THE COMMUNAL MEAL
SIR,—I should like to endorse the importance of the experiments mentioned by Kenneth Lindsay, M.P., in his article of July 26th, viz., the establishment of canteens and cookhouses for families in connection with blocks of flats or housing estates.
It is sometimes overlooked that the feeding of school children takes no account of the special damage to child life by inadequate feeding in the earlier stages of childhood. The Committee on Nutrition of the League of Nations made it very clear that pregnant women,
nursing mothers, infants and young children must be considered from a nutritional standpoint as the most vulnerable portion of the population, in the sense that damage inflicted in childhood—ante- and post-natal—by bad food cannot be subsequently repaired. Canteens near the family dwelling would tend to avoid this. Such canteens need to have a head skilled in efficient dietary and in catering, in addition to a good cook and—if that important element, freshness in food, is to be attained—such canteens should be in direct co-operation with agricultural units for their supplies.
Canteens adjoining munition factories will make possible the practical use of the experimental work on diet and industrial efficiency carried out in Yale University (Diet and Physical Efficiency, Haggard and Greenberg), in which it is shown that periodical diminution of muscular efficiency which appears at the end of a few hours' work can be abolished by the time and frequency of meals without any increase in the total quantity of food consumed daily. Production in industry follows the same course, i.e., production of output varies as muscular efficiency, concentration of blood sugar and respiratory quotient. This corresponds with the experience of some far-seeing heads of factories, viz., that a brief respite from work at given intervals tends to increase rather than to lower the output.
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