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 GOOD LUNCHEONS 
 
 FOR RURAL SCHOOLS 
 WITHOUT A KITCHEN 
 
 By ELLEN H. RICHARDS 
 
 WHITCOMB & BARROWS, BOSTON, MASS. 
 
GOOD LUNCHEONS 
 
 FOR RURAL SCHOOLS 
 WITHOUT A KITCHEN 
 
 By ELLEN H. RICHARDS 
 
 WHITCOMB & BARROWS. BOSTON, MASS. 
 
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 LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
 Two Copies Received 
 
 DEC 5 1906 
 
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 OlASS A XXc.,No, 
 
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 Copyright 1906 
 By Ellen H. Richards 
 
GOOD LUNCHEONS FOR RURAL 
 SCHOOLS WITHOUT A KITCHEN 
 
 THERE has been much hesitation on the part of 
 even the most ardent advocates of economics 
 as a pubhc school study, because of the expense in- 
 volved in the fittings that are found in the large 
 schools in the cities, with gas and running water. 
 But if, as we believe, conditions have so changed as 
 to make it imperative that " the woman who spends " 
 should know something of marketable products, the 
 pupils of the rural schools need the opportunity to 
 gain this knowledge just as much as those living in 
 the cities need it. Indeed, from the efforts making 
 to revive village industries and to discover new uses 
 for the materials going to waste in every country 
 town, it is easy to see the opportunity of the consoli- 
 dated school where food, textiles, and industries may 
 be studied, with illustrations, where inspiration may be 
 given and received,, and a new center of influence 
 developed. 
 
 Suggestion will bear abundant fruit if made at 
 the age when impressions are permanent. 
 
 This recommendation is no plea for fads and 
 frills, taking time better spent. It is no argument 
 for undue form or ceremony, but a plain statement 
 of the use of that degree of orderliness and system 
 
which affects favorably the human mind as seen in 
 the pleasure derived from orderly processions and 
 balanced arrangements. 
 
 To be specific, the luncheon taken to school 
 may be good and sufficient food, but if crushed — 
 jam mingled with cookies, butter squeezed over the 
 doughnuts — if eaten with chalky fingers on the 
 schoolhouse doorsteps in company with flies, the addi- 
 tional charm of appetite is frequently wanting. 
 
 The latest science gives us warrant for paying 
 attention to ceremony and the surroundings of a 
 meal, since they affect the beneficial flow of the 
 digestive juices. Because a child lives in the country 
 and goes to a country school is no reason why that 
 child should have boorish manners or eat in a piggish 
 way. Too much ceremony costs time and money, 
 but a little is good for both digestion and manners. 
 
 The noon hour in these schools should be utilized 
 for social training and the acquirement of good hab- 
 its and refined tastes, instead of being worse than 
 wasted, as is at present too often the case. One 
 evil-minded pupil turned loose in a rural school may 
 demoralize the whole community. Rough games and 
 horse play or sitting on a bench on the shady side 
 of the schoolhouse are not the ideal recreations. Let 
 there be a helpful supervision of the occupations of 
 the noon hour, by a person provided by the local 
 woman's club, if there is no other way, and have both 
 boys and girls taught what to eat and how to eat it, 
 and how to take care of the refuse, all in a spirit of 
 
enjoyment, not drudgery. (The school grounds will 
 afford outdoor amusement in the same way.) 
 
 The consolidated school, where most of the chil- 
 dren stay for luncheon, offers the opportunity for 
 having an orderly half hour for eating. Each child 
 may bring his own luncheon, of course, and the first 
 difficulty will arise in the secretiveness and shame of 
 those who have what is termed coarser food, or whose 
 mothers do not take time to provide carefully. This 
 is, however, not insuperable, and in time tact and 
 patience will draw in all the pupils. 
 
 There should be a table tastefully laid, with 
 flowers or fruit in the center, on the paper cloth, 
 and certain common dishes disposed about. At each 
 place may be a plate, of paper perhaps, with a round 
 
 or square of paraffin paper under it to protect it 
 
 set on one of the pretty and inexpensive doilies a 
 
 mug or cup or glass, and a fork. A group of four 
 or five pupils should be told off each day to prepare 
 the table, and there should be competition and pos- 
 sibly a prize to the group gaining the best results in 
 the least time. Another group may prepare one 
 common dish to cost not over the one or two cents 
 which each child pays daily for candy. This will be 
 an appetizer for the luncheon brought from home. 
 This dish should be one of those which has been 
 discussed and prepared several times in the course 
 of the lessons on food and nutrition, which it is the 
 right of every child to have in its school course. 
 At the present time a sufficient number of good 
 
meals to serve all the purposes of illustration may 
 be served without a kitchen. How ? 
 
 First, many good foods are picked from vines 
 or trees in condition to eat, with the power of the 
 sun and wind and rain still in them. Kernels of 
 wheat shaken from the head have been eaten from 
 time immemorial, as have apples picked from the 
 tree. The strongest, most agile animal, the squirrel, 
 lives on nuts. Man may add to these from over- 
 flowing markets many other fruits (oranges, bananas), 
 many green vegetables (lettuce, tomatoes), and with 
 butter, cream, cheese, eggs, and milk may make up 
 a most delicious and nutritious diet. 
 
 If to all the foods picked ready to eat there are 
 added those prepared on a large scale and taken from 
 packages instead of from trees, it will be seen how 
 rich a variety is possible. The prepared cereals, 
 crackers, zwiebach, wafers, biscuit of all varieties, 
 cassava bread, rice wafers, puffed rice, popped corn 
 — there is a large supply at hand. The fine quality 
 of canned fruits and vegetables obtainable make it 
 quite unnecessary for a rural school to fit up a 
 kitchen in order to teach food values and bills of 
 fare. 
 
 The experience of most country children is that 
 the pleasure of a meal is marred by the drudgery of 
 cooking beforehand and of washing the greasy dishes 
 afterward. Eliminate the dishwashing and a great 
 gain is made. Teach the rinsing of dishes used for 
 milk and the plunging of all others that are not 
 
greasy into cold water. Rounds may be cut from 
 paraffin paper to place the food on in the plates, 
 and this paper be burned after using. Paper plates 
 may be used instead of china, only they must be 
 burned after a time, after being handled, although it 
 is a good lesson to see that the children's hands are 
 clean before they touch food or dishes. Here is 
 where the need of hot water comes in, and no school- 
 house should be without it. It is a simple matter 
 to have a small kerosene stove or a chafing dish (and 
 this can be used for cooking eggs on the spot, for 
 heating milk in cold weather, even to make cocoa) ; 
 laundry heaters are not expensive nor troublesome to 
 run. Even if the children bring their own lunches 
 it is the only safe and decent thing to see that there 
 are hot water and sOap and towels. The last they 
 can bring from home. 
 
 There is no need for a school to wait for even 
 the kerosene stove in order to secure a kettle of hot 
 water or pail of cocoa or soup or stew. The hay box 
 or tireless cooker will solve the problem. It only 
 means a box with packing — hay, old pillows, even 
 sawdust — into which the kettle or pail is put after 
 having become boiling hot and for meats kept hot 
 for fifteen minutes. The larger the quantity the 
 better it holds the heat. Less than one gallon needs 
 careful and abundant packing, and in very cold 
 weather or for long distance transportation it is well 
 to warm the packing by a pail of water, which is 
 taken out as the food goes in. Many appetizing 
 
dishes may thus be prepared and sent with the chil- 
 dren to school to cook and keep hot until luncheon. 
 Mothers may take turns in making up their favorite 
 dishes. It will be an excellent lesson in economical 
 preparation. 
 
 There must be some psychological reason why 
 nearly all children detest fats, or, quite as likely, we 
 are wrong in expecting them to eat crude fat ; nuts 
 and cream are a more agreeable form. Also the 
 operations of cooking in the home are lengthy, and 
 hours seem days to children. On the other hand, 
 children as nearly universally delight in laying a table, 
 putting on the food effectively, and in putting things 
 back into place. There is usually an innate sense 
 of order which may be fostered. If, therefore, the 
 two disagreeable and time-consuming portions of 
 meal serving can be eliminated a great gain will have 
 been made. 
 
 Let us see what may be done by a teacher in 
 a rural school. 
 
 As to food. It has been found out that man's 
 food always contains five distinct classes of sub- 
 stances. First, water, either by itself, as from well 
 or spring or tap, or in milk or fruit (the apple and 
 the orange have some 80 per cent in the edible 
 portion) or vegetables (the potato has 75 per cent) ; 
 meat also, 70 to 80 per cent. Children need one or 
 two quarts a day. Second, mineral salts, of which 
 most natural foods have enough. Only foods which 
 have been separated from their natural forms, like 
 
white flour and sugar and butter, need to have some 
 substance — salt, for instance — added to them or 
 eaten at the same meal. 
 
 This leaves three classes to consider in selecting 
 our foods, (i) Proteid (from a Greek word meaning 
 first) is of first importance, because such substances, 
 always containing nitrogen, are in some unknown 
 way necessary to life. Again, all natural food ma- 
 terials, as fruits, nuts, milk, meat, and vegetables, 
 contain nitrogen. Some are richer than others, and 
 therefore these synonyms must be learned, for noth- 
 ing can replace these nitrogenous compounds. 
 
 (2) Fats. Children will soon learn that we do 
 not mean only greasy or solid lumps of meat fat by 
 this term, but that nuts, corn meal, oatmeal, olives, 
 etc, contain a pleasant form, as do milk, cheese, and 
 butter. Fat in this sense is second only to proteids 
 as essential to life. 
 
 (3) Starches and sugars, of which there are so 
 many that a term, "carbohydrates," has been chosen 
 to cover them all. These are most abundant and 
 cheapest, and hence form the largest bulk of hu- 
 man food (cereals, crackers, bread, sugar, potatoes, 
 bananas). 
 
 For each meal it is well to have all kinds, so that 
 the little cells of which the body is made may find 
 just what they need as the blood stream flows by 
 them. Then for breakfast we may have fruit of any 
 kind, fresh or dried, any of the cereals with milk or 
 cream (not sugar), which gives us fat and starch, with 
 
sugar in the milk — the best kind. Or we may have 
 crackers or bread and butter with cheese. A beaten 
 Qgg will give more nitrogen if it is needed. A ba- 
 nana may take the place of bread or cereals. 
 
 For dinner it is well to have more hearty food. 
 Instead of meat, nuts or cheese or eggs may be eaten 
 if they have not been used for breakfast. There are 
 so many good foods that it is not necessary to have 
 the same thing three times a day. For older people 
 salads come here, with the rich olive oil ; nuts, apples, 
 celery, fruits, etc. 
 
 For dessert, fruits, especially the hearty dried 
 fruits — raisins, figs, dates — and a little pure white 
 candy or chocolate. 
 
 For supper or school luncheon it ought to be 
 possible always to have plenty of clean, sweet milk, 
 and there is no better food, when it is clean and 
 sweet, than two glasses of milk with bread or crackers. 
 There is now variety enough in crackers and biscuits 
 for every day in the month. As a pleasant addition, 
 some one of the dried fruits, or some jam or jelly, 
 different from any used before in the day, may be 
 used, but the children's supper should be of two or 
 three things only. 
 
 It is not difificult to adapt illustrations of well- 
 balanced meals to local conditions, to use foods of 
 equal value, to make up deficiencies in one food with 
 small additions of another, as the rice-eating peoples 
 use fish roe. 
 
 In the use of language for expression of ideas, 
 
not only the right word for the idea, but also synony- 
 mous words with a like or similar meaning, those 
 which carry delicate shades of feeling, are desired to 
 add variety and force to speech and writing. So in 
 food it is desirable, not only to have food of the 
 right composition, but to have a choice of food syn- 
 onyms which are nearly enough alike to be substi- 
 tuted one for the other, as taste and convenience 
 dictate. This is one of the chief lessons to be 
 learned in school, and which often cannot be learned 
 at home. It will save time and money and be most 
 beneficial to health to get these few facts before all 
 school children. If no set time is allowed, it may 
 be taught incidentally in connection with the school 
 luncheon as here described. 
 
 The application to the school luncheon of these 
 principles, which have been explained by the teacher, 
 will be by easy stages, one thing at a time, and 
 chiefly by stimulating interest on the part of the 
 children. Charts of food composition on the wall 
 will give a basis for further study. Let the figures 
 or, better, lines representing proportions impress 
 themselves on the children's minds. Mere didactic 
 instruction will not accomplish much. 
 
 From "the true history of one country cooking 
 school," as related by the teacher, the following 
 extract is made : 
 
 "The school committee and the teacher discussed 
 the possibility of preparing warm lunches, the chil- 
 dren doing the actual work, the teacher serving as 
 
buyer and steward. There are three objects in this 
 — the health of the children, their instruction in 
 cooking, and also such instruction in table manners 
 as might be given without hurting their pride or 
 feelings. 
 
 "The teacher estimated that a bill of fare for 
 one warm dish each noon could be provided at a 
 cost of two cents a child, each bringing in addition 
 bread and butter. Arrangements were to be made 
 that children who had not the pennies could pay for 
 their dinners by doing some work for the teacher — 
 the other pupils knowing nothing of this arrangement. 
 
 " Ready money is scarce with farmers, even as 
 little as two cents a day for a goodly family ; but 
 milk and vegetables are plenty, and farmers are gen- 
 erous according to their means, and they often sent 
 offerings, which made the expense less for the 
 experiment. . . . 
 
 " Each child brought two napkins, a knife, fork, 
 spoon, plate, cup and saucer. This was the intro- 
 duction of some of them to napkins. Two napkins 
 were needed, because each child had to use his desk 
 as a table, and tables must have tablecloths. 
 
 " The equipments were given by various persons. 
 The committeeman sent a kerosene stove with oven, 
 which would not bake at all unless placed over one 
 of the stoves that served to heat the room. . . . The 
 other articles of household utility were half a dozen 
 dish wipers, two dishcloths, mixing pan, dish pan, 
 spider, frying pan, large kettle, big spoon, boxes for 
 
salt, pepper, flour, and some groceries that were 
 kept on hand. The boys made a convenient cup- 
 board for these and another for the dishes, and doors 
 on them kept out the dust. ... 
 
 " It took some planning to arrange the work so 
 that lessons should not suffer nor be interfered with 
 by the necessity for the cook's presence at the stove, 
 but certain regulations soon worked themselves out. 
 Unless a girl had her lessons she could not serve 
 as cook, and there were others always glad to serve 
 in her stead. . . . The cooking force consisted of 
 one big girl, who ought to know something, and 
 three helpers. This force was changed each week. 
 The week's bill of fare was given to the big girl, 
 whose duty it was to see that everything was pre- 
 pared before ten minutes of nine, that the room was 
 neat, that the food was put on the stove at a proper 
 hour, served properly, the dishes washed, and all 
 tidied again. No vegetables were peeled during 
 school hours, nor other work of that order allowed 
 to come in study hours. . . . 
 
 "The cooking done by these children between 
 eight and fourteen years was a revelation to the 
 teacher, who had seen some of that done by their 
 elders. 
 
 " To the objection that air in a schoolroom is bad, 
 and food cooked therein must be unappetizing, there 
 is only one reply — a country school can have all the 
 fresh air needed — and this school did. . . . 
 
 "A small expenditure of money will fit any school 
 
12 
 
 for the cooking lessons which are practical for that 
 school. Interest and zeal on the part of teacher and 
 pupils will make the work successful under difficulties, 
 and often children learn more when things are not 
 made too easy for them. Economy in use of time and 
 materials, neatness, attention to one's work, regard- 
 less of that of others, are good lessons to learn, and 
 they will all come to the country school where cook- 
 ing is taught, even without a modern improvement." 
 The overworked teacher cannot be expected to 
 give thought and time to such oversight in her short 
 rest hour, and the taxpayers will not at first see the 
 advantage to their pockets in providing extra help ; 
 but the field is open to the woman's club of the town, 
 and offers to them an example of cooperation, a sub- 
 ject of study in perfecting details of management 
 which they will be able to cope with as circumstances 
 demand. No more interesting work and surely no 
 more profitable occupation could be found for the 
 talent now lying idle or wastefully used in every 
 town in the land. 
 
DEC 5 19U6 
 
LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 
 
 014 519 782 fi ^