CHAPTER VII.
Purchase and Care of Food Supplies
The person to whom is entrusted the purchase of the food supplies, and the direction of the general dietary for the hospital household, occupies a place of no small responsibility. If she is to discharge this duty to the satisfaction of those who have the interests of the institution at heart, she should have a few marks of fitness not found in the average woman.
First, she should have an active, intelligent and sympathetic interest in the welfare of both the sick and healthy members of the household, and be in perfect harmony with the humane designs of the institution.
Judging Values
Second, the purchaser of the food supplies should have sufficient experience and knowledge to detect superior and inferior qualities of the different food stuffs. So far as the food for the sick is concerned, the physician will have the responsibility of deciding the kind of food his patient shall have, but she will have the responsibility of deciding regarding quality and preparation. It does not require an expert to discover that a beef steak is tough when it comes to the table, but that is too late for the discovery to be of any practical value. The toughness should have been detected while it hung in the market. So it is with all varieties of food. To know the desirable and the undesirable qualities before purchasing is to possess one of the chief secrets of successful buying. Clever buying does not mean close buying, though some people think it does. The cheapest article often proves the most expensive, and quality must be paid for. The point is to be able to recognize, and not pay first-grade prices for second-grade goods.
Third, she should keep posted regarding the fluctuations of the markets, and not have to depend entirely on what one dealer may say regarding prices. As she is spending, not her own money, but funds often accumulated by self-denial on the part of givers, she needs to study to spend them wisely.
Fourth, she should make a point of finding out the exact price of most articles before ordering them. Strawberries would be appreciated by her household at any time in the year, but while they sell at thirty or forty cents a box, she is hardly justified in buying them freely, if at all. And this rule holds good in regard to most of the ordinary so-called luxuries—the things that are not absolutely essential as nourishment. There is a time in which she can decide to have them, and also a time to decide to do without.
Fifth, she should have an intelligent conception of the relative nutritive values of different foods, so as to be able to supply a well balanced dietary for the different classes of people who are dependent on her very largely to direct what they shall eat. She ought to bear in mind the fact that the chief value of any food lies in its adaptability to repair the waste of tissue that goes on constantly, and endeavor to supply as far as possible the ideal meal, which is one in which nitrogenous, non-nitrogenous and mineral substances are supplied in the proportion required to repair the waste, and with the minimum tax on the digestive powers.
The first qualification really includes three different qualifications—common sense, conscientiousness and justice, for all of which she will have constant need in discharging the duties of her position. Probably in beginning her work she will make mistakes, as every one who accomplishes anything does, but as she buys she will learn to buy, and in no other way. It cannot be learned from books. However, suggestions may be given and accepted that will save the housekeeper from making all the blunders others have made, and save the hospital from the results of total inexperience and lack of knowledge.