CHURCH "FREE LUNCH."

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 32, 7 February 1914, Page 4

CHURCH "FREE LUNCH."

The credit of a very novel movement lis duo to the Congregational Church Ist Cincinnati, Avhich recently established the first free lunch tor worshippers. Soup, coffee, sandwiches, and cakes are followed by the sermon, and those without a lodging for the night may sleep for a few hours by day in the cosy plush pens. According to Mr Kelly, the pastor, the American churches can learn from the schools which give the scholars a free breakfast, and from the public house keepers, in the United States, who give free meals from mid-day till supper-time. Mr Kelly argues that the public-house keepers really know men, and a great many preachers do'

not. He believes that a large' percentage of the men, particularly amongst the poorest, go to the saloon not so much for drink hut beeae.se (hey find warmth, cheer and often tasty food provided. "To compete wiili the public house, 1 serve a better lunch," said MY Kelly. As the pastor remarked, anybody entering an American hostelry and paying for a glass of liquor may est, a meal ol sandwich, hot sausage with' mashed potatoes, biscuits and cheese, gratis.

and for this reason, it is argued, drunkenness in the United Stales is comparatively a rare thing. The "free lunch" is not unknown in New Zealand, though hardly on such an elaborate scale.