Our Reporter Studies Teen Agers' Eating Habits

Teen -agers are scrupulous about supplying themselves with adequate amounts of protein and vegetables. Malted milk and french fries, for example. Though hardly shining examples for nutritionists, their eating habits always make g o o d reading. The News decided to tally the number of teen-agers who made lunches out of an ice cream bar, pie and potato chips. The Ann Arbor High cafetería line was a perfect setup. Yesterday was a bad choice though. Of 2,512 sales rung up, over one-third were for the main dish. It was hamburger. During T,Irs. William Fike's isix years or so as cafetería manager, she has sized up most of the students' likes and dislikes. Predictably, the favorites are hamburgers, hot dogs and barbecue, so these are served most often. Apparently the outer covering of a bun instills confidence. Besides 768 hamburgers sold yesterday in the two main cafeterías, another 26 dozen were bought at the snack bar. Up to 700 sandwiches are sold daily also, varying with the popularity of the main dish. Half of the sandwiches are peanut butter and jelly. I It just happens, Mrs. Fikel said, that some students won'tj eat anything but peanut butterl and jelly. 1 1 imi I The youngsters go through about 700 bags of potato chips a day, 950 ice cream bars and, by actual co-nt yesterday, 1,640 half pints of milk. Many take two or three cartons. Government subsidized, it's a bargain at three cents. With an entre like hamburgers, most of the students paid 15 cents more for vegetable, milk and dessert as the daily 40-cent special. Most of the menus are prepared a month in advance, with substitutions arrang-d when federal surpluses are available. Spaghetti and macaroni and cheese are other popular main dishes. Cherries, apples and chocolate (not combined) make the favorite desserts. The cafetería is worth attention just as an efficiency study. In four 30-minute shifts, A n n Arbor High's 3,250 students and about 250 faculty and staff are fed without long delay or fie jams. "There is hardly ever more than a six-minute wait," says Sgt. Chestsr Carter of the Ann Arbor Pólice who timed the process in reply to parents whose children say they must leave school grounds to be served in time. "Much faster than the Army here," adds Carter, an ex-Marine. Principal Nicholas Schreiber is proud of the systematic evolution of about 50 years of ;eria service at the school. 1 'The half-dozen or so young-l sters who leave the tables I messy," he commented, "onlyj reflect their home environ-j ment." I Twelve teachers are assignedl to hall patrol or lunchroom duty during the noon hour in lieu of a homeroom assignment. One of them, driver education teacher Ernest Gillum, is treated more like a fellow student than a warden. When someone leaves a lunch bag on the ta-l ble, the repercussions come not from Gillum but from the student's classmates who are asked to clean up after him. Gillum carries back the tray for a student when it's his birthday. An evaluation of the AAHS lunchroom scène wouldn't be complete without a peak at Ihe faculty dining room. Teachers have distinguishing characteristics. Some of them put catsup beside their meat instead of 02. top of it; they also eat everything on their plate. Apparently meal habits don't roaden, they just alter themselves. During a half hour servng period yesterday, almost wo out of every three teachers bought soup. Seven and a ïalf gallons of soup w e r e served - mostly to the faculty. None during the same period asked for a psanut butter sandwich.