Mom never brown bagged for us. I seem to remember in the late 60's a hot plate lunch was 35 cents in the third grade and maybe 50 cents by sixth grade. All the above mentioned food was pretty good except for the burgers, yuck tasted like cardboard.
Was in my sons high school ten years ago and the cafeteria looked like the food court at the mall! Wholly shit and they still complain.

I lived in a part of Georgia where there were no Italian restaurants. Lunchroom pizza was a treat.

Elementary school in the 90s, here.
Usually a sack lunch from home, but do remember square pizza day.

The first high school I attended had a snack break mid morning. One day a week they made cinnamon rolls. They were really good. They put the recipe in the paper because they were so good.

Elementary for me was in the 50's. We had school lunch from Kindergarten on. Our school served two towns with a total population of about 600 plus surrounding rural areas, so classes were about 20-24 per grade. So basically, very small. I always looked forward to Fridays as we had fish sticks so that the Catholic kids did not have to violate their tenets. Back then fish sticks were made with flaky white fish, probably cod, and tasted very good. None of that gray colored ground up stuff of today. The cooks also made the tartar sauce in the kitchen and it was excellent too.

Chicken nuggets and rolls. I would first smash the rolls into flat discs, then insert nuggets between them to make sandwiches. Then I'd mix ketchup and mustard together to make "orange". Dip and enjoy. I also loved mixing their peas and mashed potatoes together.

I had a few favorites. Fish sticks on Friday. Baked Spaghetti on Wednesday. But my all time favorite was pizza burgers. They were served as halves of Hamburg buns.
I found the recipe and made them awhile ago
Hamburg, cooked
Spam or bologna
Velveeta cheese
Oregano
Little salt and pepper
Some pizza sauce
All mixed together and put on halves of Hamburg buns.

quote:

Originally posted by ridgerat:
Yes! The one we hated:

"Beanie-Weinie."

'Nuff said.

My favorite was the lunch with vegetable beef soup, grilled cheese sandwich, and a huge honey bun. All 3 were fresh and excellent.

Back in elementary school, I bit into my breaded fish portion where I found I got a little surprise. I got a mouthful of fishing net - about a 2”x 4” piece. I was grossed out, and the lunch ladies I showed it to, didn’t show any care.

In elementary school I remember getting a menu and having to buy lunch tickets for each day you wanted to have school lunch. I don't remember a lot about the lunches at that level but I do remember seconds.

We were fed on Styrofoam sectioned trays. There were two types of seconds. 1/2 a peanut butter sandwich, or an ice cream scoop of this cinnamon rice. The sandwiches were just plain white bread with creamy peanut butter 1mm thick (meh). The rice was a thick grain with a gray appearance that had this most coating that kept it together with the cinnamon. It was absolutely the #1 thing on the menu. You were allowed two trips for seconds. On the first trip they would use a pencil to score an angled line across one section of the tray. The second trip they'd score a 2nd line that made an X. At that point you were done. Believe me, on 'rice seconds day' kids were buying or grabbing trays from kids that didn't want seconds for 3rd or 4th trips.


I don't remember much about middle school lunch other than it was similar to HS lunch. In HS I remember that a few times a month they would do french bread pizza instead of standard square thin rock hard pizza. EVERYONE lined up for that.

Salmon croquettes with bones the diameter of a pencil eraser. I went hungry those days.

All I remember is that I generally didn't like my elementary school's lunches. I do remember the hot rolls were disgusting. Junior high was OK but nothing stood out. We had a closed campus for high school and I rarely ate lunch it was so bad. Both my parents were working and they rarely if ever asked me about lunch or if I needed money for it as they were so busy with their careers.

Bologna sandwich on white bread in a recycled paper sack. Seemed okay at the time till I found out the federal inmates ate the same thing plus an apple, Could not afford the cafeteria food.

quote:

Originally posted by Ranger41:
Salmon croquettes with bones the diameter of a pencil eraser. I went hungry those days.

God, I remember my Mom used to do those at home. Disgusting. But, I was all in on Halibut night back in the day when you could afford to buy that stuff. Never had a school lunch. Brown bagged it. Usually a BLT and a baggy of chips.

Rectangle cheese pizza with a side of whole kernel corn and chocolate milk. For whatever reason, we'd always eat the cheese off the pizza first, then have the crust. In hindsight, I think it's because we felt like we were getting "more" food because we got to chew a bit longer.

We always loved the soy hamburgers. The lunch ladies would mix mayo and mustard together in a bowl because that's what most of the kids wanted. It always looked like banana pudding.

I went to a semi-rural school through 8th grade, late 50s until spring 1965. We had a great cafeteria - food was good and there was always a big pot of creamed rice if you didn't like the regular fare. Rice was pretty good with sugar and cinnamon.

Occasionally got ice cream cups as treats and once in a while the principal would come in afternoon classes with a big box of commodity raisins bulk packed, he'd just put a handful on a paper towel and we'd chow down. Many fond memories of those days.

quote:

creamed rice

New to me.

I liked the sloppy joes best.

quote:

Originally posted by egregore:

quote:

Originally posted by ridgerat:
Yes! The one we hated:

"Beanie-Weinie."

'Nuff said.

Homemade beanie weenies:
https://www.mrshappyhomemaker.com/beanie-weenies/

I’m going to try this!

Worst thing was in preschool and they had tomato soup every now and then, but the pro was it came with grilled cheese. They used to MAKE you eat it no matter what, and its hard to hide soup, so I dumped in enough oyster crackers to turn it into a solid mass that tasted slightly more cracker than soup.

Grade school had the choice of chocolate milk cartons ONLY on Fridays. Our kids now? You can have chocolate milk EVERY day as a choice. Everything is evidently prepackaged entrees that are rewarmed now also, not vats of stuff being slopped onto your trays by lunch ladies with clear disposable gloves and a hairnet.