Food and freedom

With this food and feeding problem of the average home intelligently mastered, however, housekeepers must agree that comparatively little now remains that is difficult in home-making. For the housekeeper of to-day who realizes the importance of this home problem, and appreciates its relation to the greater food and feeding prob- lem of the world, and that both problems are her very definite personal responsibilities in the present crisis, there is but one way out. This way lies through a scientific knowledge of food values wisely interpreted and consistently and conscientiously applied according to the food needs of those for whom she is responsible. This is sometimes called scientific feeding. When it can be accomplished with little effort, without waste, and with the best and happiest results to all concerned for the money, time, and energy spent, it might be called good housekeeping. The questions we should know how to answer in order to feed scientifically, or to be good house- keepers, as we may prefer to call it, include: WHAT WE SHOULD KNOW 29 What food is. Why food is needed. What the different food elements are. What each does for the body. How much of each is needed. What common foods best supply them. What proportion and combinations are desirable. What part cooking and serving play in the ulti- mate nutritive satisfaction food can give. We should also know: How to plan, buy, cook, serve, save to the best advantage for every interest affected — the in- dividual, the home, our own country, those in other parts of the world now dependent upon us. But, even fortified w^ith this knowledge, the housekeeper cannot put it into practice entirely alone. In addition to her own efforts, she re- quires some practical help with the actual work connected with the cooking and serving of meals. If this help is not secured in some way, the house- keeper is overworked and her particular enter- prise in home-making cannot be a success. Whether this needed help shall be hired labor or the establishment of labor-saving conditions in the home is one of the questions of the day. Fortunately, perhaps, the question of personal help, in the usual unskilled way in which it has been accepted, is becoming a problem of the past. If one is big enough to look at it in a big way, surely this is all for the best. Varying statistics 3 30 FOOD AND FREEDOM have shown that formerly only from twelve to eight per cent, of the families in the United States attempted to keep "hired help." More recent figuring has brought the percentage down as low as six per cent. What difficulties face that remaining six per cent, most of us know, if not from actual experience, at least from what we are able to learn. Changes in our ideals of living, the rightful desire of all women to be free and independent human beings, the Great War, have all combined to bring about conditions that have almost cut off the source of supply of so-called hired help. The truly business-like housekeeper of to-day must get and is getting the needed household help largely through labor-saving conditions in the home, including mechanical labor-saving de- vices. This seems not only the most reasonable procedure, but, cleverly worked out, gives the most satisfactory results for the money spent. ^ Where still more help may be needed or desired,