When I started school in 1958, we had 2 milk breaks a day, & milk, plain or chocolate, was 2 cents per 1/2 pint.

Some kids brought their lunches, but my mother said that the plate lunches, at 25 cents, were a better buy than what she could put together.

seems like we had meat, 2 vegetables, bread of some sort, & dessert, which might be fruit cocktail or jello or some such.

On Fridays, we always had fish.

The lunches were in plastic divided trays, much like tv dinner plates, & each small serving was in its own little compartment.

When milk went to 3 cents, my mother was incensed!

I remember a hot lunch program (20 cents eventually) that the moms helped cook. The school had one cook in the 1940s, and moms were signed up to assist on a rotating basis with cooking, serving, and washing dishes. We had a 3 course hot lunch, with seconds if there were extras, and those went to the upper grades first to fill up growing boys and girls. If there were still left overs, the younger kids were given seconds too. We received government snacks of free rasins mid morning at our desks.

Our School Lunches were $.25 and included Milk. We had fish every Friday, because of the Catholic Kids. Lots of German Kids so we had Kraut and Wieners lol. But we always had a good desert. Every once in a while they have a little cup of ice cream which was a special treat. Teachers supervised to make sure we were eating our food. If we didn't they would "rat us out to Mom". After 6th Grade we could go off Campus accross the street to the "Little Store" for a $.25 hamburger and if you had an extra nickel you could get a Coke. LOL! Ahh those bottled Cokes were sooooooo good.

Our kindergarten was only 3 hours but we had a milk and graham cracker break. The "milk lady" would come to our classroom pulling a little red wagon full of milk and a box of graham crackers. Somewhere between the age of 2 and 3 I gave up drinking milk entirely except for hot chocolate or rarely chocolate milk. My mother thought I might drink it when I saw everyone else was. Didn't work. So I just had the crackers from then on.

I took my lunch to school for a while but I was a light eater and the principal took it upon himself to check lunch boxes for uneaten food before allowing us to leave the table. It made me a nervous wreck and I couldn't eat. My mother told him not to do this and when he tried again I told him I didn't have to finish because my mother said so. LOL From then on I went home for lunch. Amazing how much my appetite improved after that.

Hot lunches were just like Sylvia described. They were 30 cents and included milk. Fish on Fridays and Tuesday was hot dog day.

The cafeteria had ice cream available for a nickel, Dixie cups,Popsicles,Fudge bars,Eskimo pies or Crunch bars.

In Junior High I started buying my lunch. You had a choice of a cafeteria lunch or a bag lunch which was usually a sub type sandwich,an orange wedge,a cheese cube and a cookie. Milk was separate at 5 cents. We also had a snack bar that had candy bars,chips and ice cream.

The first high school I attended had one lunch period and same menu as the junior high only they added the choice of a box lunch consisting of a hamburger,a cheese stick,potato salad,orange wedge and a cookie.

The other high school had us on a schedule similar to college. We all took our lunch between classes. Lunch was available from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm. The outside window would open in the morning for "breakfast". They served fresh baked cinnamon rolls and hot chocolate. You could buy a hot lunch or a bag lunch but a lot of things were available ala carte so you could basically build your own lunch or graze depending on your class schedule for the day.

Back then all the food was prepared on site. So it was much tastier than the reheated catering truck stuff kids at school got starting in the 70's.

Back in the sixties, we paid 2 cents for a carton of milk. Hot lunch was 25 or 35 cents. I used to buy lunch when they had spaghetti and meatballs or fried chicken. All the other lunches looked disgusting. Normally I brought lunch in a bag. Mom made us sandwiches, gave us a piece of fruit and some cookies (usually Oreos) and two cents for milk.

let's not forget how they put the hole in the milk carton with a phillips screwdriver for the straw!! Milk was 3 cents for me and we drank it three times a day!! We weren't allowed to drink anything but and that chocolate milk was ohhh sooo good!! Elsie the cow Bordens!

I remember we stood in a separate line for milk if we brought our lunches, it was 3 cents, and mom taped it to the bottom of my brown paper bag.
In the other line was a hot lunch, which I usually ate when they had Pigs in a Blanket lunch. Hotdogs on wrapped in the best yeast rolls. yum! I think it was 35 cents, and included milk. Some kids got to eat free.
If you forgot your lunch or your lunch money, you had to go to the office and borrow it. You had to pay it back before you could borrow again.
I can remember standing in those lunch lines like it was yesterday.
Odd, cause I can't even remember what I did yesterday...lol

Trin

I started first grade in 1941. I think our lunches were $.15 a day and it included our milk. Our milk first came in little glass bottles with a cardboard lid. Later they had a foil lid that went over the top of the bottle and finally we had the cardboard cartons. We had a nice cafeteria as our school was new. You didn't have a choice of different foods you took what was served and you did have a choice of wheat or white bread. If anyone was still hungry there were big bowls of peanut butter with honey mixed in on each big table where you sat and ate, you could get more bread if you wished and fill up on that. My mother was a worker in the kitchen and that included doing cooking, cleaning or whatever was needed. She worked there for many years even after I graduated 12 years later. I worked in the cafeteria for my lunch starting in the seventh grade and later I would count all the lunch money for my lunch. They had very good meals all from scratch, even the mashed potatoes. No fried food. In the fall farmers would donate extra produce, like tomatoes or cucumbers or whatever and the school would serve it.

Sue

I haven't the foggiest about the prices of lunches.

But I remember Sara Isabell, always ate her dessert first.

And the thin slice of luncheon meat with some kind of red sauce on top of it. I liked it!

That's all I remember.

I just remembered something about elementary school. Tables were assigned by class. Once everyone had their lunch "seconds" were available at no charge to anyone who wanted them as long as they had finished what was already on their plate.

Our school lunches were .25, too. Milk was included.. Our cooks were 3 old ladies and boy were they fabulous cooks. I remember their spanish rice, chile soup, chicken and noodles, real mashed potatoes,brownies and cookies. It was just like our grandmas made. They were the best meals. We also had fish on fridays. Also had the biggest tenderloin sandwiches and boy were they ever good... What wonderful memories... Graduated in 68 and they were the cooks all 12 grades..

Susie

NO SCHOOL LUNCHES UNTIL 9TH GRADE (Chicago) (hIGH sCHOOL) EVERYONE WENT HOME FOR LUNCH OR BROUGHT A SANDWICH. lIKE MANY WE WAITED FOR THE MILK TRUCK AND WHITE MILK WAS 2¢ a bottle and chocolate 5¢ a bottle to this day anytime I take a swig of chocolate I think of those days .
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No school lunches at St. Mary's. If you were a town kid, you went home, even if there were blizzard conditions outside. If you were a country kid, you brought your lunch. No milk until about 4th grade, but I didn't like milk and chocolate was only available once a week. I don't think there was a charge for it, but there may have been.

In high school lunch was 35 cents. I only ate there on days they had chili--it was great. Went home other days. It was only 6 or 7 blocks. Ah, to be young again!

I probably took my lunch, but just look at what most posted. Healthy lunches and no cell phones, excerise outside after lunch, no texing/face book and if you really did not like someone you sometimes fought or yelled or cried. No threats, no guns, and even those who did not have many friends seemed to survive.

Marie, you said it well. But then again most kids in those days were disciplined, had some sort of chore responsibility and often had a parent at home.

I can only remember three of the Friday menus. 1) Tuna salad 2) Fish sticks and tartar sauce; and 3) Grilled cheese or peanut butter sandwich. If you chose grilled cheese, you'd get a grilled cheese sandwich and 1 peanut butter (or just butter) on a slice of bread. If you chose peanut butter you got 3 slices of bread with peanut butter or just butter. The grilled cheese used sandwich sliced bread while the other used French or Italian bread. And at least in elementary school they mixed the peanut butter with butter to make it go farther and the butter was a government subsidy too so they didn't pay for it. Goes farther, padded the books.

They had some good meals and some not-so-good ones. I bag lunched it during elementary school but bought lunch starting in junior high. I was a fussy eater.

In elementary school we still had the bottles with the foil top. They had a special stainless steel instrument to poke the hole that was much like a small jar lid with a pointed piece in the middle to push down and open it for the straw. Some would pull the foil off and just drink it. It was quite an honor to be the one to go around the room and pop the tops! Then later came the cartons. The first day or two they tried to use the top popper on the cartons. What a joke! Didn't take long for them to figure out that it was better to toss that and the kids can open the carton. Duh.

I don't recall any seconds in grade school. Junior and senior high had several lunch breaks so there was a pro and con to being in the last break. They were very conservative on portions especially in the first break. Last one could be good if they had a lot, they might load you up but that was rare. If there was extra they'd give it out, but if it was a favorite and they didn't have enough your lunch was peanut butter sandwich and that was not a substitute for pizza burgers! Occasionally someone would loan their plate to a bag luncher to go get some of the freebie. Oh and if you were delayed getting in there you risked missing "hot lunch". Those old cooks watched that clock and they didn't put in an extra minute.

I don't recall prices but they were cheap. You'd buy lunch tickets and milk tickets if you wanted extra milk. You could just pay cash for the milk if you didn't have the milk ticket. And Mondays they'd have the line for buying tickets.

Ah yes, I think I remember another Friday option. I *think* mac & cheese was in the rotation. There might have been others but I just don't recall. With the exception of fish sticks, Fridays were not popular days there among the non-Catholics! The only thing about tuna salad was the great cinnamon rolls. Many skipped the tuna and just ate the cinnamon roll.

I worked as a school secretary just before moving to Florida. That year they began carting the lunches from a central kitchen to all the schools in large stainless steel containers. Our lunch ladies were used to baking their own pies, rolls, cakes, etc., and were really in a huff. They would look at the large vat of peas or potatoes and say, "The kids won't eat that stuff." and begin to season it with lots of butter and whatever made it taste good. I have to say, the food was delicious and kids could have seconds if they cleaned their plates and there was food left. A lot of our kids were on free lunch and it was probably the only meal that got at times. Those kids were the ones that asked for more vegetables. Our ladies knew most of the kids because they lived on farms in the area so they knew which ones needed a little extra. They were great!

Our school lunches were 25 cents and the one thing I can remember the most is the smell of those great homemade yeast rolls baking. I think we had those rolls at least three times a week and they were wonderful. As a matter of fact, all of the food was really good. We had ladies from the community that cooked everything from scratch. There was no such thing as instant potatoes. My mom was a teacher at the same school I attended so I always ate in the cafeteria. I had a friend that lived close to school, so on occasion I would walk home with her for lunch. I thought that was a real treat!!!

i forgot all about lunch tickets, thanks for the memory cynic....
We would stand in line outside of the door going into the hot lunch area, and pay our 35 cents to them and get a ticket. I think you could go to the office and get tickets in greater quantity.
after getting our tray and lunch, we would stop at the end of the counter and give whoever was standing there our ticket. I think they had an index card file there of who was to get free lunches. Lots of times the cafeteria person would just know by memory.
There was always two cafeteria monitors, usually teachers took turns, and there was one at the front and back of the room. They made sure no one got out of hand.
After lunch was over, we scooped uneaten food into a garbage can, and put our plate and tray through a window to be washed...

Trin

We never had lunch tickets. While in grade school we gave our money to our teacher. When we went into 7th grade and up we gave our money to the cashier.

Sue

No food service here. You either went home for lunch or brown bagged it. We lived very close so we had to go home, even though nobody was home. Dad would make our sandwiches and place them in our lunchboxes, which were stacked in the fridge at home.

When we got older we could make something ourselves (like mac and cheese) or reheat something. We were the first kids in our neighbourhood to get a microwave. That thing was gianormous, silver and fake wood grain. Spaghettios or soup were favourites.

There was a cafeteria with a catering service in high school, but all they had were chips and pop, soup, prepared sandwiches, and one or two prepared salads. You had to be in line early to get a salad or a soup, they went fast.

When I went on exchange to Quebec, I was shocked at the hot meals they were served, either for $2.00 or for free if you said you didn't have the money. Soup, a salad, the entree (always a main with two veggies and some kind of starch), a dessert, and a drink. And the food was GOOD.

The family I was staying with was going through some marital and financial problems, so the cupboards were usually bare. The younger kids were fed a dinner, but the older kids had to fend for themselves. I would eat the free breakfast at school (FULL breakfast) and pay for my lunch from my allowance sent by my parents. That would do for the day, as there was no dinner to be had.

I started school in 73. Meals were $1, I think they were $1.50 when I graduated. One carton of milk was included, an extra cost a $.05.

In the lower grades seconds were served only to those who cleaned their plates and you got something of everything that was prepared. When I got to HS, maybe Junior High, we could tell the lunch ladies that we did not want the peas or whatever and you could get seconds. I do not remember ever getting seconds. We always had bread with butter and in elementary school, we'd open it up and put sugar on it to eat it. On occasion we'd get peanut butter with honey (that was my favorite thing).

In the lower grades (maybe 1st and 2nd), we got milk breaks. Two kids were tasked with going to the cooler and filling a milk crate with the right number of little cartons and carrying it back upstairs to the class room.

Though I almost never drank milk, I did always drink it with school lunch.

With one or two changes, all my lunch ladies were the same from 1st though 12th grades. I never understood the mean lunch lady parody as my lunch ladies were awesome.

Trin, thanks for swapping memories. I forgot about the line for the garbage cans and putting it through the rollup window for the dishwasher! No scraping, just dump it. As I recall there was a basket for silverware. Sometimes they'd get behind on washing and there was quite a pileup of those round 3 compartment divided plastic plates!

One thing that just hit me. I don't remember ever having napkins at school! Guess that's why we had sleeves!

Oh and we never had a chocolate milk option. It was whole milk until I think high school then it was 2% as I recall.

And "whipped potatoes and butter" was often on the menu.

We were never allowed to leave school (unless of course you sneaked out which wasn't that hard to do) without someone coming to get you. And if you didn't have money, you didn't eat. There was a sign-up for low income to get reduced price or free lunches but the motto essentially was "no tickee - no lunchee".

I went home for lunch from 1st to 8th grade. We lived in a small town in south Ga. When I went to high school I was the only catholic in the school but we had fish every friday.

In elementary schools, both in Ohio and California in the 50's you either brought your lunch or went home for lunch.
In high school (California) I always bought a hamburger and milk, came to 25 cents. They had box lunches for more money but I usually didn't like them. The hamburger had a lot of bulgar in it, an additive to stretch how many hamburgers they could make, but I liked the way they tasted.
There were no soft drink or snack machines, that was in the 60's, and I didn't have money to spend on snacks anyways.

And...cynic, I remember sometimes the kids, mostly boys,
got in trouble for throwing or pushing their trays too hard through the window.
They usually got lunch detention for that. I remember being behind a boy that did that, and I prayed that the dishwasher did not think it was me.
i would have been in soooo much trouble.

Trin

Teaching high school on third floor, the most aromatic smell came from the school cafeteria.

Could not wait to get down to devour the food, only to find it was a weiner on mashed potatoes with a gosh awful red sauce. arghhhhhhhhhhh

One thing I remember from school lunches is they sold Scooter Pies, a combination of graham cracker, marshmallow and chocolate. I think they were 15 cents back then. I wasn't real fond of them, but "The Cool Kids" liked them a lot. I wasn't cool at age 11.

LOL oh, knocking over the plates! Although usually we were "good" kids! LOL There wasn't too much trouble but I forgot about doing lunchroom duty. Wiping tables and they had to wear a white towel around their waist. Don't remember if there was a hat. A couple of the school bullies got that and everyone smirked but didn't say too much. Payback y'know! As I recall some did it too for a free lunch or something. So it wasn't always punishment.

And oh, the hamburgers! I forgot about those things! They were mostly filler and baked so hard you needed good teeth. The best part was the bun. Junior high had a delicious bun. High school the bun was average but the burgers there were square. They'd bake a pan of this mystery "meat" mixture and cut it into squares. But kids love burgers of any type. Then the fries. Oven baked frozen crinkle cuts so wet and soggy but we always asked for a lot. They'd give about 6 and if you asked for a lot, they might give you one or 2 small ones more and make it look like they were grabbing such a big handful!

Should I bring up about the bowls of ketchup they'd put on the tables with the spoon in it? Half the kids would lick the spoon before putting it back. Some had a hobby of spitting in it and see how long it took to dissolve! Needless to say I never used ketchup. By jr. high they learned about the pump tops for the institutional size jugs.

Most of the lunch ladies were good but there were a couple of grouchy classics. The one we called hamhocks was never caught with a smile on her face. Never guilty of doing too much work either. Stood around and growled for the most part.

There was a BIG addition to the junior high one year. An APPLE MACHINE!! Can you picture the condition of those apples bouncing through essentially a pop machine??? So bruised up, worm holes, and after the initial newness wore off those apples sat in there until nearly rotten. Never any pop machines though when I was in school. I think they did add some cans of juice to it too at the end of my tenure.

Although there were plenty of drinking fountains many of us were skeptical on the condition of them, even at that young age!

A friend and I were talking about school lunches a while back but I forgot about so many of these things. His mother was such a bad cook, for him school lunch was a real treat. My mother was a fabulous cook so for me it was not quite as big a deal. Fun memories.

My high school did not have any food service. Everyone brought their lunch in a paper bag. After emptying the bag, it could be folded and carried in a back pocket. One bag was good for about 3 days. We did have two soda pop machines in the gymnasium and the Band sold candy in the office at noon. Most of us did not have much spare cash to spend on these items. Life was more austere, but simplier back then.

havn't a clue about elementary cafeteria, was always to scared to try it, lol...but we did have despensers in jr..(los angeles) not junk but the best apples...(1959) in hs took advantge on the days they had enchiladas (hollywood hi) havn't a clue what the cost was...

san diego... the kids ate reduced lunch rate (the advantage of 4 kids, lol) and i remember them getting choice of salad bar and then a hot dish..my kids always wanted me to try and copy the pasta salad...our dist had a central kitchen...

has anyone been following jaime oliver's show? i can't believe the recluctance of the kitchen staff at healthier food...kind of sad, isn't it...

I can't remember too much about my lunches except they were 25 cents and you bought tokens in advance. My mom gave me one everyday. They were red and shaped like little stop signs. The kids on financial help had yellow tokens. I remember even then thinking it wasn't fair to single them out like that...lots of kids made fun of them.

I never liked to take lunch because I always thought my lunchbox smelled funny and made it mentally impossible for me to eat my sandwich.

The one thing I really, really remember vividly is standing in the cafeteria line, a boy told me about the "birds and the bees". I didn't know whether to believe him or not. I didn't have any brothers, I was only about 8 or 9 and he was making the most ridiculous gestures with his hands....LOL!

When I was in grammar school most moms were SAHM's. A neighbor and I walked eight blocks to school, home for lunch, back to school, and home again after school. Sixth Grade boys took great pride in being 'Patrol Boys' at the two busier streets near the school. We had an HOUR for lunch. (How GOOD that was for us as young children to be home for a while in the middle of the day!)

There was recess once a day and PE too. (A fat kid was really RARE.) Almost no-one ate lunch at school then, and there was no separate place for them to eat it.

In junior high (7th and 8th) and high school we did have hot lunches and the little milk cartons. I'd fogotten about the FISH STICKS! I almost always brought my lunch because the cafeteria food was so gross most of the time. (I envy those of you who had good cooks who could make something out of the gov't subsidies.)

My junior and senior years our HS was terribly crowded. I'm a pre-Baby Boomer. We were on double shifts while a new HS was being constructed in the township. (Eventually there were four HS's.) We had 'Up' staircases and 'Down' staircases and 'One Way' hallways. 'Lunch' periods started at 10:30 a.m. and ran will into the afternoon. We had 15 or 20 mins. to eat, including the time it took to get TO the cafeteria. (My class ranking was fine, but didn't sound very good unless you knew there were nearly 1,000 kids in my class.)

Today, in the inner city pre-K to 8th school where our DIL teaches, kids would starve if the school didn't serve breakfast, lunch, and provide a take-home snack. Kids go to summer school just to get fed. There's little point in asking who qualifies for free food because 99% do. There's no recess. There is no PE. The school hours are staggered so that the younger kids go home before the HS's let out and the bullets start flying.

I started school in 1943,and all i remember was in kindergarten we always had graham crackers and milk.When i went to all the other grades i know we took our lunch everyday,don't remember what if anything we had to drink.
Kathi