What school food was your favorite, if any?

[whirlykenmore78]

School Lunch

I went to a Catholic elementary school/middle school and Jane the head cook and her crew did a phenominal job and Marna was the baker. Most everything was homemade.

Some of my faves, and there were many:

Spaghetti with meat sauce and homemade garlic bread.

Lasagna with the same bread.

The BEST homemade dinner rolls ever topped with melted butter.

Homemade cinnamon rolls.

Hamburger gravy over mashed potatoes. (years later I was able to duplicate this and make it for a lunch special in a restaurant I was Sous Chef at. Customers LOVED it)

Turkey in gravy over mashed potatoes. Yes they cooked and carved whole turkeys and made homemade stock for this.

Tater tot Hotdish. (It's a Minnesota thing)

WK78

 

[iowabear]

I thought most of it was good, but then (as now) I usually eat whatever is put in front of me without complaint.

 

One thing I liked is that there was always a dessert.  Sometimes it was just fruit but more often something tasty like a fruit crisp, cake or brownie.

 

The cooks in my elementary school were awesome, they made a giant decorated cake in the fall of 1976 for the bicentennial!

 

[polkanut]

My parochial school received a lot of government commodities for use in the hot lunch program.  Mrs. McDonald and her staff (Marianne & Doris) sure did a fantastic job turning them into some great tasting foods.

 

[kenwashesmonday]

At out public high school, there was a hot lunch line, and a cold lunch line.  Lunch period was only 22 minutes, and long lines made it difficult enjoy lunch.

 

I loved it when they served chicken chow mein.  Because a lot of kids didn't care for it, it meant a short hot lunch line, and the lunch ladies really piled it on!

 

[norgeway]

Before I attended

Lower Creek Elementary,,My Grandmother had worked there from 1958 until 1962, She roasted her turkeys like She learned at the school...Season with salt and pepper, Wrap in foil, place in a 550 oven for 2 hours, turn the oven off about 5 in the afternoon, leave until morning, in the morning they would get the turkeys out and cut them up for that days lunch,I bet the food police would have a conniption fit over this but that's the way she ALWAYS fixed turkeys at home and they are great.

 

[fan-of-fans]

Our high school had at least 6 lines. One serving a regular tray lunch meal of the day. Three others served the aforementioned crinkle cut fries with choice of cheeseburger, breaded chicken sandwich or pizza. The ala-carte line served pizza and fries or chicken wings and fries (on certain days). That was considered the "fancy, preppy line" and was more expensive. There was also a line that served ham or turkey sandwiches with chips or salads, which were all prepacked.

Later the daily tray meals got discontinued, replaced with a chicken of the day line that served mostly chicken sandwich with french fries, chicken nuggets and mashed potatoes with roll, or other things chicken. As well as a pasta line meal of the day that served lasagna, spaghetti or macaroni and cheese mostly. The mac and cheese was great and served on a small tray with a flaky dinner roll. That line also served the aforementioned chicken pot pie for some reason once in a while. Although that seems more appropriate for the chicken line.

There was a time that Pizza Hut pizza was brought in, held in the holding cabinet and served in the Ala-carte line. I guess that probably became against dietary regulations, because later, they started making their own pizza, but fancier than what they served in the regular lines.

 

[thatrobguy]

Elementary school it was the rectangle pizzas, and turkey haystacks. So so good.

Junior high I usually just had a chef's salad from the cafeteria or brought a bagged lunch

High school, I usually bagged my lunch, and on occasion had a chicken salad sandwich.

But the rectangle pizza, so so so good.

 

[superocd]

Bosco Sticks!

Also: salisbury steak w/ mashed potatoes and (homemade) gravy, Mr. Rib on a bun (BBQ rib sandwich), spaghetti and meatballs, lasagna, chili and cornbread (made from scratch), chili dogs, chicken parmigiana, super nachos, tacos and teriyaki beef dippers. The Uncrustables PB&J were good too. Those were served whenever we had sack lunch days (usually on early release days) or whenever we had a field trip.

I was crestfallen whenever anything with ham or turkey were on the menu (I didn't eat either, and still don't) so I made sure to bring a lunch from home on those days. Usually that meant my parents were making a trip to Hy-Vee the night before for a BBQ pulled pork or roast beef sandwich from the deli for me to take for lunch the next day.

Kind of off topic: Does anybody remember the "Book It" program that Pizza Hut used to do? If you read a certain number of books, your teacher would issue you a Book It coupon to Pizza Hut, good for one personal sized pepperoni pizza. We also had a similar incentive through Baskin-Robbins for a free cone. Also, Hardee's would give out coupons for free sodas, cones, cheeseburgers and fries for school awards and I think our local McDonald's did this from time to time as well. I couldn't imagine that any of them would do this today since giving away free fast food to students would seem to be very taboo these days (and probably against some law), but maybe they still do this.

 

[fan-of-fans]

Book It Program

Definitely remember that. With ours they gave us a Book It Button with candles on it. On each candle you put a little sticker and when the candles were full you got the personal pizza. I loved Pizza Hut as a kid, so naturally I would always fill up my buttons.

So much more fun than the awful accelerated reader that forced you to read such and such number of novels each semester and take tests. I hated having to do that reading and always put it off. I loved reading as a kid, but hated it later in life, I think that accelerated reader was to blame. Later I got in advanced English so didn't have to do that anymore.

Don't remember McD's, B-R or Hardee's coupons but do remember coupons for the Kmart Cafe snack bar that was in the store. Mostly for things like a Free Icee or Popcorn.

I remember one summer in high school taking driver's ed at the school. The cafeteria was open, but apparently only for us. We'd just go to get our meals and then back to the class room to eat it. They were serving those uncrustable sandwiches with milk for the lunch each day. One day they had made meatball subs. But I couldn't get myself to try one, because someone once told of going to a restaurant and getting sick from a meatball sub that was still uncooked in the middle of the meatball. Yuck.

 

[superocd]

The Accelerated Reader program was at my grade school too...

I was a nonfiction reader (well, I liked the Hardy Boys series, but only a few of those books in the series had AR tests IIRC). I hated AR because I was a nonfiction reader and there wasn't a whole lot of tests on nonfiction, so I was limited to reading fiction (and it was hard for me to find a fiction book I would like, which was mystery/crime). By middle school I was reading all kinds of books, anything from books on the NEC to HVAC. Network administration to automotive, anything moderately to highly technical. I would check out those books from the public library.

 

[perc-o-prince]

Elementary through 8th was parochial school and bagged lunches. When I hit high school it was cafeteria nearly every day. My faves were the ravioli with buttered French bread (an extra piece of bread for $0.05), Salisbury steak with mashed and corn, and the pizza.

"when the principal would grill. (One has to wonder if that would fly in today's world..." Hey John, our local middle school does this once each Spring.

Chuck

 

[tolivac]

At the older high school I went to in Rapid City-SD Central high in downtown-the meals were catored.They were DELICIOUS-looked forward to lunchtime.Then-----the meals came from the state and gov't---the downtown Dairy Queen got GREAT business from the students.The later food was TERRIBLE!!!Jello that bounced like a Superball!!And trying to eat it was like biting into the Superball!!!Remember those from Wham-O toys????

 

[e2l-arry]

Check your old school's website.

That's what I did for my Junior High and they post the next month's lunch menu. Whatever your old favorites are, they're likely no longer offered. Gone are the days of hot dogs and tater tots. Just about anything with meat or deep fried has been eliminated. Only "healthy" = no fun and bland, options exist. I couldn't even find the best desert options. Ice Cream Bars, Eskimo Pies and Ice Cream Sandwiches. Nowhere to be found! Makes me glad I was a kid in the 60's. And 50 years later I'm still here so those "unhealthy" Pizza Burgers and french fries didn't due me in!

 

[kenwashesmonday]

Looks like things have improved drastically at my high school since I graduated in the late 1970s.

https://www.wwrsd.org/cms/lib/NJ01000230/Centricity/Domain/39/April HS Lunch.pdf