JAS_OH1
Forum GOD!
At my school they would have made you eat meat. Everyone got the same thing and everyone had to eat what they got unless they brought their own food from home.
School Lunches
- Thread starter TastyReuben
- Start date
Not nice. I was in a normal state 60's grammar school and they certainly didn't insist you ate anything you didn't want.We had a few Jewish pupils who would not eat pork for example, so were given something else. It may have been different in private schools here.
JAS_OH1
Forum GOD!
Probably in private schools they were even less strict. I was in a public school in the south and they certainly didn't foster individuality there. It wasn't until I was in my last few years of school that I ever met anyone who wasn't a Baptist or Catholic.
I was shy and small for my age (at that school) so I was already picked on by other kids and really didn't need the bullying from the lunch lady too! But taking my own lunch solved the problem and my teachers were very nice (mostly).
I think it varies school to school area to area.
I went to a state school (fortunately grammar schools had been abolished by then) and you had a couple of choices and had to eat everything on your plate.
You weren’t allowed to scrape your plate until the dinner lady had inspected it and you’d better not be trying to hide whatever grossness you couldn’t stomach under some mash potato.
My son’s school didn’t allow packed lunches but they had good food on a month long rotating menu which was changed up often and a wide choice including a large help yourself salad bar, if the options didn’t pique your interest jacket potatoes with multiple toppings were also available.
Any new teacher at the school used to complain they were putting on a lot of weight
A far cry from wanting to chuck up your lunch!
JAS_OH1
Forum GOD!
Yeah by the time I got to my junior and senior years I was going to a school where if you had a car, you were allowed to drive for an off-campus lunch. Back then Taco Bell bean and cheese tostadas were .49 cents each. I'd get two of those and a water and be happy. I didn't set foot in the lunchroom so I've no idea what they were serving!My son’s school didn’t allow packed lunches but they had good food on a month long rotating menu which was changed up often and a wide choice including a large help yourself salad bar, if the options didn’t pique your interest jacket potatoes with multiple toppings were also available.
Any new teacher at the school used to complain they were putting on a lot of weight
A far cry from wanting to chuck up your lunch!
- Joined
- 11 Oct 2012
- Local time
- 1:51 AM
- Messages
- 19,586
- Location
- SE Australia
- Website
- www.satnavsaysstraighton.com
I was at a private school and we had to buy lunch, but they're was always a reasonable choice if you were not vegetarian which I was. I usually had a cheese and salad sandwich and because I refused to eat anything else and literally didn't eat if they had run out of them, I was made to request one be made up for me whilst I just had a Mars bar and a carton of milk.
And if you had a packet lunch, very few did, you were not allowed to eat it in the classroom. You had to go to the canteen else it was reported that you'd not been.
Windigo
Kitchen Witch
- Joined
- 29 Jul 2019
- Local time
- 3:51 PM
- Messages
- 8,137
- Location
- The Netherlands
- Website
- www.instagram.com
Actually there were some occasions where we did eat at school, we had a Christmas dinner and an Easter breakfast. Those are normal on non religious schools here too. The Christmas dinner would be a potluck style dinner where every parent would make a dish that would then be served at the dinner, but it would be determined by a list made by a teacher of which dishes were required and parents then chose what they would make. Easter breakfast was just the parents paying and the school buying us a regular breakfast with the added extra's of eggs painted by the teachers and Easter stollen bread.
We also ate at school at the yearly school camp where we'd spend a week with our classmates on a holiday. When we were at elementary school there would be volunteer parents cooking meals for us that were considered palatable to children. So usually we'd have a week of pasta, pancakes, fries, and some kind of soup with bread. For lunch and breakfast the meals would just consist of sandwiches and milk, tea or water and maybe a piece of fruit.
When at secondary education we were usually camping and expected to cook our own meals on a camping stove we shared with our tentmates. That wasn't exactly eating well for a week, until dinner on the last day when the teachers would serve us fries and snacks.
We also ate at school at the yearly school camp where we'd spend a week with our classmates on a holiday. When we were at elementary school there would be volunteer parents cooking meals for us that were considered palatable to children. So usually we'd have a week of pasta, pancakes, fries, and some kind of soup with bread. For lunch and breakfast the meals would just consist of sandwiches and milk, tea or water and maybe a piece of fruit.
When at secondary education we were usually camping and expected to cook our own meals on a camping stove we shared with our tentmates. That wasn't exactly eating well for a week, until dinner on the last day when the teachers would serve us fries and snacks.
No-one obliged us to eat lunch at Grammar school, but if you didn't eat anything, then you went hungry. There were no alternatives and no menu. I didn't eat meat or fish in those days, although I poked at some chicken from time to time. I used to work my way around whatever overcooked protein was on the plate and just eat the veg.
I suppose schools in those days varied a lot (as they do now probably). You and I attended Grammar schools at the same time. Mine in Portsmoth, yours in Maidstone. I think my parents might have given me a letter to say I didn't eat meat. I honestly can't remember but the dinner ladies were very understanding.