Home Economics Circular No. 15. October, 1922.
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
BUREAU OF EDUCATION
WA8HINQTON, D. C.
SELF-SUPPORTING HOME-ECONOMICS DEPARTMENTS.
By Mrs. HENRIETTA W. CALVIN.
INTRODUCTION.
" How shall we reconcile the actual teaching of cooking and the
preparation of hot lunches which are to be served each day in a
small consolidated school cafeteria? The cafeteria must- be self-
supporting, and the cooking must be done by three cooking classes."
This is one of many similar questions coming to the Bureau of
Education.
A second type of question is, " How can we make our home-eco-
nomics work self-supporting and yet neither sacrifice educational
values nor exploit the pupils and teacher?"
The questions are similar but not identical. In the first, the ac-
tuating thought in the minds of the school authorities probably is
that the pupils need hot food. In the second, the thought is that
school expenses must be cut. In many cases the logical answer to
the one is also the answer to the second. Suggestions for the solu-
tion of the second question, where no cafeteria is maintained, are
partially answered in Home Economics Circular Xo. 14.
All progressive home-economics teachers are striving to find a
method of procedure that will permit them to escape from motive-
less manipulation of minute quantities of food materials, and yet
save themselves and their classes from the wreckage resulting from
exploitation for the benefit of lunch-room appetites.
COOKING IN QUANTITIES.
Cooking in quantities comparable to the amounts required for an
average family is highly desirable. Cooking exclusively in res-
taurant quantities affords little training of value. The wise teacher
13372' 22
foods, nutrition, and food preparation: First, the laboratory class
period is of not less than 60 minutes' duration ; second, the period is
immediately preceding the noon hour; third, the same class comes
daily or sections of the same class so alternate that every day service
of food is possible (to have classes in different grades doing the same
work is most undesirable) ; fourth, the understanding, good will, and
cooperative spirit of teachers in other departments is assured ; fifth,
the mothers in the community are in sympathy with the project;
sixth, the home-economics teacher is capable, willing, well trained,
and interested in this type of teaching, and the principal of the school
fully realizes the educational value to the consumer of a rightly man-
aged school lunch and the injustice which may result if the home-
economics teacher and pupils are exploited.
The course in foods arranged to function with the lunch service
should be organized around the replies to a series of questions such
as these: What composes an adequate diet for growing children?
What foods are especially necessary? What types of food should
the noon meal be composed of? In this particular school does the
noon lunch replace the main hot meal at home, or do the families
of this community have their heaviest meal in the evening?
After this preliminary work, the theory lessons should be so
evolved as to develop a knowledge of elementary nutrition and
dietetics, of proper food combinations, and of the production, mar-
keting, and care of foods, with special emphasis upon sanitary prac-
tices.
A good textbook in elementary dietetics and nutrition should be
adopted and used in the classroom work, which should parallel the
laboratory exercises.
PRICES OF FOOD.
Food costs vary in different sections of the country. A small
profit should be made on all sales of cooked foods in order to cover
losses due to mistakes in preparation, the cost of the food tasted by
the class members, and the cost incurred in connection with the
service of the lunches.
With careful management good food can be served at a cost
varying from 3 to 5 cents for each portion yielding from 250 to
300 calories.
No profit should be permitted on fresh fruit and bottled milk,
for these are articles essential to the children's health, and all
reasonable measures should be adopted to encourage their use.
In the fall, lunch-room food service should be delayed for several
weeks. Work in both theory and practice necessarily precedes quan-
tity cooking. Instruction in expeditious methods of procedure, good
housekeeping practices, and regulation of cooking temperatures is
fundamental. The ability to comprehend and follow directions must
be acquired before serious responsibilities can be assumed. Unifica-
tion of ideas and ideals must be accomplished.
COUB8H OF STUDY IN FOOD PREPARATION.
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The following lessons, in which the use of milk and vegetables are
stressed, may well compose the earlier part of ^his course: Cocoa
and chocolate; Cream of tomato soup; Cream of corn soup; Vege-
table soup without meat; Creamed onions: Escalloped cabbage;
Macaroni and tomato sauce ; Buttered peas and carrots ; Baked pota-
toes with cheese sauce; Baked beans and escalloped tomatoes;
Creamed dried beef and baked potatoes; Creamed cod fish and
mashed potatoes; Vegetable soup made with meat; Escalloped apples;
Hot bisouits and creamed salmon; Hot corn bread and pot roast of
beef; Hot muffins and fried apples; Dried apricot shortcake; Baked
apple dumplings; Bread pudding; Rice and raisin pudding; Steamed
brown bread; Fruit salad; Vegetable salad; Tuna fish and celery
salad ; Cheese and nut salad ; Fish, meat, or cheese souffle.
These various articles of food offer ample opportunity to organize
an adequate course in food preparation.
So long as there is educational value in repeating a recipe, all
the class may prepare a portion of the recipe needed in the lunch
room. So soon as the preparation of a certain food is mastered the
preparation should be detailed to two girls, and the rest of the class
should that day work with small quantities on a new recipe.
For instance, cocoa, vegetable soup, and tomato soup made with
milk may be found to be popular with the pupils. These will appear
on the menu some days of almost every week. The first, and prob-
ably the second, time each of these foods appears on the lunch menu
it will be found desirable to have every group of two or every indi-
vidual girl prepare a quantity comparable to the amount. needed for
a family of six.
Usually 1 gallon of cocoa or soup is sufficient for 20 services. For
50 lunch guests 2 gallons, or 10 quarts, will be required. With the
above assignment of work in a class of 20, each two girls will make
a quart or each girl 1 pint, and when the article is done the finished
product will be poured into one large container.
In after times two girls will make the entire 10 quarts.
If it is found desirable that sandwiches be served every day, these
should be practiced upon in class until they can be made dexterously,
after which some person should be paid to make them.
As with the preparation of the large recipe, so with the respon-
sibility for planning, estimating quantities, keeping records of cash
received and expended, and notifying mothers of the next week's
6
menus, the duties should rotate among the different members of the
class. This will in no wise relieve the teacher of her responsibilities,
but will enhance the educational value of the work.
It is for other teachers than those in home economics to see that
the pupils are clean when they enter the lunch room, that they enter
in an orderly manner, that they are courteous and considerate one to
another, that they maintain good order while in the lunch room, and
observe the rules that are evolved for operating it. These responsi-
bilities may be detailed to different teachers for different weeks or
may be assigned to the director of physical and health education.
At least once a week, and if possible once each day, the pupils in
every room should have a short talk on the relation of diet and food
habits to health.
It may be possible to so lighten the tasks of the home -economics
teacher that she can visit the various rooms, explain the* funda-
mentals of an adequate diet, and make plain the reasons for the
plans adopted for operating the lunch room.
It has been found possible to train the home-economics girls to
give talks on the subject of foods and diet to various classes.
The school lunch room may be but a feeding station, or it may be
made an educational factor of the highest value. It should be the
latter, not alone for the relatively few girls who participate in the
preparation of the food, but for every individual connected with the
school.
Again, may it be said, no home-economics teacher need be dis-
mayed or discouraged when asked to serve hot foods if the coopera-
tion of principal and teachers is assured and she and her pupils
are protected from exploitation.
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