This slideshow is about childhood nutritional concerns. Pages from the 1916 USDA Farmers' Bulletin explored in this activity show how children came to be defined nutritionally—therefore, biologically—as a special category of human beings.

This is a picture of a daily sales record for school lunches. It reflects ideas that adults had about what kids 

eat. Americans have not always thought about childhood as a distinct time of life, and they have not always viewed children as a specific group of people. These ideas first took shape during the late 1800s and early 1900s and, in part, they come from nutrition science. This slideshow shows how nutrition scientists helped define childhood in biological terms. It points to how these ideas found their way onto kids' plates through compulsory education laws and school lunch programs.

"Daily sales record of school lunches," in Louise Stevens Bryant, School feeding: Its history and practice at home and abroad, Philadelphia ; London : J.B. Lippincott Company, 1913.

Contains an introduction by P.P. Claxton, 16 full-page illustrations, and 6 charts in text.

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Science History Institute

"Daily sales record of school lunches"

Caroline Hunt defines "young children" in this article as people who are between three and six years old. She acknowledges that they have specific "bodily needs." 

Her note at the bottom contains important historical clues. Her words suggest that attitudes were changing during the 1910s: "This bulletin is in accordance with the  principles 

 generally accepted by the best authorities..." Who were these authorities? They were scientists! We know this because she emphasizes laboratory research and because she indicates that complicated research here has been translated into "housekeepers' terms." Finally, she tells us something about who those housekeepers, her audience, might have been: she makes the straightforward assumption that they are "mothers." 

As you look through the following pages from "Food for Young Children," ask yourself: what ideas about health and family have changed since 1916 and what has stayed the same?

Five basic food groups are identified in the introduction to this article.

1. Milk, meat, fish, poultry, eggs, meat substitutes

Which of these food groups does the author say is most important for young children and why? What (if anything) surprises you about these categories?

On this page, Hunt says that “dinner” (what we would call “lunch”) should be the main meal of the day for children. The picture—which shows a meal of lamb, potatoes, spinach, buttered bread, and milk—reinforces this idea.

But Hunt isn’t only concerned with nutritional content here, she also writes about how food looks. She writes: “As all the pictures show, the service is orderly and neat in every way. This is important because it helps to form neat and orderly habits.” 

What do you think about these two sentences? Is the way food looks important? Should it be? What guesses do you have about why Hunt might have cared? 

This page shows menu themes and variations. Think about the following questions while you look at the “suggested fare”:

1. What assumptions are made here about the specific needs of children?

2. How much time do you think it would take to make these meals? 

3. Who would be responsible for making these meals?

4. How do these menus differ from what kids generally eat today?

Pay careful attention to the way Hunt introduces 

. She makes two key claims here. First, she says that milk, fish, poultry, eggs, and meat substitutes have “enough in common to warrant bringing them together.” Does this grouping make sense to you? Why or why not? Second, she says that milk is an “especially important food for children,” defining children as a biologically distinct group. What evidence would help convince you that milk is, in fact, especially important for children?

Here, Hunt digs into the science of food. She talks, for instance, about eliminating the water content of different beverages to compare nutritive content ("If all the water were to be driven off from a quart of coffee or tea, almost nothing would be left, and the little that remained would have little or no value as food.") What other reflections of laboratory research do see on this page? 

This is an example of a laboratory tool that may have been used to determine and separate the fat content of milk, similar to the work Hunt describes in her article.

A metal, hand-crank centrifuge with a three-pronged metal base. The base is painted a rusty red color and has been attached to a wooden board for stability. A long metal crank on the side of the base bends at a 90-degree angle and ends in a wooden handle. Four arms extend from the column of the apparatus, each ending in a tube mount. The four arms spin when the crank is turned. Four bronze sample containers fit into the centrifuge arms. Glass test bottles may be inserted into these metal holders for experimentation.

This is an example of an apparatus that may have been used for a Babcock test. The Babcock test, developed by agricultural chemist Stephen M. Babcock (1843–1931), is an inexpensive and practical procedure to determine and separate the fat content of milk.

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Hand-crank Centrifuge, Babcock Milk Tester

Massachusetts passed the first compulsory education law in the United States in 1852. By 1918, two years after Hunt's article for the USDA was published, compulsory education laws had been passed in all 50 states. This meant that "dinner," the meal that nutrition scientists like Hunt said was most important for kids, was increasingly eaten outside of the home. With this shift, which further marked childhood as a distinct time of life, the question of who was responsible for school lunch—individuals, local communities, states, or the federal government—became hotly debated.

(Farmville High School Cafeteria; ca. 1951; Civil Action No. 1333; Dorothy E. Davis, et al. v. County School Board of Prince Edward County et al.; Civil Case Files, 1938 - 12/31/1990; Courtesy of the Records of District Courts of the United States, Record Group 21; National Archives at Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA.)

Standards for Food for Young Children

College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework