The Lean Years

As traditional luxuries drop one by one from the menu, the customary practice of condemning the food at Harvard is becoming even more widespread. It begins to look as if braised beef will be almost a daily feature, with lamb saute as the principal feature. But, no matter how much more inferior the food has become and will become in future months, the student will have to take it and like it.

The greatest problem in the dining halls is that of obtaining choice food. This ranks above expense at the moment. Meat, especially, is the steward's burden. He must accept the cuts that are alloted him and be thankful for small favors. Last week, roast beef, most precious of edibles in the steward's eyes, was scheduled for all House Dinners. Yet, nowhere in Boston could this rarity be found in quantity. Last week, braised beef was served at the House Dinners. Equally elusive to the desperate steward, such commodities as perishable vegetables, shortening, cheese, canned goods, to say nothing of less common delicacies, must be definitely curtailed on the menu. Expense, too, is the dietitian's dilemma. When the last inventory was concluded several months ago, most food prices were found to have doubled. Charging only forty-five cents per meal; officials are waging a losing battle to keep up the quantity and standard of the food.

Every chronic complainer offer his own solution to the problem. None of them are practical, however. Though they may urge elimination of the double choice, such a plan practiced with the Naval Officers in the Union has helped neither to improve the food nor to cut down expense. There is no solution to a problem whose roots lie deeply embedded in the exigencies of the war. As long as transportation, production, and manpower are devoted to winning the war, food at Harvard will continue to serve merely as a sustainer of life, to be swallowed without relish.