Are our high school students malnourished?
Mr. Tant-Mieux censor says: « No ». Parents and students think: « Yes ».

The child became pale and lost weight; the father asked him: “What is the matter with you? » The child replied: "I don't know..." We consulted a doctor, and the doctor, after having examined and examined, also replied: "I don't know... >>
The child continued to turn pale and lose weight; we worried more, we searched, we found. The child was, he is, the innocent victim of the increase in the cost of living.
Let’s clarify. Ask your son or your brother, the high school student: “Are you eating well at school, and when you are hungry? » He will generally answer: “Yes. » His age is that of beautiful detachments, where games almost always, studies, sometimes, have superior charms which exclude all other concerns. Insist, continue your investigations; you will soon know that, in most high schools, the students are not sufficiently fed; you will also learn that in certain establishments, the food is not excellent...
This is what parents who submitted their complaints to us learned.
Ah! Mr. censor told us. “So much the better, that surprises me. The students don't complain, the parents have never said anything to us. Well! Well! these are stories...
If we stuck to the ideas of Mr. Censor Tant Mieux, we would have easy serenity and we could remain in error. That children, by the thousands, by the hundreds of thousands, are malnourished, that their health is compromised, that the France of tomorrow is thus threatened in its flesh, this is no small matter. This is a matter worth elucidating. Let’s make our contribution.
The regulatory ration
I admit that one of the most distinguished principals in Paris, who runs his establishment with incomparable dedication and tact, did not share my emotion and that he seemed to agree quite well with Ms. . the censor So Much Better.
Don't think, he told me, that we can give less meat to our students, since we are governed by a decree from 1953, which imposes sixty grams of cooked meat per meal for each student. The butchers have increased their prices, we have increased ours... With the two francs and fifty that we spend, on average, for each meal, we manage to do things, if not very well, at least quite well. Judge instead
in
Kindly, the principal gave me a list of the week's menus: they are diverse, carefully prepared. But, as I don't give the impression of being convinced, he says to me:
Come to the kitchen with me, we're making the portions...
Portions of meat, for appetizers. healthy as they may be, they are not such. abundant. I let it be understood.
- It's the decree, it's the weight... the principal told me.
- And the vegetables?
But we can ask for more, and then we always bring it back to the kitchen... There is, however, one, I mean two, exceptions. The fried potatoes are always all eaten; when the rice is made with fat, there is some left, but when it is made with milk, the students eat it all. A little gluttony... It's a venial sin. Without a doubt...
Student Complaints
But the principal's conscience is clear. The students eat well, good things, and then when the principal asks for too many credits for food we tend to reduce them.
I don't want to argue, otherwise I would say: - You planned two francs fifty per meal a few months ago; the cost of living has increased since then; in these conditions you cannot serve the same thing, as much or of as good quality.
But the headmaster is a charming, devoted man, full of happy initiatives; I do not want to end our pleasant conversation with a controversy, however courteous it may be.
All the headmasters are charming men: their welcome is friendly, their optimism constant; everyone I saw told me:
But no one is complaining!
To everyone, I replied:
But parents of us, journalists, are complaining.
And I can add:
- The students also complain...
I questioned some of them... If they were not unanimous in complaining, they were unanimous in saying:
- We could have more! So they left the table still a little hungry. And one of them, the most mischievous, declared to me:
I am in philosophy and I already know that you are right, sir: Primum vivere... As Mr. Léon Bérard would say.

JACQUES CHARTRONS.