Elementary school. Cafeteria. What do those words make you think of?
We’ve heard what you think about school lunch these days. Now, we want to hear what you remember about your school lunchroom! What’s your BEST school cafeteria memory? It can be gross, funny, a tale of an epic food fight…if it happened and you remember, we want you to tell us about it!
Leave your lunchroom tale in the comments, and on Monday, August 16, you might just be the winner of a $50 Earth Fare gift card!
We’ll be looking for the most memorable lunchroom tale, so don’t hold back! We want to hear YOUR story.
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I remember this one lunch lady that – seriously – had a 3 inch long tuft of hair off the bottom of her chin. It was disgusssssting!
Every day we would jockey to get in the opposite lunch lady line, but sometimes we’d be stuck in hers and would closely inspect our food before digging in.
My mom always packed my lunch. The lunches the schools provided even then were not healthy. I always loved opening my lunch box and finding what great surprises she had tucked away inside. Sometimes she would leave little notes that always made me smile. My lunches my mother packed were for sure a staple of my child hood. Early on I was taught about the proper way to eat and how to refuel my body with positives instead of negatives. I know now as an adult, with a daughter of my own, how important it truly is to pass on the knowledge that my mother gifted to me about food. I now pack my little girl’s lunch box with good things to eat, in hopes it too will be a staple of her childhood and every now and again I leave a little note, just to make her smile. =)
I moved to NC from Illinois when I was 8 years old. I was in the third grade and having a hard time adjusting. Of course children find comfort in their favorite foods. My favorite food as a child was “cheese dogs”, but remember I’m from the Midwest where a cheese dog is a HOT DOG with cheese INSIDE of it. Its my first week of school, I go through the cafeteria line, and it says there are “cheese dogs” for lunch. I got really excited, only to BURST into tears when they slapped a hot dog bun with a log of cheese in the middle on my tray. I went to the office to call my mom, my teacher had no idea what was wrong. All I kept sniffling and saying was “THERE WAS NO HOT DOG!” My mom had to come pick me up from school that day!
I remember the rectangular pizzas with the square pepperoni and the triangle shaped frozen juice pops. At my intermediate school kids who packed lunch and kids who brought lunch had to eat at different tables to this day I still think that was odd.
My favorite meal was Chicken Corn Scallop. Similar to Chicken Ala King. In elementary school (Hawaii) the 3rd-6th graders would rotate working in the cafeteria. We cleaned the kitchen and cafeteria, we washed dishes, we even helped to cook the food. Back then, many of the ingredients were fresh or frozen and not much came out of boxes or cans.
The cafeteria budget was spent on quality food, versus help in the kitchen. The school used their students to provide free labor and experience. We enjoyed our time working as we got extra helpings of anything we wanted. It was a treat to work in the cafeteria. The ladies there were kind and patient.
We had an hour for lunch and recess together. The quicker you ate your food meant more time on the playground. What novel way to burn off calories! I don’t recall any morbidly obese children but a few were overweight by no more than 30 pounds.
It is sad that my children had to be rushed through their lunches in 20 minute intervals like a herd of cattle and No recess after lunches.
Pizza day. Yuck. We used to have to lay our paper napkins over the pizza to absorb all the oil floating on top. Of course, we always had a bag of Wise BBQ chips to go with it. They’re still my favorite brand of BBQ chips.
In our high school in Germany they served many things, but the most popular were bean burritos (deep fried and very crispy) and microwaveable hamburgers and cheeseburgers.
Hmm, I also remember in elementary school when I was getting free lunch (so totally embarrassing way back then because we had to have a special ticket and EVERYONE knew you were poor) that I was the only kid who actually ate all the vegetables.
And, all through all the years, we got to sit at any table we chose to and talk all through lunch. It was a great break – just time to be yourself for a while.
In High School, we could even go across the street to get food from this little local restaurant. Their Chef Salad was so delicious! They knew we were on a tight schedule and they worked with it.
Sitting here now telling my 13 year old daughter all about this and watching the different expressions on her face. She thinks it was cool we could sit anywhere we wanted.
The most memorable thing about my elementary school lunches was the time I got into trouble, during a table conversation. We all had to sit alphabetized, by our last names. There were only five tables for our class and six students to a table…when everyone attended. Mrs. Mann was our monitor. It was getting close to Christmas break and our table was discussing Santa Claus. My parents had never told me there was a real Santa. They told me he was a storybook character. When I finished my brownie, which I ate with teeny, tiny bites (ask Katie, whom I grew up with and sat with for years in school) I made a statement. Guess what I said? Of course, I told the others that their families put the presents under the tree and that Santa was in a storybook. Right in the middle of my statement, Mrs. Mann walked by. The others were protesting and asked for her opinion. When she heard all of what I had said, she told me I had been lying. I had to eat by myself the rest of the week.
The school lunch hot dogs always gave me a headache. I was in first grade and my teacher was sitting right next to me. She was very strict and wouldn’t let us go out for recess unless we finished our plates. All the other kids had gone to outside. My hot dog was sitting there only half eaten. I could already feel the headache coming on. I didn’t want to tell the teacher I wasn’t feeling well because I knew I’d get sent to the school nurse. I just wanted to go out and play with the rest of the kids.
She kept glaring at me as the hot dog sat there slowly disappearing. I started breaking out in a cold sweat and she turned to speak to another teacher. With about a third of the hot dog left…chili and all.. I took it and threw it on the floor under the table. When she turned back around she smiled and told me I was free to go out and play.
I went out and enjoyed the last few minutes of recess, came back to class and promptly threw up right in front of her desk!
Wow. What I didn’t know then!! I still recall the yumminess of the mashed potatoes and turkey gravy for Thanksgiving. I loved those days. But I must say, my most memorable, and unfortunately least fondest cafeteria experience was my first.
I was a little young for Kindergarten, but made the cut-off. So I got go. I was almost 5. I had just finished my lunch on the first day of school. I couldn’t figure out why the other kids around me were raising their hands and leaving. So I got up and tried to empty my trash. I didn’t get very far when a cafeteria volunteer rushed over and sat me back down and said I couldn’t leave. I had no idea why. I tried to get up a few more times, each time they told me to sit back down and that was it. I thought they were punishing me. I just sat there and cried.
Soon they had got my mom, who was a volunteer on the playground for recess, and she explained to me that I needed to raise my hand to be excused.
Sheesh!!! Was that all???? I was thee most shy girl there. I still have dreams about that day. I never wanted to return to Kindergarten again….. That was until I saw they had a merry-go-round on my playground for recess!!
Oh Yes, I remember the first time I ever ate in the school cafeteria. When I started Kindergarten, we only had to go half days. I went in the afternoons, so I ate lunch at home before going to school.
One day, our teacher informed us that she had to get us ready for the First grade, in order to do so, we had to “practice” going through the school lunch line that day. I remember being so excited when I saw the lunch lady with an ice cream scooper scooping white stuff onto the plates, I instantly thought “ICE CREAM!” but couldn’t figure out why in the world she was putting it next to those awful peas that I couldn’t stand!
The first thing I dug into was what I thought to be ice cream only to be very disappointed that it was mashed potatoes! However, this wasn’t the worst of it!! I didn’t know that we had to clean our plates before we were allowed to go outside for recess so I started off to the trash can to empty my tray only to be stopped by the lunch supervisor who told me that I must clean my plate first. She marched me back to the table and told me to eat my peas. I started crying because I didn’t want to eat them but she had no pity on me. When she wasn’t looking, I hurried up and scooped my peas into my unfinished milk carton and when she came back around to my table, I showed her I had finished them but she was way smarter than me and my heart sank as she picked up my milk carton and looked inside!
I bet you can guess what happened next….she made me drink the milk with the peas in it and I cried the whole time and got very sick afterwards. I went home that afternoon hoping my mom would have some pity for me but she didn’t either and told me that I should have cleaned my plate like I was told to.
I didn’t eat school lunches after that until I was a Sophmore in High School!
My favorite cafeteria story has to do with my younger sister. My sister was in Kindergarten and my mother had always packed our lunches. This day something had happened and my sister forgot or lost her lunch. Well, she decided that she had to eat anyway, and went in line with all the other children and picked out food at the lunch line. When it came to her turn to pay, she of course had no money, and look straight at the lunch lady and said “Charge it”. Well, the lunch ladies were laughing so hard they had to call my mom right away and relay this message. My mom, however, was embarrassed that her 5 year old (in the early eighties) would know what that meant. To this day we love to tease my sister with that story.
The smell of yeast rolls is my fondest memory of school lunch. I’m an old bird — 52 — and, unlike my children’s school, we had a kitchen at our school. The lunch ladies would start cooking around 10 a.m. and by our 11 to 11:30 a.m. lunch time the smell of yeast rolls had wafted down all corridors. Nothing else mattered. I could be served mystery meat under gravy, but as long as the yeast rolls were available I was a happy gal.
I remember in the 12th grade, we had a food fight. I had computer lab, the band director was our teacher. We got to have a embarrasing “silent lunch”, but it was worth it!
P
I remember opening a packet of ketchup and I could not get it open. My teacher probably saw me having trouble bc she came up to me and right before she could say anything the package exploded all over her dress. I was so shocked i could not close my mouth! All the other kids just stared at me like I had committed the worst cafeteria act ever haha.
I can still remember the smell of the cold wet day in RI when my mom took me to work with her. I wasn’t sick, it was just one of those days when “I wanted to be with my mom” I was 9 years old and I was in the 3rd grade. I remember getting in the car and it was freezing! We were bundled up and we didn’t say much in the car. We listened to the radio, and pulled up to the school where she worked. When we got into the cafeteria, I remember how big and empty it looked. We walked back into the kitchen and all the other lunch ladies were really excited I came. One of them asked me to come over and help put out the brownies. The little 9 year old inside me still remembers that smell of the coffee they were drinking mixed with the brownies I desperately wanted to eat. One of the older lunch ladies came up to me opened one and handed it to me. “Here…shhhh” she said, with a wide grin. As I bit in my mom came around the corner. I waited for her to say something like “No, put it down, its too early to eat junk.” But she didn’t. She just winked
When the kids from the school came in, I was so excited they let me be in the line to help serve the students. I handed everyone their brownies!
I remember looking over at my mom, greeting all people getting their lunches and smiling. I was really proud to be there with her.
We finished up the day and drove home…Debbie Gibson, Tiffany, and Billy Idol were 3 of the artist I remember that were on the radio. When we got home, she said “Hope you had fun with me today.” She had no idea how special that day was. As simple as some things are, you never realize until later how special they will be, and how much of it you will end up remembering. I haven’t really thought of this day until you guys posted to write something about school lunch….thanks…
I am going to call my mom and tell her how much I enjoyed that brownie
Angela
My lunchroom was notorious for bad food. They used to serve a dish called “Flying Saucers” which consisted of a slice of baloney, topped with mashed potatoes and a hard slice of cheese on top of that. Not kidding. Nobody actually ate them, we would just sit there and stare at the plate in disbelief until it was time to go back to class.
My middle school was so super small we didn’t have a cafeteria! Food was made at the elementary school and brought over for the kids that wanted a hot lunch. I never ate it but I can remember the “cool” items were the yeast rolls, Little Debbie nutter-butter bars and Sunbelt granola bars. It was probably a good thing my mom packed my lunch instead!
In 1st grade I got my first loose tooth and couldn’t wait until it came out so I would get a visit from the toothfairy. One day at school I was eating lunch that I bought, I believe it was chix nuggets, and upon taking a bite out of the very hard, stale nugget my tooth flew out of my mouth across the cafeteria floor. I cried because we couldn’t find it. The next morning the toothfairy left me money anyway along with a note saying that she talked to my mom and suggested that I bring my lunch to school from now on
Growing up in a Catholic School, we had nuns standing at the trash cans in the cafeteria to keep an eye to make sure our lunch was completed before dumping our trays. On this particular day, beets were served and they certainly were not a favorite amongst the general population. A friend of mine came up with the idea of cutting them up and putting them in our empty chocolate milk containers so that we could fool the nun on duty into thinking that our plates were clear. My friend was the first one to give the plan a try. We must have been seen during our hatching of this plan because as soon as my friend got to the trash cans our friendly nun picked up his milk carton and gave it a little shake. “It seems there is still a little bit of milk left here”, she said with a little grin, “Why dont you go ahead and finish it?” So with a grimace my friend was forced to drink a chocolate milk/beet concoction that made his face distort with every swallow. His face scared us so bad, we choked the beets down
It was 6th grade in 1992. My friends and I were settling into our usual booth to discuss normal topics of the day (i.e. girls, sports and band). We recently got our first government IDs made up and we were comparing our horrible photos. You don’t exactly look your best at the onset of puberty. Anyway, a commotion broke out on the other side of the cafeteria where different cliques were yelling at one another. Then, out of the corner of my eye I saw something fly across the great expanse. Thinking it was nothing, I settled back into my sandwich. Then, another mysterious object sailed across the fluorescent light. This time a chunk of something appeared on our table. At this point it seemed the mute button was unclicked after being set at full blast and kids roared with laughter, yelling and screaming. Almost instantly, food began flying from almost every direction. My friends and I sought cover under our little booth’s table while I distinctly remember witnessing a can of Dr. Pepper spewing foam and fizz as it flew across no-man’s-land. The cafeteria was symmetrical which yielded an almost perfect storm for the food fight. Ranks naturally broke down the middle as each group sought protection behind the paneled railings to enter the service line. A good 5-10 minutes passed before virtually all the teachers in the school were brought in to breakup the event. For the next week each student was subjected to intense interrogation to locate the culprits. We were threatened with the 6th grade dance being cancelled. This eventually proved impossible since 95% of people in the room ended up throwing something. I remember being asked why I didn’t leave. I wasn’t trying to be a smarty, but the excuse of “the bell hadn’t rang” didn’t seem to earn me any fans in the principal’s office. The dance went on as scheduled, ruler rule in total effect.
I went to a residential high school. We weren’t allowed to drive and we had to make our own fun. One day, a bunch of us decided to declare a No Hands Day in the cafeteria. After we got our food and sat down, everyone proceeded to eat their lunches however they could manage without using their hands. Good times. : )
When my brother was little his teacher would walk around during lunch and eat his leftover fries. One day he decided it would be funny to lick all the salt off his fries before his teacher came around. Sure enough she ate them without knowing what he had done…and he never admitted his trick to her!
When I was a fourth grader, and all through elementary school in fact, I ate PB&J every single day, except one day, which ended in a paddling. The bread varied (sometimes raisin bread, sometimes pumpernickel, sometimes even wheat!) and the jelly varied (store-bought often but grandmother-preserved sometimes) and the peanut butter was always crunchy, but every single day was PB&J. Except the one day where my mother in a burst of creativity packed me some leftover mac and cheese. It was disgusting, especially to my young pallet, refined as it was by a steady diet of PB&J. I ate maybe three bites, hoping the next one wouldn’t be as gross as the last. But in my disgust, I dumped the fourth forkfull onto the table. My math rival sat opposite me and found a noodle in her hair a moment later, after my thumb thumped it at her. My teacher, my pastor’s wife, carried out the correction that afternoon: corporal punishment–three licks. What did I learn? There’s nothing like a good PB&J.
The memory that sticks out in my mind the most is when I tripped while carrying my lunch tray full of spagetti, salad, and bread. I was in the 8th grade. The boy that I had an epic crush on was sitting at his table eating and of course… I tripped and spilled my lunch all over him. I was mortified! I was teased mercilessly for weeks over it. Now it’s humorous. Thanks for making me remember!
when I was in elementary school, back in the ’50s, the school lunchroom served the same kind of food we ate at home–simple country cooking. We had meatloaf, pinto beans and corn bread, occasionally a hot dog, but always good vegetables. Many times they were seasoned by cooking with “fat back” (fat salt pork). One of favorite memories is that one of the cooks would always take the salt pork out of the veggies and fry it crisp, and save it for me. Delicious!!
I attended elementary school at a small, rural, public school in Alabama. Our cafeteria was unique because it featured a piece of equipment not found in may eating establishments. A bug zapper. Yes, one of those glowing, buzzing monstrosities. It hung in one corner of the room waiting patiently for its victims. When whatever poor insect made contact with the light, the zapper would ring out. This horrifying buzz could be heard throughout the cafeteria. And like clockwork, each little body, on each circular seat, would moan EWWWWW in unison!
Actually, I can remember enjoying the homemade rolls, blackeye peas and apple crisps. Of course this was waaaaay back when cafeteria food was for the most part made from scratch not frozen or out of a can.
I also remember going out to a common area where we could get those little vanilla ice cream cups. Life seemed so simple then. I’m speaking of when a bottle of “coke” cost a nickel. HA!
No problems in the lunch room…just on the bus ride home when my first boyfriend tried to kiss me and I hit him over the head with my books!! I think it was 2nd grade. His name was Jerry P. Wonder where he is now?
Growing up, my family kept kosher-style. Meat didn’t have to be kosher, but we didn’t mix meat and milk or eat pork or shellfish. We usually didn’t buy school lunches because they would invariably change the menu and be serving something that mixed meat and dairy when they had said they were serving something else. One day when I was in first grade, my momma sent me to school with a turkey sandwich for lunch. We were out of juice boxes. Forgetting what she had packed in my lunch, she gave me money to buy milk at school. I realized my dilemma when I opened my lunchbox and I had no idea what to do. I told my teacher of the problem, but she couldn’t understand why I was so adamant that I couldn’t have milk with my turkey sandwich. I was so upset that she wound up taking me to the office and calling my momma. Momma told me just to get some water from the water fountain (in my defense, I was 6–logic wasn’t my strong suit yet). I’m not sure if she ever attempted to explain to the teacher why I was so upset.
At my elementary school, Wednesdays meant hot dogs, and Fridays meant hamburgers. They tasted the same. Sometimes, however, the cafeteria powers would shake it up a bit and we’d get pizza on Friday – this would cause a near riot come lunch line time. And then there were the crumb-coated mystery meat fritters that leave me quizzled to this day. What in blazes was in those things? In junior high, cheesey mashed potatoes were served every so often that would stretch about a foot (no joke) above the plate. High school wasn’t so bad – our cafeteria offered a salad bar and bagged lunches as a break from their godawful cafeteria fare. Have you ever seen a chicken nugget bounce? I have. (What can I say? I was curious!)
I grew up in a tiny beach community in North Carolina where our elementary school’s lunches came in on the truck and just basically had to be reheated. My brother and I brought our lunch, as Mom always made us great ones. But, we always bought a carton of milk to have with lunch and had to go through the line with everyone else to do so. Our grouchy lunch lady was terrible! (Perhaps her apron was tied too tight?)
If any kid had spoiled milk (which seemed like it was spoiled on a regular basis) and took it to her with hopes of swapping it out for a fresh carton, she would angrily snatch it out of our hand, stick a straw in it, taste it, and tell us that it was just fine and scoot us back into the lunch room. (Needless to say no one wanted it after that.)
Hotdogs…were green! She would run hot tap water over the hotdogs and by time they made it to the lunch tray, they had a green tint to them that was stark in comparison to the inside of the bun.
Cardboard squares of pizza, styrofoam bowls of greasy vegetable soup in winter, dried out yellow cake with holiday-specific frosting, wilted and overcooked veggies, I could go on and on.
Thanks to a great and loving mom who raised 4 kids to be balanced and good eaters, her lunches were memorable and sometimes envied by the other kids. (Sides included “ants on a log”, cored out apples stuffed with peanut butter, etc.) She’d always jot a note on a napkin, or tuck something special into my lunchbox. She’d make special little healthy treats and on occasion a homemade tollhouse cookie made its way into the lunchbox, making it extra special.
I remember sitting in the lunchroom in the 4th grade and looking across the table at a boy named Gage who had a peculiar item in his sandwich bag. Someone next to him said, “What’s that?”
Gage, one of our class clowns, had brought dog treats. He laughed when the other kids at the table noticed what he had.
Someone shouted “Eew”, and immediately another boy said, “Eat it!”
Gage pulled out a bone shaped treat and took a crunching bite.
Needless to say, he didn’t finish the bag.
I remember in High School my friends & I were walking thru the cafeteria and I seen a guy that I liked. I wasn’t paying attention and walked right into one of the poles in the middle of the floor. So embarrassing!!!!!
Having attended elementary school many, many years ago, I was perplexed when the other kids complained about the lunches. You see, back then our lunchroom ladies prepared meals from scratch. One of the ladies was the Mom to my best friend. She always loaded us up with extra cookies or goodies. She even told me how she made them. Don’t get me wrong, my Mom was a super lady. She was very maternal, showed great love to my brother and me, but one thing she could not do was cook. Looking back I realize how I stayed so thin. I recall be shocked to learn beef stew actually could be made to look just like the canned stuff, which I really liked. My Mom’s beef stew consisted of clear broth, boiled meat and veggies. I recall the first time Mom invited my husband-to-be for supper. After the meal all he could think about was, what a terrible cook I probably was going be. It was enough to give him concern, but it didn’t deter him from walking down the aisle. Imagine his pleasant surprise when he discovered I was a good cook. I owe all to the ladies in the lunchroom.
Ok so this is my cafeteria story and the reason why I totally swore off cafeteria food. In school, my favorite lunch day was pizza day and this was that day. I was all geared up, in line with my little chocolate milk and plastic tray, watching the lunch ladies work as I walked down the line to the area where the pizza would be. It wasn’t there yet so I had to wait. While I waited I was watching, looking past the counters and everything to the back kitchen… I saw the sainted pizza lunch-lady, pizza pan in hand, halo of cafeteria light surrounding her head lol just kidding… anyways so she is walking towards the front with the pizza pan in hand and IT FALLS OFF THE PAN ONTO THE FLOOR! I was crushed, thinking i would have to wait even longer now for them to make a new one… NOPE ! Lunch lady scooped that pizza right off the floor and back onto the tray and served it up to the lunch bar!!! I was shocked and disgusted. I sat my tray down, walked away and went to the snack machine, turning to junk food. I never ate cafeteria food again, always wondering what ELSE got dropped on the floor and served to save time and money. So anyways… now I am a mom AND a vegetarian, so the combination of the pizza incident and our household distaste of meat has led me to making home-packed lunches for my daughters. It’s healthier for them and at least i know it hasn’t touched a dirty cafeteria floor lol
The funniest thing that ever happened to me in the cafeteria during lunch was when I was in 7th grade. We had the last lunch of the day so if there were any leftovers the cafeteria would make an announcement that there was extras. On that eventful day chocolate pudding was the leftover item. It was up to the teachers on cafeteria duty to choose the lucky students who would get the leftovers. I was sitting at the end of the table by the aisle. As one to my fellow students excitedly returning with his extra pudding he was moving quickly and holding it in one hand as he approached the aisle where I was sitting the pudding shot out of his hand into my FACE!. The everyone sitting around me burst out laughing including myself, the other students, and the teachers on duty!
The funniest thing I remember was when there was a ‘theft’ in the lab at school–someone stole the fetal pigs that a biology class was due to dissect. This would have been bad enough, but that very week, we were introduced to something in the cafeteria called Z-Ribs! They were miniature barbecued ribs…just about the size of those fetal pigs! Coincidence?? I don’t think so!!
I used to bring my lunch in elementary school which consisted of cheeto and ketchup sandwiches on white bread (no, that’s not the gross part) to homemade Hungarian sausage sandwiches. My 4th grade teacher, Mrs. Byrd, loved the sausage sandwiches so sometimes my Mom would pack one for her, too. One day when the cafeteria was serving broccoli, which was nothing more than a greenish, yellowy, mushy mess, I sat next to Mrs. Byrd and we both were enjoying our sausage sandwiches. The only kid I ever knew to actually eat the cafeteria broccoli was sitting across from us and I guess on this day she had enough. All of a sudden her face turned a funny color and became really contorted and yes… you know what happened next. She threw up ALL over her tray and the sticky, white table. It was coming out of her mouth, her nose. Kids screamed and jumped up from the table. It was awful! Thankfully, Mrs. Byrd and I remained unharmed but it was close. I gagged for months afterwards just thinking about it and I rarely eat broccoli today. I doubt Mrs. Byrd does, either.
My most memorable lunch room experience was when I was in the 9th grade. I had a horrible cold but I was in school any ways, sneezing and sniffing and blowing my nose. Which is pretty disgusting in itself, let alone having to do it while eating in front of your friends in the cafeteria. I was sitting with a group of friends trying to make it through my cheese pizza, when one of my friends said the most hilarious thing, I cant recall exactly what it was, but I can recall the horror I felt when the instant I laughed a giant puddle of snot came out of my nose, dribbled down my face, right on top of my pizza! Several people left the table grossed out, the few that remained sat there laughing at me handing me napkins, it was a flood of snot that seemed to have no end! I honestly didn’t blame them for laughing, it was pretty funny. I got called booger face everyday after that, rightly so.
My favorite memory? I guess that would be when our state finally got the lottery approved and so we had better funding, which equaled better food!
We would all LITERALLY run to the lunch room when it was chicken finger day! They were the BEST chicken tenders, and the cafeteria would actually run out of chicken!
That was ok, though, because we had a salad bar instead if we chose from, which was REALLY good by itself!
I can actually say I MISS school lunch!
We moved around a lot when I was in elementary school, so I would have to say my favorite lunchroom experience was always the second day after starting a new school. I knew where to sit, I had tentative friendships started, and I didn’t have those darn butterflies rioting in my stomach like the previous day!
Remember when it was cool to wear baggy over-alls with only one strap hooked? Yeah, guess what happens when that one strap lets go in the cafeteria? The whole school saw me in my big cotton day-of-the-week undies my freshman year of HS. Hands full of lunch tray. Could not run away due to baggie pants around ankles.
I went to my 10-year class reunion–still have not lived that down.
Maybe not so funny…A child sitting next to me put a heap of salt on my little square of pumpkin pie. A teacher walked by and thought that I was playing with my food, and demanded that I eat it. So, of course I did, but I had an aversion to pumpkin pie for years after. Just exemplifies the usual unhealthy food offered at school cafeterias, and not only just terrible, but imagine a huge lump of salt added to that!
In middle school, I began taking my lunch to school regularly. Since bottled water was not available for purchase, only milk and “juice,” I always took a nice-sized bottle to drink during lunch. My mom found a great French brand that was not incredibly well-known here but included a plastic cup with each bottle of water. One day, I was drinking my water, pouring it little by little into the plastic cup, when the cafeteria supervisor came to my table. He asked me what I was drinking, picked up and examined the entire bottle, then took a drink. He said he had to make sure I was not drinking vodka or another alcoholic beverage because a)my drink was clear (yes, real water is generally clear); b)it was a “weird” brand with a foreign name; and c)I was pouring it into this cup to drink (?!?). I still don’t understand his reasoning and why he would think a 12 year-old would so blatantly drink alcohol in the middle of the cafeteria, but as a very shy girl who tried to never do anything wrong, this was a very embarrassing scene. I’ve now become more used to others finding my healthy food choices “weird.” =)
When I was in elementary school in the early 60′s our milk came from a very small local dairy. It was in little glass bottles with a cardboard cap that had a lift up place for a paper straw. (In first grade we were given 10 of these for learning to count, no public kindergarten back then.) The top was covered with red cellophane. The milk was not homogenised. I loved tearing off the cellophane and lifting the little tab but hated the creamy part of the milk. I just drank the nonfat part in the bottom and stopped when I got to the cream. I was in trouble every day because of not drinking all of my milk and I never cleaned my plate either. The food was ok but the baked goods excellent. Although they were served every week I never saw anyone eat the stewed prunes. We had fish on Fridays. I am so glad they didn’t serve us liver because we had to try a bite of everything on the plate.
My favorite memory of school lunch comes from elementary school. We had a lunch lady (who was otherwise very kind) that would make sure that if you ever got caught mixing up your food and not actually eating it, you would soon regret it. She kept a large wooden spoon in her hand while she walked the lunchroom after she`d served up our “hot” and “cold” pre-packed meal trays, and any child who had mixed his potatoes, meat, veggies, green fruity jello, chocolate milk, and cookie together would not be excused to recess- and then be required to use the spoon to consume it all in huge bites! I`ll never forget the boy who had carelessly trashed his lunch while we tried to warn him “You`re gonna get it!”…I think he actually cried after the first bite when she handed him the spoon! This same lunch lady always kept extra milk and peanut butter or cheese sandwiches in case someone didn`t have money or a lunch from home-she couldn`t stand for anyone to be hungry, so it really angered her when someone was wasteful.
That was a long time ago to remember…I’m not even sure I remember what I had for breakfast this morning. But, I do remember the hallway leading to our lunch room. It had these big (to me) paintings of nursery rhymes and I just loved them! I wanted to be in them.
I also remember receiving my first kiss in that lunch room. From David Garen. He was cute, but I really loved his best friend, Chris Chapman. He was dreamy. For a six-year-old, that is.
As an elementary teacher in Milwaukee, I often did lunch duty to make a little extra money. While on lunch duty one day I was walking by a favorite student. She had just popped open her drink and proceeded to take a sip which she immediately spit out–it was PABST BLUE RIBBON beer! She was mortified when I asked her why she would bring a beer for lunch. She said they were rushing that morning and her mom must have accidently grabbed the wrong can out of the fridge. Remember, she was a great kid so I believed her completely. I took the can of beer and proceeded to the principal’s office just to let him know about the mishap. As I entered his office, with open beer in hand, he said with a straight face, “rough day?” It’s one of my favorite teaching moments of all time:)
My first experience with a lunchroom was at a school I attended in Alabama after moving here from New Jersey.It was 1976.I was in 7th grade.You could pick chores to do during school hours(It was a small rural county school).I chose to work at lunch in the cafeteria(we got free ice cream in those cool little cups with the wood spoon!!!).Anyway my friend and I had to help the lunch ladies in the tray return dept. The ladies would put the unopened milk containers to the side to reuse later,but the kicker was the bread.After kids brought there trays to us,the ladies would take the unused pieces of white bread and wipe ‘em off and save them to be used again…Ugghh! We told the teachers this and supposedly they put an end to this policey,but we were immediatlly removed and put to work in the library..hmmmm
My most dreaded lunchroom menu growing up in New Mexico was sauer kraut. . . cooked with viena sausages. Arriving at school in the morning, I could smell it cooking from two blocks away. By lunchtime the smell permeated not just classrooms but playground as well. It was served with 1/2 peanut butter and jelly sandwich. To get a second 1/2 sandwich, all the sauer kraut had to be eaten. I remember achieving that goal one time. Usually, I just moved the sauer kraut around on the plate and settled for 1/2 peanut butter sandwich.
Growing up in Japan, as a child of missionary parents, we attended a boarding school in Tokyo. Our cafeteria was run by a dedicated group of Japanese men and women who tried their best to feed us food we would enjoy. I can’t say that I have any memories of favorite foods but I sure do remember the food we hated. One particular one they served us was what they called “John Glenn meatloaf”. I supposed they thought if they named it after an American astronaut we would love it and eat it But it tasted horrible. I think later we learned it was shark meat mixed with lots of sugar and ketchup. Another one we dreaded was the almost daily offering of a Japanese food called “inarizushi”, basically rice inside a soy bean curd bag. We grew to hate it so much we called them “barf bags”. I still cannot see one without thinking of that and to this day have never eaten another one.