First, and most important, it is humiliating for many of the children, especially the older, larger boys and girls to march to another school some blocks away for lunch. There are children and families that do not accept the lunch much as it is needed because of pride. People new to desperate poverty hate being humiliated. I need not talk more about this. We do not want to raise children or make families so accustomed to relief that they lose a sense of pride in wanting to take care of themselves. Hunger may force a child to march for food but that march can leave some personality scars that time will not erase. We have but to think back to our own childhood to understand this.

Second, these are poor children from our poorest homes. They lack the wearing apparel to guard against the rain, the snow, and the cold winds. In inclement weather a march of four or five blocks back and forth almost undoes the physical good of the lunch.

And third, this takes the complete lunch hour of a teacher. True, the teachers do rotate this assignment week by week but it means that the marching teacher usually begins the afternoon session too tired to do her best. And children cannot be sent without a teacher. When the children ate the bagged lunch in their own building, lunch was over in a few minutes. The teacher was free, the children went out to the playground or home.

On behalf of our children who cannot be here to speak for themselves, I want to commend the public school food department for the good lunches and to thank you, Senator Morse, and your committee, for your interest and leadership in getting this $266,000 appropriation item through Congress for this elementary school free lunch program. It is good for those who, needing a lunch, receive it. But not until in every school every child who has no lunch at home receives one can we stop. The teachers can tell how many more children should be added this year. What we saw in the faces of the children as they ate their sandwiches, cookies, and fruit makes us determined to continue asking for lunches for all the hungry children in all the District elementary schools.

And there is no need to repeat again that a school lunch encourages good attendance, and better attendance makes it possible, of course, for the teachers to do a good job of teaching the children. And after all, this program is moving forward, and we are just thrilled about it and willing to do everything we can to help.

Senator MORSE. Mrs. Fisher, I am very glad to have this testimony. I want the record to show that when this committee a few years ago made the first hungry children survey in the District of Columbia, you were one of the people who so inspired the committee to come forward with the recommendations that we made that year. This whole movement was started when you showed us the problems being met by your neighborhood house. What you demonstrated to us as to the need among the children left no room for doubt in the minds of the members of this committee that we just had a job to do, and we started to do it. Your testimony this morning reinforces the observation that Dr. Hanson made in regard to the walking of these children from one school to another school in order to get their lunch.

I want to say I think you are in a particularly good position as a nonofficial witness, so to speak, as far as any connection, either with the District government or with the school organization, to give this reinforcing of the testimony.

Now, my own opinion, based upon your testimony and other information that I have, is that your conclusions are sound if we can provide the facilities in order to make those bag lunches available at the school in which the student is in attendance. As Dr. Hanson said in his testimony, the main reason it hasn't been done is the lack of delivery facilities, the lack of necessary trucks. I only want to say that unless evidence is brought in that would show me that the conclusion I have reached thus far is an unsound one, I am going to urge that we get those facilities so that those lunches can be delivered to the school at which the child is in attendance.

We may have some differences of opinion as to the psychological effects of requiring the student to parade his poverty in a manner of speaking. But I have done enough work myself in years gone by in this general field to know that one of the most important things psychologically is to not make the little children conscious of their impoverishment. This psychological characteristic of pride is something that not only needs to be preserved and protected, but fostered. I think, psychologically, it is desirable that this school lunch program just be a matter of course, no attention called to it at all, to make it just a part of the daily life of the student in school. The last observation I want to make and I realize the reference to it, made by Dr. Hanson, who, I thought, handled it very tactfully, but I am in a better position, it seems to me, to emphasize it-I do think we ought to stop putting additional burdens on the teachers. After all, if they are going to be good teachers they too are entitled to relaxation of a lunch hour, and they are entitled to be relieved from these youngsters at least in the middle of the day. Every parent knows how desirable that it is at times, to have a little relief from the strain of that constant care considering the bubbling energy that those youngsters have. I would like to see us work out the program where the teachers aren't asked to subsidize it by extra labor, because that is just as much a subsidy as it is to ask them to make some material financial consideration.

It is my hope that we can work out this program to the mutual satisfaction of everyone whereby the burden isn't placed upon a teacher to expend her hour or most of her hour during the noon period, or even a half, policing children that have to be marched from one school to another three, four, or five blocks away. Your testimony, coming from an unbiased source, and being in no way officially connected with either the school system or with the District government I think deserves great weight, as I am sure will be true of the testimony of some of your associates that I am about to call. Thank you very much.

Our next witness is Mr. James E. Lewis, director, Southwest Community House.

STATEMENT OF JAMES E. LEWIS, JR., EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, SOUTHWEST COMMUNITY HOUSE

Senator MORSE. I can remember very well, Mr. Lewis, when you were before me several years ago and you and I bought a pair of shoes at the close of your testimony. I don't know whether we are going to buy any shoes today or not, but I am anxious to hear your testimony on this problem."

Mr. LEWIS. Thank you, Senator Morse.

Senator MORSE. I suppose you can again cite to me that there are some children who in cold and bad weather can't get to school in the District of Columbia because they lack shoes.

Mr. LEWIS. I am sure that is still one of the problems of the District of Columbia.

My name is James E. Lewis, Jr., the executive director of Southwest Community House, which is located in Southwest Washington, one of the areas that are undergoing redevelopment.

We are happy to say at this time that we have seen many of the old dilapidated houses removed, and we have seen new public housing built, and we have families living in those houses. So we do have something of a new Southwest.

I want to thank Senator Morse for inviting me again to testify before this committee on the problems of hungry children of the District of Columbia. And this committee is to be commended for providing funds for establishing the free lunch program in the elementary schools.

The Department of Education and the Department of Public Welfare should also be commended for setting up this program in our elementary schools.

It is very encouraging to me to see what can be done in the District of Columbia when citizens demand that a problem be attacked by the Department of Public Welfare and the Department of Public Schools.

We were told many times in the early stages of this fight that nothing could be done, but today we see that much has been accomplished in this field.

I have participated in and observed the operation of the free lunch program in the Southwest from its beginning to today. As of yesterday, I marched along with the youngsters from one of the elementary schools to the nearest junior high school, had lunch with them, and marched back. I saw approximately 450 youngsters in Southwest Washington that are receiving free lunches daily. If it had not been for your committee and its work in acquiring the funds for this program we would not have it, and we would not see and would not witness these 450 youngsters receiving free lunches today.

We realize that there are many more in the District of Columbia that need this kind of program, there are many that are not receiving the free lunch program but could well benefit from a lunch program in the schools.

As I said before, we have made some inroads into this problem. However, there are still many, many things that can be done.

As pointed out by others, the problem that I see, and the thing that should be corrected in the free lunch program, is this marching from the elementary schools to the junior high schools and back. I would like to share with you three comments that I heard yesterday as I marched along. One was that it was "The march of poverty"; second, "The breadline"; third, "The hunger march". It is the youngsters that are being labored with these comments. This is the point

Senator MORSE. Is it your opinion, Mr. Lewis, that by following our present procedure we are also unfortunately, at the same time, doing some psychological injury to some of these children?

Mr. LEWIS. Yes, I certainly agree with that.

The second factor is that the teachers are being also labored because they have to lead the march. Again, this is a tremendous task. It took us exactly 55 minutes yesterday to do the job of policing the lines, seeing that the youngsters are safe, keeping down disturbances, helping in the cafeteria, seeing that the kids did not drop their trays, et cetera. It is my honest opinion that if we are going to continue this kind of program, then it is not doing what we as citizens anticipate. We hoped that this program would not only provide food, but it would provide a source of training and education for these youngsters. Again, this one little incident of marching, I feel, is deterring this kind of program.

So it is my recommendation and my hope that in the near future we can have the bag lunches brought into the elementary schools, not only as free lunches for the youngsters that are receiving the free lunch program, but for all of the children that attend our elementary schools. We feel that one lunch a day, if we can assure that child who is getting that, we can then feel sure that this child will have at least one good meal for 5 days a week. And we hope that we can work in that direction.

Thank you again, Senator Morse, for inviting me. And we stand ready to do all that we can to help this program along and feed the many more hundreds of youngsters in the District of Columbia that I feel need food.

Senator MORSE. Thank you very much, Mr. Lewis. You may be sure that I shall call you before the committee again in the future, because I am looking to you and Mrs. Fisher and Mrs. Williams and Mrs. Lesser and others that are working in these neighborhood houses as sort of my unofficial aides in keeping the committee informed as this program progresses.

I have already stated that I share your point of view that we ought to try to get the bag lunches delivered to the schools as soon as possible. I take the position that even though we have to follow our present procedure to get the food to their stomachs, it is better than no food at all. But I do think that we have got to look also to this matter of psychology too, and bring some relief procedurally to the present program, and also some relief to the teachers.

I want to thank your very much.

The next witness will be Mrs. Ethel James Williams, executive director, Southeast Neighborhood House.

STATEMENT OF MRS. ETHEL JAMES WILLIAMS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, SOUTHEAST NEIGHBORHOOD HOUSE, ACCOMPANIED BY MISS ANN HOPEWELL

Senator MORSE. We are very glad to have you with us, Mrs. Williams.

Mrs. WILLIAMS. Thank you, Senator Morse.

Senator MORSE. You may proceed in your own way.

Mrs. WILLIAMS. Senator Morse and the committee, I am extremely happy to have this opportunity to appear before you again.

I would like to turn the testimony over to one of our young people of the settlement house. I think this gives her an opportunity to do her community work. And she is a young lady who has grown up in our settlement house. This is Miss Ann Hopewell.

Senator MORSE. We are very happy to have her with us.
Mrs. WILLIAMS. She will give the testimony.

Senator MORSE. You may proceed.

Miss HOPEWELL. Senator Morse and members of the committee, my name is Ann Hopewell. I am 19 years old, and a girls worker at Southeast Neighborhood House.

This, however, is not my first association with the house. I have lived all my life in the southeast section of Washington, and during my grade school years I was a regular participant of the program as a Brownie, a Girl Scout, and a member of the other children's interest groups and classes at the house.

At the age of 16 I began to work as a senior counselor with the day-camp program.

Following this I became a teacher with the Saturday Dance Workshop.

Since September of this year I have been going to school in the evening and working with the 6- to 12-year-old girls at the neighborhood house.

Many of the children who are involved in the school lunch program in our Southeast area were children with whom I have worked or am working currently. This week we took a sampling of 45 of our children; that is, about a third of our current membership of 6- to 12-year-olds. Of this number 11 are receiving free lunches, and 3 additional children are planning to apply this week. Of the 31 children who are not receiving the lunches, 13 are members of the house day-camp program, 17 either go home for lunch or bring their lunches to school, and 1 child is a half-day student who eats her lunch before she leaves home in the afternoon.

There are approximately 2,000 elementary age children in our area. Of this number, 299 are receiving the free lunches. School officials with whom we have talked generally feel that additional applications will continue to come in for some time, as more families find out about the program. They feel too that the program is a worthwhile one, with the food being attractively prepared and enjoyed by the children.

To date, there has been no evidence of waste of any kind by the children.

One school official observed that attendance had picked up among most of the children receiving lunches.

We at southeast house have been much interested in the reaction of the children who are a part of the program who plan to apply this week. We have noted that several children from one family who receive lunches are much livelier and much more interested participants in our house programs than they have previously been. On the other hand, we note the enthusiasm of several other children who will be applying within the next day or two.

Both families received food baskets at Christmastime from our agency. The latter family, incidentally, consists of the mother and five children. The husband is not in the home and does not contribute to the support of the family. For these children the lunch program is a real blessing.

On the whole, we would certainly say that the school lunch program is indeed a worthwhile and needed program. We would hope that it would be possible to retain it and expand it as the need might arise.