This is in response to your letter of June 10, requesting 1970 Census information pertaining to the Roxbury section of the city of Boston, Massachusetts. The population of Roxbury by age and race can be tabulated from the census tract data for the Boston standard metropolitan statistical area. This information may be available in August or September of this year. The data concerning the population 65 and over with income below the poverty level will also be available by census tract, but will not be available until the end of the year. We have made a note to send you the information you requested as it becomes available. If we can be of any further assistance to you, please let us know. Sincerely, GEORGE H. BROWN Director Bureau of the Census 68-179 O 71 12 Senator EAGLETON. Thank you very much, Mrs. Reason. Mrs. REASON. Thank you. Senator EAGLETON. Mr. Edward M. Drucker of the Pronto Food Corp., is our next witness. Mr. Drucker, will you please come forward? STATEMENT OF EDWARD M. DRUCKER, VICE PRESIDENT OF MARKETING, PRONTO FOOD CORP., CHICAGO, ILL. Mr. DRUCKER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The following statement is submitted to the Senate Subcommittee on the Aging by Pronto Food Corp. for the purpose of presenting a program of fully cooked meals to be used in various feeding programs for the aged. Pronto Food Corp., with offices in 11 major cities, is a division of Portion Control Industries, Inc., whose parent company is Hershey Foods Corp. of Hershey, Pa. Pronto manufactures a complete line. of frozen fully cooked meat products, plus a companion line of complete meals sold to the institutional food service market. All food is manufactured in a modern processing center in Chicago, Ill., under continuous U.S. Department of Agriculture inspection, establishment No. 1366. Pronto is currently supplying products nationally to schools, hospitals, colleges, and universities, industrial cafeterias, military, Government feeding programs, and institutions, et cetera. Pronto's quality control laboratory, located in their processing center in Chicago, is one of only 100 in the United States certified for testing by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Pronto's complete meals, labeled "On-tray," consist of a meat entree, and a combination of two vegetables and/or fruit, all frozen and fully cooked. With the addition of bread, butter, and milk, which can be purchased locally, these meals all meet the nutritional requirements of the U.S. Department of Agriculture for the Federal school lunch program and portion sizes are sufficiently adequate for senior citizens. Because these meals are frozen and fully cooked, they need only be heated before serving. No special equipment is necessary as they may be heated in any type of conventional heating equipment with the exception of microwave ovens; for example, pizza ovens, convection ovens, deck ovens, gas or electric range, grill, et cetera. For example, a frozen meal can be heated in a convection oven at 350 degrees in 12 minutes. Presently, a menu variety of 20 meals is available with more being added. At the present time meals are individually packaged in two-compartment, white epoxy-coated aluminum trays, 16 meals to a carton. Beginning approximately July 1, three-compartment trays will be used, with the master carton containing approximately 30 meals. The master carton is so designed that heated meals, returned to this carton, will stay warm for 1 hour, allowing for the possibility of heating meals in one location and transporting to a second location for serving. The individual lid is made of cardboard over film with a perforated center section for removal and see through. The film enables faster heating, if desired, and greater heat retention. All meals are labeled in accordance with regulations set forth by the Meat Inspection Division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Pronto Food Corp. has distribution in every city in the United States. Meals can be delivered by a frozen food distributor on either a refrigerated or frozen vehicle, on a schedule to be determined by the user. In areas where local distribution is not feasible and adequate freezer storage is available, it is possible to receive quantity shipments direct from our plant in Chicago. It should be made clear that Pronto Food Corp.'s only business is the manufacture of fully cooked foods. The services, utensils, equipment, beverage, dessert, and bakery products must be handled on a local level. However, we do have a large technical services staff available to instruct and assist local personnel in the proper use and handling of our products. This service is, of course, available at no cost. Including the addition of a beverage, dessert, roll, and butter, it is possible, through the use of Pronto's "On-tray" to serve hot, complete, nutritionally balanced meals for less than 50 cents per person per meal. It is our hope that after reviewing the foregoing statement we will have an opportunity to present our meals for taste and evaluation. Thank you. Senator EAGLETON. Thank you, Mr. Drucker. You say in your statement, "Pronto Food Corp. has distribution in every city in the United States." Do you really mean every city in the United States? Mr. DRUCKER. Yes, sir; every city in the United States. Mr. DRUCKER. Yes, sir. We have frozen food distributors in every major city, and most distributors cover an area up to 300 miles. Some of them cover as much as a complete State and therefore they all overlap. There isn't a city we couldn't get to. Senator EAGLETON. All right. Is Chicago the area in which you distribute the most widely? Mr. DRUCKER. No, sir. Our manufacturing facility is in Chicago. Senator EAGLETON. What is your best sales area, what metropolitan area? Mr. DRUCKER. Probably our largest volume would come from the State of Ohio or the State of Texas. Senator EAGLETON. Let's take Cleveland, Ohio? Mr. DRUCKER. Yes, sir. Senator EAGLETON. I don't know what would be the evaluating index used in your business. Do you compute it in terms of meals? Do you ship it in terms of one-meal containers or a case of meals? Mr. DRUCKER. Normally we ship by truckload to a distributor who then stores the product and then it is sold by the case. Senator EAGLETON. By the case. All right. How many cases and I know these figures will come from the top of your head-of meals were distributed, say, in Cleveland, in the past month? I am trying to get an idea of how widespread your service is in a given metropolitan area. Mr. DRUCKER. We would deliver as few as one or two cases or as many as necessary, depending upon the program. I should explain possibly that these meals are used for various programs. In other words, if we were talking about a program for feeding the elderly or schoolchildren, or a program for possibly mobile cateers or indigent feeding programs, et cetera-for example, in the city of Chicago, where we are supplying the meals for the indigent feeding programs, those meals are picked up at our plant on a daily basis. In New York City where we are supplying the meals for the New York City schools, we ship into a central warehouse and they deliver and transport the meals on a daily basis. Senator EAGLETON. With whom do you contract, say, in Cleveland, or in Boston? Pick any city that you feel comfortable with. Who buys your meals? Where do you get your check? Mr. DRUCKER. In Boston, in the Franklin Square project. In the city of Chicago in the indigent feeding program, one of the large vending companies, management companies, purchased the meals. They have the contract with the city utilizing our meals. In many school districts, the schools buy directly from our company or possibly from one of our distributors. It depends on the individual programs. It could be handled either way. Senator EAGLETON. With respect to the elderly in Boston, there is a project. What is it called? Mr. DRUCKER. The Franklin Square House. Senator EAGLETON. Is this a complex of housing in which there are predominantly elderly people? Mr. DRUCKER. Franklin Square House is now an activity center for elderly people where meals are being served. These meals are being supplied by our subsidiary company, Claridge Frozen Foods. (Subsequent information supplied concerning the Franklin Square House lunch program may be found in the files of the subcommittee.) Senator EAGLETON. And they contract with you and your distributor for these meals? Mr. DRUCKER. Yes, sir; with the distributor. In Idaho, the Idaho State Hospital uses our meals for feeding and we contract directly with the Idaho State Hospital. The meals are shipped directly from our plant in Chicago to their central freezer and they handle the distribution to their various units. Senator EAGLETON. You have a distributor in Boston that has a big warehouse? Mr. DRUCKER. Yes, sir. Correct. Senator EAGLETON. Then he distributes out of there to the various places? Mr. DRUCKER. Yes; on a daily basis, twice weekly, whichever is needed. Senator EAGLETON. In terms of variety, how many different types of meals might you have in warehouses in Boston? Mr. DRUCKER. Currently we have a 20-menu cycle. A 4-week, 5-day cycle. But there are 20 meals. If they wanted to use them for 7-day feeding programs, then it would be a 3-week cycle. Currently we are adding additional meals all the time so that we probably will have around 50 meals by the end of the year, 50 different menus. Senator EAGLETON. So you do have a variety, and, of course, you have a nutritionist and other experts that see that everything is balanced out. Mr. DRUCKER. We have an A.D.A. dietician on our staff as well as a technical services group that prepare the menus to meet the nutritional requirements of whatever group we are feeding. Senator EAGLETON. Bearing in mind I am a layman, would your meal in appearance be similar to what in my house we call a TV dinner? Mr. DRUCKER. Yes, sir. Senator EAGLETON. And there would be little trays Mr. DRUCKER. It would be a small compartment or tray. Senator EAGLETON. With a vegetable, perhaps potatoes, and some kind of a meat dish? Mr. DRUCKER. Meat or poultry or seafood. Senator EAGLETON. Seafood? Mr. DRUCKER. Yes, sir. Senator EAGLETON. And is your cost 50 cents each meal or 60 or 40? Mr. DRUCKER. No. Our cost of the meal, including the cost of distribution is 34 cents. In other words, we are talking about the price that could be delivered to the individual feeding unit at. For our meal alone approximately 34 cents. Now, if the unit was large enough that they can take a direct shipment, eliminating the cost of distribution it would be somewhere around 28 cents to 29 cents. To this you would have to add your bread, butter, dessert, and beverage, which would then bring the cost up somewhere around 50 cents by the time you included your utensils, napkins, et cetera. But the total meal if it was delivered through a distributor, including the cost of distribution, could be delivered to the recipient for less than 50 cents. Senator EAGLETON. Are you the biggest producer in the country in this line of endeavor? Mr. DRUCKER. I believe we are, sir. Senator EAGLETON. Do the companies, like Swanson and-we have in my State of Missouri one Mr. DRUCKER. Banquet. Senator EAGLETON. Yes, Banquet. Do they attempt to get into this market with respect to, say, the elderly, or do they strictly sell through Safeway, A. & P., Kroger, et cetera ? Mr. DRUCKER. I believe the companies such as Banquet and Morton, and companies of this nature, are not involved in the feeding for the senior citizens and other federally funded programs. They are basically with the school feeding which we are also involved in. We got into this program approximately 1 year ago, with the indigent feeding program in Chicago, where we began to develop these menus for feeding in a program of this type. From that we got into school feeding. Our basic business is actually cooked meat products which we sell institutionally. We sell to the major school districts across the country, as well as the military. We are currently serving the State of Massachusetts in their State program of convenience foods to the various State institutions. Also the State of Texas and other States across the country. Also I might mention that the St. Louis Board of Education is utilizing these products also. But we recognized about 6 months ago that there were many other programs, namely child nutrition, senior citizens, et cetera, which could utilize these meals, and, therefore, we |