100 Years Ago This Week: Jan. 13-19

From The Indianapolis News, Saturday, January 13: “Thrift Luncheons” will be introduced as a cooking course in nineteen Indianapolis public schools to help hundreds of girls find a practical solution to the high cost of living. Arthur S. Hurrell, assistant superintendent of vocational training, will provide a fixed menu for the young cooks and then have them make purchases for the meal. The food cost has been carefully calculated for each meal at 13ȼ (2015: $2.43). The student cooks may invite their parents and friends to school to enjoy the meals, each diner paying 15ȼ (2015: $2.81) for the food (the extra 2ȼ covering the cost of cooking gas). The purpose is to teach the girls how to figure relative food cost and prevent extravagance while serving meals with nutritive values that food of a higher price contains.