MEALS FOR HUNGRY

Hokitika Guardian, 10 March 1932, Page 2

MEALS FOR HUNGRY

FOUR COURSE DINNER FOR SIXPENCE. PENNY FOR PLATE OF HASH. LONDON, March 8. A four-course dinner for sixpences That is what Middlesbrough’, Yorkshire, can do. Thanks to the enterprise ot practical men and women, thousands ot people in this hard-lnt town are being enabled to carry on through the days or financial depression with good square meals to put heart into them. A system which began in Middlesbrough m the days of b.eak unemployment years ago has been extended so that there are now dozens of homely restaurants where meals can he obtained at> amazingly low prices. One can buy a four-course meal for sixpence. It consists of soup, a cut off the joint, two vegetables, a sweet and coffee. IF the hungry one has not got sixpence he can got a substantial cold pie for threepence and a cup oi coffee as big as his hand tor one penny. One cafe, run by good-hearted women who manage to combine philantropy with sound business, can provide “penny dinners for hungry kidclifes.” For a penny any child is served with a plateful of nourishing hash. It is plain food, of course, but thoroughly sustaining.

How is it, done? A woman who keeps a. typical cafe, explains. “I keep m.y own chickens,” she said, “and my husband used to breed pigs to supply the table. Everything has to be bought in bulk of course, and we have to scheme things out very carefully. Then we all work very hard, and that helps. Even then business has to he brisk to make things pays.” A widow, who runs a working men s cafe near the transporter bridge, relates how she and her daughter work early and late .at their business. “And it is a pleasure to see that what we offer is appreciated,” site said. “The workmen who come here realise that we are hardworked, and do all they can to keep the place clean an ( ] tidy.”