Send Hot food to the Drivers' Cafés
Page 17
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EMPLOYERS of long-distance haulage vehicles particu.1---slady are becoming alarmed at the lack of response from 'the 4,4inistiy of Food` in their problem of feeding their drivers while on long-distance jonrneys. If we could have less talk and niore• action it would be a good thingfor all of us. It certainly appears that a bold step is needed to keep this business of feeding the drivers away from timewasting comniittees which merely refer points • and deliberate detail when a broad deeision and -practical results should be in evidence.
NVhy has the problem riser; at all?' Rationing, we ;,re told, prevents the road-side "cafes from obtaining food. Rationing, too, was preventing the miners ifom being ted properly, so the ,Ministry of Food is having pit-head canteens erected. Is the voice of a vital war-time industry too weak, then, to,make itself heard, or are We getting throttled by the red tape of procedure? For months we have been 'talking and while the matter might be a little farther advanced than it was at the beginning of the year, the fact is that the drivers are still finding difficulty in obtaining hot food. Ifminers can have extra -sations at the pit head, surely the drivers of long-distance transport
vehicles can be similarly provided. , •
Where is the real difficulty? Is_ it really the difficii14-y of getting rations? True it is that small units are uneconomical when it comes to cooking food and it is necessary to conserve supplies. Why not then send the food cooked to where it is needed, as.the.vans given to he country by Mr. Henry Ford are doing for the people who are bombed? Why not utilize the Ford food vans for he purpose? They could he employed regularly for bringing the food to selected rqad-side cafes from the neighbOuring towns. It would give them something more to do; Lut . it is a, matter of national importance that our commercialvehicle drivers should be fed.
We have been told by Lord Perry that the food vans are to be used for taking food to agricultural workers cr to works where the canteens have been bombed, so why should they not be used for a job akin to the industry which Mr. Ford has pioneered? There is no apparent difficulty, for it needs the.Ministry of Food only to agree that hot food will-be available from the local authorities, and for the Trust handling the vans to concur, following. , which the details of sending the meals and charging for them can be thrashed out-locally.
We were also told that by the end of next month ?ha national network of Ford food vans will be ,set and ready ; between now and then there is ample time to make these simple approaches and have the machinery ready. By the, end of next month, we could, by insisting on action, ty sitting on the doorstep of the Ministry, by brushing aside , the, committee humbug into which this matter is 'drifting, get food. to the men in time to cope with the worst effects of winter -weather, combined with thelong periods of black-out.