I am almost 52. My parents were very frugal and didn’t make a lot of money. When I was in elementary school, my lunch basically every day was a sandwich made of bread, mustard, and a slice of velveta cheese. For a drink, it was a cold can of Coke wrapped in aluminum foil and then wrapped in newspaper. It actually kept the soda cold until lunch. Back then there was no place to put a lunch to be refrigerated so that is what I ate 4 days a week. One day a week I could pick to get money to buy lunch and I always picked pizza day.

I have never had a cheese and mustard sandwich since. I don’t know why, but tonight I felt like seeing how it tasted again and made one. Not bad actually, but of course would be better with meat, lettuce, etc.

That made me think of this post to see if others had a similar situation as a child having such a simple lunch every single day in childhood, or if there was a certain school lunch you loved. I dont have children so I don’t even know if today a child can bring a lunch to school that needs to be refrigerated, or they just buy lunch or get it free.

Good old lunchroom, Chili Mac, yum yum.

I like cheese sandwiches. With four slices of cheddar plus French’s Dijon Mustard and Beaver brand Deli Style Horseradish sauce

I just remember that the school cafeteria would always have spinach the day after they cut the grass. I think someone was actually doing it to f@&k with us.

North Frederick Elementary School, 1960's 21701

Hot Meatloaf, Gravy, Mashed potatoes.

Every Thursday ! It was actually good.

Turquoise Walls

The grey haired ladies with hairnets ... not so much.

I don't recall what I put in it, but I do remember my Daniel Boone lunch box. (The TV series, starring Fess Parker, ran from 1964-70, the earlier part coinciding with my time in elementary school.) The thermos, prior to its getting broken, had milk. I also have a vague memory, this time in junior high, of sloppy joes renamed "messy Charlies."

The pizza. Sausage pizza with a thick crust, served to us in rectangular slices.

In 6th grade the cafeteria served an awesome homemade coconut creme pie. They'd never do that today, especially a homemade one.

My school's cafeteria meal that I most fondly remember was the vegetable beef soup and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Crackers and a cup of fruit (sometimes an apple or orange). To this day I wish for the soup recipe.

I do recall someone betting me that I couldn't eat the cafeteria spice cake with a straw.

They lost.

I only went to school in the US through second grade, but I still remember rectangle pizza. That was always a hit. In hindsight it was probably actually pretty bad, but in contrast to everything else they served it was the best.

I went to Czech school for a couple of years and ate in the cafeteria. There was always a soup, and then some kind of entre, usually meat and potatoes. Lots of boiled potatoes. And the leftovers would end up in the soup the next day. The best meal was pork, sauerkraut, and dumplings, and the lunch ladies loved that the American kid liked the traditional Czech dish so they would load me up .Looking back, it was actually pretty decent...not restaurant grade, but definitely better than the processed crap they served back in Ohio.

After a few years at the Czech school I started going to a small private American school, and my mom packed my lunch. She would buy rolls, meat, and cheese and make a bunch of sandwiches and freeze them. The ingredients themselves were fine, but freezing them made them dry and nasty, and some days they weren't even thoroughly thawed out. A lot of those didn't get eaten, and some may have actually gotten chucked into the woods or the river while we were out playing on lunch break.

By high school I pretty much did my own thing. Packed my lunch, or ran to the gas station down the road, or snuck out from study hall and hopped a tram to the McDonalds a few miles down the road. I ate pretty good in high school.

quote:

posted by parabellum:
The pizza.

I think I may have had that in junior high. Pizza, as they made it, has three of the four "food groups" (i.e., the crust was the "bread & cereals," the cheese was the "dairy" and the "meat," of whatever type, was, well, the "meat" group.)

Through most of high school I was allowed to pick out class schedules and teachers and the campus was open, so I usually went home (it was within walking distance) for lunch. One year I even scheduled two periods for roughly an hour and a half lunch break.

I ate a lot of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches when I was a kid. That was a regular in my lunchbox. Problem was my parents were trying to be healthy so I had them on wheat bread.

Similar to Stormin Normin, I was able to have cafeteria day once a week. It was always Wednesday as that was chocolate milk day. I remember the rolls, and how much I loved them. Like 3” thick wonder bread with a shiny brown crust and real butter. (Grew up with only margarine).

Once a month on Friday (I think it was on my Mom’s payday) she would take me to this local place called Sossa’s deli. (If you’re from Palm Desert/Palm Springs, same Sossa family, it was the son of the California sandwich deli man). I remember getting The Turcado, or Roast Beef and Cheddar. Such good sandwiches back then.

quote:

Originally posted by honestlou:
I just remember that the school cafeteria would always have spinach the day after they cut the grass. I think someone was actually doing it to f@&k with us.

That is too funny!

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
The pizza. Sausage pizza with a thick crust, served to us in rectangular slices.

Absolutely! That is exactly how it was and the only time I had pizza in that shape but I loved it! Maybe because it wasn’t a cheese sandwich…lol.

quote:

Originally posted by sigspecops:
In 6th grade the cafeteria served an awesome homemade coconut creme pie. They'd never do that today, especially a homemade one.

It is funny because I work in the jail and prison system in Texas and there are nutritional standards with amounts of fruit and etc. There is only one jail I go to in Texas that I eat their food when I am there and it is in South Texas. They don’t follow the standards and it is like a couple of old grandmas making wonderful Mexican food. The meals are very good. It is the only jail I will eat the food at. I am not there to judge if they follow food standards so I just enjoy.

quote:

Originally posted by egregore:

Man I love Calvin and Hobbes!!!!

There were 7 of us kids in my family and we didn’t have much money growing up but my parents sacrificed a lot to send us to private Christian school from Grades 1-8, plus it helped that my stepmother was a teacher there and had the employee tuition discount.

Lunch was usually peanut butter and either apple butter or prune butter on whole wheat bread, stepmom was not a fan of white bread or jelly/jam. Another variant was sliced surplus government cheese (that my grandmother would give us) on whole wheat with mustard.

This was the early 80’s when things were tough but after Reagan came along things got better and by high school we could afford the school lunches which were surprisingly good then in the late 80’s - early 90’s. If I didn’t have much money that day or was late getting to lunch sometimes it would just be an orange drink and a pack of chocolate covered mini donuts LOL.

I dont remember what was inside, but I have fond memories of something called submarine sandwiches and po'boy sandwiches.

ETA: oh yea, reading next post, our cafeteria has sloppy joes too. Loved them.