Rationale of free school meals

Abstract

1. The home diets of large numbers of school children are deficient to an extent likely to cause malnutrition, judging malnutrition as a complex condition associated with (a) poor physique ; (b) deficient growth (council schoolboys aged 14 were found to be 3.1 in. shorter than Christ's Hospital boys and 5.7 in. shorter than the boys in a large public school) ; (c) clinical defects and diseases ; (d) deficient strength, estimated by pull in lb. ; and (e) endurance and also perhaps. instability (as body weight judged by the Romberg test). 2. The extent of the deficiency should be ascertained locally by home budget inquiries carried out by the M.O.H. or S.M.O. and assisted by the appropriate Government Department. 3. The constituent missing from the diet should be supplied by a system of school meals in such a way that through home and school feeding the child obtains an adequate and balanced diet. 4. Functional tests of strength and endurance should be carried out among school children to see if they are fit for the physical exercises curriculum, such tests being done by those responsible for the exercises in co-operation with the S.M.O. © 1936, British Medical Journal Publishing Group. All rights reserved.