COUNCIL GROUP ISSUES FINAL REPORT ON FOOD

"American business may have been built up and run on the basis of competition, but the Harvard dining halls are not," declared the Student Council Committee on Food Investigation, in making its final report on the Harvard food crisis which nearly resulted in a strike.

Besides making suggestions to the House dining half administrations, the Council committee, which is headed by John W. Ellison '44, also recommended that the food group be made a standing committee which would make a report at least every three months.

They also advocate that "students constantly tell the waitresses and hostesses what they think of each meal."

Investigate Dining Halls

After inspecting the House dining halls, the Council group revealed that meals are cooked two to three hours before they are served; that scrambled eggs are heated in large kettles, tending to make them tough; that meats are dried out in the warming process; and that potatoes, no matter how they are served, are prepared too far in advance.

The reason given as to why the meals are prepared so far in advance is that Harvard cooks come to work at 7:30 o'clock in the morning and leave at 3.30 o'clock in the afternoon, getting in eight or nine hours of work. The Council recommended that the cooks be allowed to come to work later, since it took only one chef to prepare the breakfast.

"Nearly every fault can be traced back to the lack of a competitive spirit," reiterated the Council statement. To illustrate this point, the Food Committee report compared the House dining units to commercial restaurants, pointing out the differences in procedure.

The student group stated that cooperation or exchange of ideas is lacking between the dining hall administrations. "For instance," they cite, "Dunster House did not have melons for a long while because Mr. Lane, the Dunster dining hall director, did not know where to get them." The statement continues: "Later he learned from another steward where the melons could be obtained and has since been able to serve them."

"Regular meetings of the stewards for this purpose, with no attempts to retain trade secrets, would undoubtedly improve the over-all picture of the dining room," concludes the group, criticizing the stewards.

Inter House Eating a Grievance

The latest civilian student objection investigated by the Council committee is that of inter-House eating privileges, which have been discontinued this summer. The University has withheld this privilege from the students in order to encourage the individual's making friends in the House in which he live. "Actually," states the Council statement, "it has made many old friendships grow weaker, and has prevented the establishment of many new ones."

The committee recognized that food complaining is a chronic disease of the students and it congratulates the University on keeping down food prices and co-operating as much as they have with their group, but it declares that if the administration follows its suggestions it will help to prevent "recurrences of the recent movement for a strike' and the subsequent had publicity.

The Committee also found that there seemed to be "an attitude of regulations for the sake of regulations." "For instance," they point out, "the students may have as many cooked tomatoes as they wish, sometimes getting two or three whole tomatoes."

"But," declared the Food group, "when fresh tomatoes are served, as in salads, the students are allowed only two or three slices," merely because this is a regulation.

When the students complain about such conditions to the hostess, she is apt to reply, "Those are my orders," according to the committee