SMOKE PALLS THE HALLS

As uncompromising and forthright as a custard pie in the face, the Student Council Food Report is one of those rare pieces of research that is likely to get things done. Narrowing its field down to a manageable size, the Council Committee stuck simply to describing what goes on in the Dining Halls now. It wisely refrained from setting itself up as a board of efficiency experts, or drawing up a whole new plan for the Halls; likewise it postponed work on the problem of student waiters until it can find out more definitely how the undergraduates feel about it. Thus concentrating its fire on the nearest target, the Committee has made many a bullseye.

The Dining Halls management has often insisted that the amount of food thrown away is negligible. But the Food Committee found wanton waste all too common in the Halls. Incompetent cooking causes one dish after another, especially vegetables, to be returned to the kitchen un-tasted. There is no expert, full-time dietitian in charge of the menus. These are the main leaks in the pipeline from the market, where the Committee found that Harvard buys good food, to the gullets of House members. As a result, much of the food is unappetizing, and the board rates are so high that if the Halls had no guaranteed patronage, they would certainly have to shut up shop under outside competition. An efficiency expert and a dietitian can clean up this mess, if the University will hire them and then give them plenty of elbow room to roll up their sleeves and go to work. Now that the undergraduates know exactly why the food is bad and the charge for it outrageous, the Administration cannot go on letting so much of the board rate go up in incinerator smoke.