Page 289 - One Thousand Ways to Make $1000

Chicago or visiting elsewhere so that they could have luncheon at Mrs.
Hartman’s with the other youngsters.
The fact that they were served nourishing food was a big point in favor

of having the children eat at Mrs. Hartman’s. Instead of the youngsters
buying fifteen cents worth of candy and a ham sandwich or a bowl of soup at
some school store, they paid their twenty-five cents for a well-balanced meal.
Luncheons consisted of milk or cocoa, bread in some form, butter, fruit for
dessert, homemade cookies or cake and a main course. In winter the main
course was a hot dish such as baked eggs, baked rice with little pieces of
meat in it, or a baked tomato stuffed with rice or meat. In summer she served
a vegetable salad with graham bread, or a scooped out tomato filled with
cottage cheese, or some other cool dish. The meals were served on a long
refectory table and each dish was daintily prepared and served. Whenever
possible, she served dishes in fancy forms such as individual molds of jello,
individual iced cakes, cookies cut in fancy shapes, etc. These little touches
did not mean any more expense but they did entail more work. However, it
was such attention to detail that brought the same children back again and
again. Whenever possible she catered to a child’s particular liking for some
one food, serving it in turn with some other dish that the other children liked.
Her own little girl being at the table made the luncheon group seem like one
big family.
Her figures on a meal run about fifteen cents for dessert, twelve to fifteen
cents for milk, eight cents for a loaf of bread, twenty cents for the main
course and about five or six cents for butter. Adding about ten cents to this
amount for gas consumed, the cost of each meal runs around seventy or
eighty cents. A group of ten at 25 cents each thus leaves a profit of about
$1.50 to $1.75 and the work at the most takes only two hours. As she charges
50 cents for dinner, two or three little guests pay for the family dinner and
leave a little for profit. Mr. Hartman is a kindly, genial man who enjoys
having children around and he generally walks home with them after dinner
to see that they reach there safely. If the mothers want them to stay for the
entire evening until called for, Mrs. Hartman charges 50 cents additional for
each child.

At one time she made a list of the names of children’s parents and had her