Lunch Wars: School Lunches I Have Known

My mother always packed a very balanced, nutritious lunch for my sister and me. But as soon as I stepped foot in high school, it was completely “uncool” to bring a lunch from home. I cannot imagine why my stomach always hurt during field hockey practice – processed cheese and nachos are not exactly what a growing athlete needs!

The hormone filled cow's milk disgusts me. My daughter (or my son) does NOT need any extras in her milk.

This whole post makes me wonder if my son's high school health class talks about nutrition...Time to investigate!

I brought my lunch till jr. high, then everyone bought and from then on, I pretty much bought a bagel with cream cheese and a bag of chips.

Oh, so that is where these hips came from.

The book was an eye-opener for what they serve in school, but even more what I am feeding the kids too.

I used to bring my lunch because our school served things that were gross. Like American chop suey, hot dogs, and the like. I remember they served cheese pizza on Fridays - and it was like cardboard with melted cheese. Gross. Gross.

i remember all school lunches being nasty. They might not have been gross but I think it is something about the smell and mass produced factor that always creeped me out. My poor mother would try to pack me lunches and I would never eat them. Sigh. Then again I did have some issues with that which I inherited from her. If only it could be as simple as eating.

square pizza. tostadas. milk.

PB & J sandwich, an apple, baby carrots and an three Oreo cookies. Still eat it everyday! I suppose you could say I'm a creature of habit, ha ha.

I don't remember much of what was offered at my own school cafeterias growing up, but I do remember my high school lunches. Those lunches consisted of fried foods, pizzas, hamburgers, French fries, boxed vegetables and other sides, but I also do remember there always being a salad bar with fresh salads, fresh fruits and fresh (not frozen) vegetables. Those salads were actually really good.

In first grade, I ate Vienna sausages every day for lunch (yes, the kind that come in a little jar). At the time, my parents were always worried about me being underweight, so I guess they figured that if I ate it, it was good enough. Now, the mere thought gives me the willies.

In high school, one of our favorite days was when they served the slim tortillas that were friend and filled with beef. I would slather mine in salsa and sour cream. I know we had a special name for them because news that they were being served would spread through campus like wildfire, but it is completely escaping me now.

My mom always packed our lunch for us, it was usually a sandwich, chips and a juice box. I'm sure it wasn't the healthiest, but it was probably better than what the kids were buying in the cafeteria. I remember being jealous of the pizza, french fries, and tater tots that the other kids were eating!

By junior high I was given lunch money which meant french fries or chips and a soda, every day. Definitely not healthy.

And in high school we had an open campus, which meant four years of fast food lunches. Every day was Del Taco, Taco Bell, or In-N-Out. It took a long time to break that fast food habit.

We actually went home every day for lunch from kindergarten through eight grade. I went to a small private school and we didn't even have a cafeteria until about sixth grade. We did have "pizza day" and "hot dog day" maybe twice a year, but I don't think I even participated in that. High school I brought my lunch and I remember eating apples and rice cakes with peanut butter almost every day. Ahh memories. I really need to investigate the school my children will be going to...

In high school, I split my time pretty equally between packing lunch and buying school lunch. There were some school lunches I loooved - turkey & gravy, chickenwich - but the real treat were the cookies the lunch staff minimally heated before serving. They were $1, and about 4" square, and clearly not made from scratch. I remember vying to get the most un-cooked one, how gross is that?

I totally blame being an overweight unhealthy child and teen on not being properly educated about food. My parents stocked our home pantries with junk, and our cafeteria served the usual frozen plasticized pizza squares, chocolate chip cookies, and sugary juices. Now that I am an adult and have learned proper nutrition (and shed the extra pounds), I'm facing some resentment over the fact that I was ridiculed by my parents for being overweight in school, when in actuality, I was just eating what I had been given, and following the examples my parents set in our home.. which was bad habits, processed junk food for snacks, and unhealthy meals.

I can remember high school lunches very well. Standing in line, waiting to get my hands on a slice of pizza. The caf was pretty famous for their pizza...it must have been that Italian heritage of my new town. The big thing, though, was that right outside the cafeteria was a school "shop". That shop sold every single type of candy you could think of, and our excuse to buy? Raising money for the school. I can't tell you how many days I spent a dollar of money on a candy bar or bag of Skittles. I was honestly at my heaviest in high school, and because they gave us a "freedom" our parents didn't necessarily give us (the freedom to choose), we took advantage. Most of us suffered from acne. A lot of us gained weight, unless we were part of sports. I'm praying that I'll be able to explain to my kids why choosing to eat this way is not the way to go. I have more education on nutrition than my mother and father ever did...I'm praying that gives me an advantage.

I was an idiot, too. I would take the money my parents gave me and buy a big chocolate chip cookies and a bag of Doritos for lunch. Sometimes I would buy fries or a danish. Bad, bad eating!

We had chicken fried steak, snack bars (kids bought donut sticks and cheetos for lunch!), salad bars, lots of cokes and candy I remember

We had a wonderful "lunch lady" named Vi. There was still scratch cooking done on-site at that time in history (late 70's) and Vi's specialty was cinnamon rolls. (Yes, we got treats sometimes!)

Everyone always knew when it was cinnamon roll day, because we would come to school and the halls were filled with the smell of baking cinnamon rolls. Vi could cook just about anything for the main dish that day, and she would sell it out because of her cinnamon rolls.

While reading the book I had numerous flash backs of those lovely green divided trays with space for each food group. What funny memories come back. We didn't have many choices while I was growing up. You took what you were served and it was usually a meat product, a veggie like green beans, peas and carrots or corn. Then you had rice or potato as well as some dessert such as a square of cake or jell-o with a dollop of hard cream on top.

Oh, school lunches! I'm certainly glad I don't have to eat them today:)

My sister and I almost always packed our lunches for school becuase our school received minimal subsidies for lunches and it was just too darn expensive. However! The food in the lunch room might not have been the healthiest (fried bologna boats, I'm looking at you) but they were all made from scratch in our school kitchen. That would not have been the norm in California where I live now, but in rural Kansas where I grew up, it was standard.

We did have a snack bar that served as a fundraiser for the business club and they brought in fresh donut holes every morning to sell alongside all of the chips and candy bars. I was a frequent patron...

My dad packed my lunch throughout my grade school to high school years. I rarely bought anything from the cafeteria, but when I did I made sure it was something greasy and not good for me. Pizza, french fries, or tater tots!

I remember all the horrible options we had. Greasy pizza, chicken patty on a bun with no lettuce or tomato (They didn't even have them if you wanted them), french fries, cup of noodle. I went through a few months in 8th grade where I ate a cup of noodle and a chocolate granola bar. I gained weight really quickly and stopped and became obsessive about my weight. I remember the kids who ate only french fries and soda for lunch every day. I remember the girl who had a strawberry milk shake for lunch every day (we had an espresso stand in our high school run by students in the business class). I remember the kids who had cup of noodle five days a week for four years. Luckily my habit didn't last that long. But it's influence on my weight and body image has lasted.

I had really gross food in school. Greasy pizza (grease would actually run down your hand and arm and drip off your elbow) with processed cheese and a tiny layer of sugar-laden tomato sauce, mystery meats, highly processed chicken nuggets, etc. Yuck.

I mostly got packed lunches as a kid. I remember throwing a lot away because I found sandwiches boring too. But my parents weren't into asking me what I wanted.

When I was in high school, we had a food service offering instant stuff and a couple of microwaves, but no real kitchen. I still brought lunch and still threw a lot of it away, but then put money in the vending machine for junk.

My best memory of school lunch has nothing to do with food. I was once sarcastically telling my parents I knew they didn't really love me because in grade school, some other kids got little love notes in their lunch boxes from their moms. My parents never did that. Every day of high school for the next however many years, my father wrote a lengthy (and usually weightily intellectual or ironically humorous) essay on my brown bag and put the boring sandwich inside. My friends all used to gather around to see what crazy thing my father had written every day.

Now I put notes in my kids' lunches sometimes.