Economic and financial section > Problem of nutrition

— 84 —
Meals for Schoolchildren.
Every weekday, and even during the holidays, children of school age
are given a hot ready-prepared midday meal of meat and vegetables
and a sweet, or meat with bread and a sweet in sixty-two canteens
situated on school premises. A few children who have left school also
share these meals. Most of the children receive the food free of charge.
The average number of participants is 8,200. Similarly, about 900
children are given a midday meal of the same type in three large
municipal homes.
In addition, schoolchildren who attend homes conducted by
associations are allowed by the Vienna municipality grants of money,
graduated according to their parents' earnings, which are paid to the
organisations conducting the home and from which these organisations
supply the children with a hot midday or afternoon meal. On October
1st, 1935, about 5,300 children were receiving such relief.
Meals at Kindergarten Schools.
In ninety-two municipal kindergartens, about 4,000 children from
3 to 6 years of age receive every working-day a breakfast of cocoa and
rolls and a two-course lunch of a size suited to their age. Most of the
children are given the food free, or on payment of only a few groschen.
Milk Rations for Children of the Unemployed.
Children of the unemployed who are on the registers (Zustandig)
of Vienna receive during their first year of life half a litre of milk free
daily, if the wage-earner has been at least twenty weeks out of work.
About 1,800 children are at present benefiting by such relief.
Food Packets.
As part of the current monthly poor relief given by the Vienna
municipality to children at home, “food packets’’ are distributed
containing : i/2 kg. of flour, 1 kg. loaf sugar, i/2 kg. lard, i/2 kg. wheat-
meal or 1 kg. first quality beans. A family receives up to seven food
packets monthly, according to the number of children. On an average,
25,800 packets are issued per month. Large families receive, once a year,
in addition to the above regular relief, a larger allowance, part of which
is usually given in the form of food.
(Some particulars of assistance given in other parts of Austria will
be found in the next chapter, pages 107 and 108).