School Lunches

[Morning Glory]

I think you probably did get very lucky!
Mr SSOAP also enjoyed his school dinners but boarders definitely have a different relationship with food compared to day pupils and other normies

I don't really know why they were so enlightened given that my Mum was brought up by a typical rather strict Victorian grandmother and my Dad was brought up in the rural West country. Neither had a decent education. We are talking about people born around 1912 to 1918. They also didn't have me Christened which was extremely unusual for those days. Their view was I could make my own mind up about the God thing when I was old enough to understand. Neither if them were believers.

Straying off topic here...

 

[karadekoolaid]

The only good school lunch when I was growing up was pizza, and 1970’s rectangular pizza is rather iconic now,

the first time I tried pizza was in Florence, Italy, in 1970. No way would our dinner ladies have known how to make one!

 

[SandwichShortOfAPicnic]

the first time I tried pizza was in Florence, Italy, in 1970. No way would our dinner ladies have known how to make one!

Cheap frozen cheese and tomato pizza and Findus crispy pizza (a half baguette with pizza topping) existed when I was a child but they were always viewed as junk food and there was no way they would make it onto the school dinners menu.
Especially when there was a risk we might actually enjoy it

I really liked the baguette version but that might be because my mum was averse to salt (it was the devil ) and pizza was a salty heaven!

 

[msmofet]

I went to catholic school kinder to grade 5, they didn't have lunches. You had to bring your own brown bag lunch, but you could buy milk and ice cream. When I started public school in grade 6 and then into public high school, I really enjoyed most of the lunch food. All the food was prepared in the school kitchens. Now they cater the lunches. When my girls went to school, the food was terrible. Moldy food and spoiled milk.

 

[SandwichShortOfAPicnic]

I don't really know why they were so enlightened given that my Mum was brought up by a typical rather strict Victorian grandmother and my Dad was brought up in the rural West country. Neither had a decent education. We are talking about people born around 1912 to 1918. They also didn't have me Christened which was extremely unusual for those days. Their view was I could make my own mind up about the God thing when I was old enough to understand. Neither if them were believers.

Straying off topic here...

People do sometimes go in the completely opposite direction to their own upbringing though don’t they?!

Vegetarianism and veganism on the school dinners menu is an interesting part of school dinners now.
They have to cater for so many allergies that dairy allergy generally means you get offered the vegan option so I suppose thats progress.
But at a touch over £1 for each meal really isn’t going to give them a good quality meal.

 

[TastyReuben]

As I write this I realise it’s sounds just awful but at the time it was normal for parents to behave in very odd ways towards their children.

I think that was pretty normal behavior, at least here before the 1970’s or so.

In my own family, children absolutely did not make their own decisions about things like that. They did what they were told, they ate what they were given, and they didn’t complain about it unless they wanted a smack or five.

The idea of any child under 16 or so choosing for themselves…not the way we’re raised. No way. No how. Don’t even think about it, and any kind of “I’m vegetarian now,” talk would have been seen as rebellion that needed to be squashed immediately.

 

[TastyReuben]

the first time I tried pizza was in Florence, Italy, in 1970. No way would our dinner ladies have known how to make one!

The school cafeteria workers didn’t really cook or make anything - it was all simply heated up from cans or cooked from frozen. The most “homemade” thing was probably the instant mashed potatoes.

The pizzas were little rectangular affairs, about 4-in x 6-in, and they came to the school frozen, and the “lunch ladies” (as they were called) would lay them out on big baking sheets and bake them off.

Creamed chicken…from a can. Green beans, corn…from a can. Hamburgers…pre-cooked and frozen, heated up in the oven. Fries also from frozen and baked off in the oven.

 

[JAS_OH1]

My middle daughter (when she was about 9 y/o) had a crush on her teacher and he was a vegetarian, so she wanted to be a vegetarian. I guess he did impart his values on how unfair it was to kill and eat animals to the kids, but she was already a tiny thing, much shorter and thinner than her classmates, so it was a struggle to get her to eat enough protein as it was and I was worried. I tried to help her with it and catered to her whims for a bit, but she balked at eating enough nuts, eggs, and other non-animal proteins to meet her needs as a growing child, and the school lunches certainly weren't geared to a vegetarian diet. She ate peanut butter and jelly or cheese sandwiches (her choice) most days, which got tiresome quickly. Plus, premium steaks and seafood on the table on a regular basis around here made her change her mind about being a vegetarian within a few short weeks. I was glad only because I knew she wasn't going to eat enough protein from other sources.

 

[SandwichShortOfAPicnic]

I think that was pretty normal behavior, at least here before the 1970’s or so.

In my own family, children absolutely did not make their own decisions about things like that. They did what they were told, they ate what they were given, and they didn’t complain about it unless they wanted a smack or five.

The idea of any child under 16 or so choosing for themselves…not the way we’re raised. No way. No how. Don’t even think about it, and any kind of “I’m vegetarian now,” talk would have been seen as rebellion that needed to be squashed immediately.

Sounds very familiar!

You should be grateful theres a roof over your head and you’re getting fed at all, that pretty much summed it up!
“Do as I say not as I do” was my least favourite saying of theirs, it meant we can do as we please and we will, where as you will do as your told or there will be consequences!

 

[Morning Glory]

Most of the children I knew growing up didn’t come from what you’d now call enlightened parents!

I'd almost be inclined to say the opposite which is perhaps strange when you consider I'm a generation earlier than you. I can't really recall any of my friends at school being in the sort if situation you describe. I used to visit their homes and met their parents. There was one friend I stayed with overnight and her Mum made me vegetarian food. Now, I know this wasn't universally the case, of course. The council estate where I grew up was in the South of England and was surrounded by older more middle class housing. My friends came from a mixture of both backgrounds.

It was the 60's when I was a teenager so maybe that had something to do with it.

People do sometimes go in the completely opposite direction to their own upbringing though don’t they?!

I don't think that was the case with my parents. In my Mum's case I think it was to do with her experiences in the 2nd world war plus the fact that she started to lose her sight in her 20's. It's a long story but she ended up undergoing psychoanalysis. This really affected her, I think and as kids we were brought up to openly talk about everything and how it affected us.

In my Dad's case, he had always wanted to be an artist but had to do the next best thing and was apprenticed as a carpenter at age 14. On his Dad's side of the family there were some quite eccentric relatives. His Mum was also a formidable character who caused outrage wherever she went as she was so outspoken. I remember her well. And she too, was happy to make vegetarian food for me when we visited!

Back to school lunches. It could be the reason I liked them was because they did tend to contain quite a lot of vegetables. As time went a lot of food eaten and liked by kids became convenience food and contained minimal or no vegetables: fishfingers, burgers or pizza for example.

 

[SandwichShortOfAPicnic]

I'd almost be inclined to say the opposite which is perhaps strange when you consider I'm a generation earlier than you. I can't really recall any of my friends at school being in the sort if situation you describe. I used to visit their homes and met their parents. There was one friend I stayed with overnight and her Mum made me vegetarian food. Now, I know this wasn't universally the case, of course. The council estate where I grew up was in the South of England and was surrounded by older more middle class housing. My friends came from a mixture of both backgrounds.

It was the 60's when I was a teenager so maybe that had something to do with it.



I don't think that was the case with my parents. In my Mum's case I think it was to do with her experiences in the 2nd world war plus the fact that she started to lose her sight in her 20's. It's a long story but she ended up undergoing psychoanalysis. This really affected her, I think and as kids we were brought up to openly talk about everything and how it affected us.

In my Dad's case, he had always wanted to be an artist but had to do the next best thing and was apprenticed as a carpenter at age 14. On his Dad's side of the family there were some quite eccentric relatives. His Mum was also a formidable character who caused outrage wherever she went as she was so outspoken. I remember her well. And she too, was happy to make vegetarian food for me when we visited!

Back to school lunches. It could be the reason I liked them was because they did tend to contain quite a lot of vegetables. As time went a lot of food eaten and liked by kids became convenience food and contained minimal or no vegetables: fishfingers, burgers or pizza for example.

I honestly don't think that's the typical experience of but sounds like you were in a nice area in an environment surrounded by people who expected a certain standard of behaviour which is nice if you were vegetarian.

Where I went to school you were told outright you were a PITA!

 

[medtran49]

The only thing I remember about elementary and middle school lunches (1st to 9th years) was the horrendous smell of vinegar and collard greens on the days those were served in western Kentucky. That was the reason I never ate collard greens until well into my 30s when I broke down and made some for Craig since he loves them, and I found out they can actually be quite good. I know I took lunch from home sometimes because I remember my lunch boxes, but no idea what was in them.

Once I hit high school, which was after we moved to Florida, there were days the cafeteria made decent food, or we could leave campus and get lunch elsewhere, or you could buy food off the food carts catering companies were able to bring into the big courtyard around which the school was built. That was a long time ago at Coral Gables High.

When DD was in elementary school, they gave weekly menus but she took lunch almost every day, except for the few days a month they made food she actually liked. She alternated between mostly turkey or cheese sandwiches (her choice), chips of some kind, and green grapes, a banana (absolutely no black spots), canned peaches or pineapple, and a frozen juice box that kept everything cold as it thawed until lunch. Years 9-12, the kids were allowed off campus, so most days she and her friends went somewhere.

 

[SandwichShortOfAPicnic]

The only thing I remember about elementary and middle school lunches (1st to 9th years) was the horrendous smell of vinegar and collard greens on the days those were served in western Kentucky. That was the reason I never ate collard greens until well into my 30s when I broke down and made some for Craig since he loves them, and I found out they can actually be quite good. I know I took lunch from home sometimes because I remember my lunch boxes, but no idea what was in them.

Once I hit high school, which was after we moved to Florida, there were days the cafeteria made decent food, or we could leave campus and get lunch elsewhere, or you could buy food off the food carts catering companies were able to bring into the big courtyard around which the school was built. That was a long time ago at Coral Gables High.

When DD was in elementary school, they gave weekly menus but she took lunch almost every day, except for the few days a month they made food she actually liked. She alternated between mostly turkey or cheese sandwiches (her choice), chips of some kind, and green grapes, a banana (absolutely no black spots), canned peaches or pineapple, and a frozen juice box that kept everything cold as it thawed until lunch. Years 9-12, the kids were allowed off campus, so most days she and her friends went somewhere.

Well I'd be happy if you were making that for my lunch!!

 

[pocofan]

I lived in a very small rural community. We had two ladies that cooked the meals. I loved their goulash and often could go back for seconds.