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How about that sliced "turkey" where one half of the perfectly round slice was dark grey (that was supposed to be the dark meat) and one half was light grey (that was supposed to be the white meat)?
I'm amazed so many of you can recollect your Elementary School meals. I can recall just one mean - the Sloppy Joe. My mom was not familiar with Sloppy Joes. In a way this was a good thing!
I never ate cafeteria hot lunches in school. My mom always made our lunches. My favorite was tuna salad on white bread with tomato. We would get 2 snacks and a juice box. When I got to Highschool my mom gave me a can of soda wrapped in foil to keep it cold. Rarely did I buy anything from the cafeteria. Maybe French fries or a snack. The food looked nasty and my mom did want us eating that garbage. I grew up in 70's and 80's
The cafeteria in grade school always smelled like vomit. The only air-conditioning was in the teacher's lounge so with all the stoves and ovens going on, the cafeteria was like hell.
I would often see an old lady with sweat dripping off her face into the pot of gruel she was stirring. I think I only ate cafeteria food a couple of times, I usually just bought milk. The weirdest looking food I remember seeing was some kind of pie that had carrot slices in it.
The cafeteria in Jr. high was a lot different, they had soda and potato chip machines in there, plus you helped yourself to any of the food instead of waiting for one of the cafeteria ladies to spoon it out for you. I remember my first day in that school after filling my tray and paying for it, I headed to one of the tables and saw a kid sitting by himself with no food. I asked him if he was not eating lunch and he replied, " I kept waiting for a lady to serve me but she never did."
I explained to him that he had to get it himself in this school. He jumped out of his seat and scurried back into the line.
I never ate cafeteria hot lunches in school. My mom always made our lunches. My favorite was tuna salad on white bread with tomato. We would get 2 snacks and a juice box. When I got to Highschool my mom gave me a can of soda wrapped in foil to keep it cold. Rarely did I buy anything from the cafeteria. Maybe French fries or a snack. The food looked nasty and my mom did want us eating that garbage. I grew up in 70's and 80's
When I was in elementary school in the 70's for a few years I was a latchkey kid. Parents divorced and my mom worked, so making lunches was out of the question at that time. I was on the reduced price lunch program- cost .10c a day. I got mercilessly teased for being poor. I generally ate whatever I was served because my mom worked late often and I didn't know what time dinner would be served. Stove was off limits to me at that age, so fruit or peanut butter/jelly and bread were my main options.
We had a dish on Thursdays the students called "Gravy Train". It was ground beef with brown gravy served over mashed potatoes. I thought it was actually quite good but would never admit it for fear of not being cool.
I remember the exact dish, it was called hamburger gravy over mashed potatoes & it was good. I still make a version of it.
I think some people posting here did not know what it was like to not be fed at home.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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What I remember about elementary school was the tray hot lunches with at least 4 items and milk was 35 cents. We also had a machine that dispensed an ice cream sandwich for just 10 cents.
Currently, our local elementary school charges $2.25 but nothing is really hot, it's outsourced to a food and facilities management services company. The menu has things like pizza, sunbutter/jam sandwiches, tacos, grilled cheese, Mac & Cheese, turkey hot dog, fish sticks, and the oddest, Chicken Nugget Po' Boy Sub. At the high school, they serve several Indian items, such as Butter Chicken, Chicken Tikka, Tandoori Chicken or Lentil Dal (our city is 37% Asian, most from India).
My mom lived across the street from her elementary school so she would go home and have a home cooked hot lunch. Her HS was in Brooklyn NY and she took a train to get there. The food in the cafeteria was homemade by Italian women. Best food she said and she did not grow up eating Italian food because she was Irish and German.
We had a dish on Thursdays the students called "Gravy Train". It was ground beef with brown gravy served over mashed potatoes. I thought it was actually quite good but would never admit it for fear of not being cool.
Lol!
I was just going to say, the food surely was "unhealthy" but I actually loved most of it. Especially the pizza, the tacos... Even the frozen OJ.
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