In Missouri, Mac Kerns was in charge of overseeing the work of 240 young adults in the Youth Conservation Corps.  These young people had assignments like planting trees for the Forest Service.  Any time an accident occurred, a report had to be filed.  These accident reports piled up on Mac’s desk.  There were far too many of them to his way of thinking.  He gathered up an inch-thick stack and went to his supervisor.  He asked for permission to have someone assigned to collate the problems so that they could determine the cause and find a solution.

A girl who was not on Mac’s staff was assigned to go through the reports and to sort them by sex, by the type of accident, by the time of day of the accident, and by any other means that might help to pinpoint the problem.

When the report came back, it was noted that all of the accidents happened on Monday and Tuesday mornings.  Mac said to the girl, “I don’t have a clue about what’s going on.”

She replied, “I can tell you exactly what’s happening.  These are all young kids.  They spend every weekend partying.  They come to work without having eaten breakfast.  Their heads aren’t working, so they do stupid things, get their fingers chopped off, and then the whole crew has to stop work while they get help for the injured person.  The problem would be solved if you just fed them breakfast.”

The forest supervisor didn’t like the expense of providing 240 young people with juice, milk, pastries, and breakfast materials every morning; but suddenly all the accidents stopped.  Mac only saw one or two accident reports per year thereafter.