the Midlands and still more than those of the-North of England and South Wales.

During 1935-36, 143,179 children were in receipt of free solid meals. In 1934-35 the total was 156,448, and in 1933-34 the figure was 158,543. The total number of meals, including milk meals, provided free was 87,000,000 in 1935-36. The corresponding number in 1934-35 was 68,000,000. This increase was entirely due to the milk meals provided free of payment, which increased from 42,000,000 in 1934-35 to 63,700,000 in 1935-36. Children who received free milk numbered 406,300, as compared with 303,700 in the previous year. On the other hand, the total number of solid meals decreased from 25,500,000 in 1934-35 to 23,000,000 in 1935-36.

"The reduction in the number of children receiving solid meals is probably mostly due to the improved industrial position of the country," adds Sir Arthur. " It cannot, however, be viewed altogether with equanimity, as it seems probable that there are in many areas children who would be benefited by an extension of the provision of free meals in addition to the provision of milk." r A section of the report deals with areas where long-continued depression exists, and, though great divergencies are seen in the returns from such areas, on the whole (says the report) they show a greater incidence of subnormal and bad nutrition than elsewhere.

Dr R. Rutherford, Wallsend (average attendance 7108), referring to a table showing considerable increases in height and weight compared with previous years and the Anthropometric Committee's table, writes:— " The table shows, despite adverse conditions, that no physical deterioration or general malnutrition has been evidenced amongst the school population. Further evidence of the general good health of the children is afforded by the high percentage of school attendance maintained throughout the year and the comparative absence of epidemic disease."

Similarly Dr J. W. Innes, Whitehaven (average attendance 3894), writes (referring to statistics of clinically-assessed nutrition):— " If these figures are of aiiy value, they go to show that there has been no appreciable deterioration in the standard of nutrition over the past number of years. This is one's own impression and is supported by the opinion of able to judge, such as teachers and school nurses with considerable experience." Dr J. L. Burn. Ilebburn (average attendance 4419), where the " slightly subnormal " category has been increased, partly perhaps owing to a change of medical officer, from 10 per cent, to 21 per cent., and the " bad" from 0.8 per cent, to 1.68 per cent., writes:— " I have tried to examine the children in an unbiased way and with not too exacting a standard in mind. Perhaps previous experience of areas where unemployment is less severe colours my impressions, for I must admit that the state of nutrition of Hebburn children is decidedly inferior to that of the children of more fortunate areas. Our children bear on their bodies the marks of the economic hardships of recent years. "Yet I am sure that the actual nutrition of the children must be better now than it used to be, for the introduction of the milk-in-schools scheme has led to a great iri-

crease in the consumption of milk, and the lessened unemployment must have meant that more money was available for more and better food for the children."

Dr P. A. Dormer, of the adjoining and equally distressed borough of Jarrow (average attendance 6313), who classifies 22.9 per cent, of children examined in routine inspections as " slightly subnormal". and 6.7 per cent, as "bad," points out the increase in average height and weight of the children compared with those of the pre-war years 1910-14. Thus as regards " leavers," 12-year-old boys are 1.20 inches taller and BJlb heavier than those of 1910-14, while 12-year-old girls are 0.7 inches taller and 4.11 b heavier.

A gratifying improvement in physique is noted throughout the country (an improvement seen in many civilised countries). In Jarrow, however, the average heights and weights in 1934 and 1935 show some decrease from those of 1933, though they remain above those given in the Anthropometric Committee's table in the report for 1927. TESTS FOR FITNESS Dr R. L. Williams, Mountain Ash (average attendance, 6759), classifies in 2017 routine examinations 6.6 per cent, of the children as of " slightly subnormal" and 8.4 per cent, as of " bad" nutrition. The latter figure Is, with one exception, the highest percentage returned in England and Wales. In a nutrition survey, however, of 6678, 7.8 per cent, were found slightly "subnormal," and 3.7 per cent, "bad." Dr Williams states that, " owing to depressed conditions prevailing in this area, malnutrition will still be on the up grade, in spite of slight improvements noticed from time to time during the year. Great efforts have been made to counteract this by the provision of free milk, emulsion and meals."

The total number of 2,987,233 children passed under medical review represents 60.9 per cent, of the average attendance. The largest totals of defects requiring treatment were skin diseases 215,334, and defects of. vision 156,385. Defects requiring observation included chronic tonsilitis 96,559, and defects of vision 62,918. The number of children dentally inspected last year was 3,366,818, of whom 2,290,404 required treatment. The number receiving treatment was 1,474,083. For the first time the number of fillings in permanent teeth exceeded one million, the total being 1,028,309, compared with 959,078 in 1934. The report mentions the continuation during the year of the application in Manchester of certain tests of fitness to five different samples of boys, chosen at random, ranging in age from eight to fourteen years, from a public school, a secondary school, a public elementary school, a day open-air school assessed aftetf attendance of some duration, and a day open-air school assessed on admission. The results so far obtained are being analysed.