[Report 1938] / School Medical Officer of Health, Lanark County Council.

  • Lanarkshire (Scotland). County Council
Date:
1938
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1938] / School Medical Officer of Health, Lanark County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    23/38 page 21
    10. OTHER ACTIVITIES IN RELATION TO THE HEALTH OF SCHOOL CHILDREN. Under this heading might be classed the Committee’s Scheme of feeding of necessitous children, the milk in schools scheme, supply of clothing, boots, tonic food, etc., all of which are important factors in maintaining the fitness of school children. At the Committee’s special schools all pupils are provided with a forenoon snack, consisting of a biscuit and milk, given at 10 a.m., and a two-course, hot, mid-day meal. Tonic food is also given as a daily routine to all physically invalid children in attendance. During the past year, 93,423 hot mid-day meals were given free at the special schools. The scheme forecast in last year’s report for the providing of hot mid-day meals to children attending ordinary schools came into operation on loth February, 1939. The trial area selected by the Committee for the scheme was No. 6 School Management Area (Bothwell Parish), and the central cooking depot was located at Bellshill, as this was considered to be the most convenient centre for distribution purposes. The scheme, admittedly a trial venture, has afforded valuable data for any future extension of the scheme to other areas. From the time the scheme actually came into being in February till the 30th June, a period of four and a half months, 56,771 meals were provided free to necessitous school children, as well as a considerable number on a payment basis. In regard to free milk at school, this was given throughout the year to 1,179 children, and tonic food to 79 children in attendance at ordinary schools. Free clothing was provided in 54 cases to children who were certified by the school medical officers as being necessitous from the point of view of health. The distribution of free boots is usually governed by a financial scale of necessity, and during the year under review 11,750 pairs of free boots were granted by the Committee. As it has been the custom to include in the Report statistics regarding the “ Milk in Schools ” scheme, it is again given here for
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