[To THE EDITOR. OP THE " SPECTLTOR.] SIR,—In your interesting
article in last week's Spectator on
"Children's Meals and Parents' Pockets" you ask : "Why should not meals be provided in all schools for all children whose parents are willing to pay the cost-price of the meal ?" In my parish (St. Mark's, Hamilton Terrace, N.W.) we have an excellent parish kitchen and school of cookery immediately adjoining our schools, which are attended by between six and seven hundred children.. For many years past provision has been made daily at one o'clock of well-cooked meals, suitable for them, at an extremely low cost. These meals are served in a bright, airy, and well-warmed room. A large proportion of the children come from homes in which it might be expected that our parochial restaurant would be welcomed as a valuable boon, yet the daily dinner-party very seldom exceeds twelve. Here is our tariff :-
One halfpenny —Half-pint of soup, with bread ; rice pudding ; roasted potatoes; or porridge and treacle (if specially asked for).
One penny.—Half-pint of soup, bread, and slice of cake-loaf, gingerbread, or bread and jam; or half-pint of soup, bread, and rice pudding. Three halfpence.—Half-pint of soup, bread, and suet or other pudding. Twopence.—One pint of soup, bread, and pudding ; or plate of meat and vegetables, with bread.
Threepence.—Plate of meat and vegetables, bread, and pudding or tart.
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Our little guests are paid for • in some instances by -their parents, in others by our district visitors, and in others again by kind individuals who know of special cases requiring help. Handbills are widely distributed which make the provision • known throughout the parish, and yet it seems to make very little appeal to the class for which it is intended. May not our experience be laid to heart by Dr. Macnamara and others who are advocating the erection of large dining-halls P Does it not seem as if, to quote the words of Mr. George Hookham in his important letter to the Times of March 13th, the average British workman still keeps before him "the ideal of: a decent meal in a decent home, under home influences" P-
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