asked the President of the Board of Education whether, in view of the food shortage in London at the present time and the inability of mothers, who have to stand in queues all the morning, to cook dinners for their children, and the absence from school of many children in order to stand in queues themselves, he will take steps to urge upon the local education authority the desirability of at once instituting school dinners on an extensive scale for the poorer districts of the Metropolis?

I am consulting the Ministry of Food in the matter.