Rural School Lunches

Alberta Department of Education - 1918

This book is a relic from a program to introduce hot lunch items in rural schools. The introduction notes that most children brought a cold lunch to school and ate it haphazardly throughout the day. “The average noon luncheon tends to promote disorder, indigestion, and general discomfort. ... [A]t present the usual way of taking food is a real menace to the manners, health and morals of the children.” Providing a hot lunch item, however, would educate children in proper food preparation and consumption. Students would bring their lunches every day as usual, while the teacher would prepare a hot dish as a demonstration to the class; for the remainder of the week, rotating committees of children would prepare the item as a supplement to the students’ normal meals. “This,” the author enthused, “adds greatly to the digestibility of the lunch and to the nutritive value of the food. It also tends to make school a more interesting place and a greater agency for the socialization of the child. This means that the child’s body is more comfortable and in better condition to resist cold and disease.” Recommended dishes included cocoa, cream soups, mashed potatoes, creamed vegetables, creamed fish, and welsh or tomato rarebit. The white sauce table featured here is standard in cookbooks from this period.

Alberta Government Library Collection. With permission from the Government of Alberta.