Amongst the most important of these is the London Vegetarian Association. One of the chief objects of this Association, which has been in existence many years, is the popularisation in the homes of the poor of a vegetable diet which is at once both cheap and wholesome. Dinners are provided consisting of a bowl of vegetable soup, a slice of wholemeal bread and a slab of pudding. As a rule the meals are given during the winter only, being continued during the Christmas holidays and, if necessary, during the Easter holidays, and on Saturdays also. The number of centres opened varies according to the state of the Association's finances and the need that exists. During the present winter some half-dozen have been established, besides the central depot in Whitechapel, about 900 children on an average being fed daily. Since the passing of the Provision of Meals Act the activities of the Association, as far as the children are concerned, have been confined theoretically to the supply of dinners to children under school age or to children who wish to pay for the meals. But school children who prefer to be fed by the Association rather than by the school are also given meals, as in addition are those who are not considered necessitous by the School Care Committee. Any child can have a dinner on producing a halfpenny. Free dinners are only given to children for whom application is made by some charitable agency, district visitors, Little Sisters of the Poor or other persons interested, no enquiry being made by the Association itself in these cases. It is clear that there is much danger of overlapping--in fact it has been found that, in some cases, children have obtained a dinner at school first and have then gone on to the depot. In other cases it seems that the Association feeds some children of a family, the Care Committee others. The total number of individual children fed during the year 1912-13 was 100,771,[410] the average weekly number being 41,529. The numbers fed during the last thirteen years are seen in the following table:--[411] Season. Average weekly number of children fed. 1900-01 (August to July inclusive) 18,857 1901-02 " " 20,085 1902-03 " " 22,206 1903-04 " " 23,842 1904-05 " " 26,951 1905-06 " " 27,159 1906-07 " " 29,334 1907-08 " " 37,979 1908-09 " " 39,632 1909-10 (August 1 to March 31) 42,153 1910-11 (April 1 to March 31) 41,672 1911-12 36,897