School lunches?

[SomeRandom]

So I often see American TV high schoolers eat in a big cafeteria. (Our schools don’t have them very often. You just sort of eat somewhere on school grounds with your “group.”)

But I am curious to see what your school (any level) offered up for meals or snacks. Either ones you could buy or even freely provided, if that happened in yours.
Or what you brought from home.

In Australia bought food is called “tuck shop.” So your parents give you like I dunno 5- 10 bucks and you choose what you want. Though I think, especially recently, there are free options for children from low income families. Don’t quote me on that but I do think that’s becoming a thing.
When I went to school you could get lollies/sweets from the little tuck shop open before school. Muesli bars and packets of chips. There were also other little packets of things, like this thing called a “chocki choc” basically a little strip packet of squeezes chocolate, roll ups, this crispy bacon chip thing that’s awesome and even packets of various nuts. Various flavoured milk and soft drink. Though when I was I think in grade 9 or 10 they phased a lot of unhealthy options out. (Not always successful. Since my high school was located literally down the road from a little lolly/sweet/candy corner shop. So we all just went there before school lol.)
Then for actual lunch you could order from an assortment of hot meal options and the dessert was usually a “giant chocolate chip cookie” which we loved even as teenagers. Food options were hot lasagna, chicken chippies, chicken and salad, various pies (of course) various sausage rolls, pieces of various flavours of “homemade” pizza and even little packets of chips for a snack. Fairly certain that under our laws all the food was to be cooked there and then. It couldn’t just be reheated. But I wouldn’t be surprised if most of it was cooked from frozen all the same.
Drink were flavoured milks and soft drinks (which strangely remained even after the phaseout of lollies.) And hot drinks during winter like hot cocoa and hot milo.

Fruits started appearing more frequently in tuck shop menus.

From home it was usually a sandwich and a packet of chips for me. But I would usually use the tuck shop

What about you? What did your school offer? What did your parental units pack for you? What did you take from your friends lol
Discuss as you like

 

[Estro Felino]

Almost all schools have a six days a week schedule. And classes usually end at 1 pm or at 1:45 pm.
So I have never had lunch at school, but when I moved to another city to study at university, I used to have lunch at university because we had post meridian lessons too.
There was a sort of campus with dormitory and a big canteen. The food of that canteen was memorable. Delicious pasta...several kinds of pasta, and either meat or fish.
There was a wood oven for pizzas too. The pizza there...was something incredible.

 

[SomeRandom]

Almost all schools have a six days a week schedule. And classes usually end at 1 pm or at 1:45 pm.
So I have never had lunch at school, but when I moved to another city to study at university, I used to have lunch at university because we had post meridian lessons too.
There was a sort of campus with dormitory and a big canteen. The food of that canteen was memorable. Delicious pasta...several kinds of pasta, and either meat or fish.
There was a wood oven for pizzas too. The pizza there...was something incredible.

Wow! Why did you end so early in the day? Did you have to start earlier
Also yum!

 

[Estro Felino]

Wow! Why did you end so early in the day? Did you have to start earlier

But we used to have school on Saturday too.
So...each day...from 8:20 am to 1 pm...

 

[Stevicus]

From home it was usually a sandwich and a packet of chips for me. But I would usually use the tuck shop

What about you? What did your school offer? What did your parental units pack for you? What did you take from your friends lol
Discuss as you like

My school lunches were nowhere near as appetizing what's pictured below, but it's closest I could find:

 

[John53]

I usually took peanut butter sandwiches for lunch, once a week parents would come in and do tuck shop, we'd order something in the morning and get it in a paper bag for lunch. I'd usually order peanut butter sandwiches. For some reason they always tasted better than the ones from home.

 

[SomeRandom]

But we used to have school on Saturday too.
So...each day...from 8:20 am to 1 pm...

Wow! That’s a long time to go without a meal though
My high school was “odd.” In that we did Mon to Fri 820 am to 1:55.
Instead of 9-3 like everyone else. Because in year 11 and 12, excepting Monday, you finished at 3:10 and had a day off in exchange.

 

[Evangelicalhumanist]

So I often see American TV high schoolers eat in a big cafeteria. (Our schools don’t have them very often. You just sort of eat somewhere on school grounds with your “group.”)

But I am curious to see what your school (any level) offered up for meals or snacks. Either ones you could buy or even freely provided, if that happened in yours.
Or what you brought from home.

In Australia bought food is called “tuck shop.” So your parents give you like I dunno 5- 10 bucks and you choose what you want. Though I think, especially recently, there are free options for children from low income families. Don’t quote me on that but I do think that’s becoming a thing.
When I went to school you could get lollies/sweets from the little tuck shop open before school. Muesli bars and packets of chips. There were also other little packets of things, like this thing called a “chocki choc” basically a little strip packet of squeezes chocolate, roll ups, this crispy bacon chip thing that’s awesome and even packets of various nuts. Various flavoured milk and soft drink. Though when I was I think in grade 9 or 10 they phased a lot of unhealthy options out. (Not always successful. Since my high school was located literally down the road from a little lolly/sweet/candy corner shop. So we all just went there before school lol.)
Then for actual lunch you could order from an assortment of hot meal options and the dessert was usually a “giant chocolate chip cookie” which we loved even as teenagers. Food options were hot lasagna, chicken chippies, chicken and salad, various pies (of course) various sausage rolls, pieces of various flavours of “homemade” pizza and even little packets of chips for a snack. Fairly certain that under our laws all the food was to be cooked there and then. It couldn’t just be reheated. But I wouldn’t be surprised if most of it was cooked from frozen all the same.
Drink were flavoured milks and soft drinks (which strangely remained even after the phaseout of lollies.) And hot drinks during winter like hot cocoa and hot milo.

Fruits started appearing more frequently in tuck shop menus.

From home it was usually a sandwich and a packet of chips for me. But I would usually use the tuck shop

What about you? What did your school offer? What did your parental units pack for you? What did you take from your friends lol
Discuss as you like

In grade school (before high school) we always took our lunch. This was long ago in the pleistocene era, you understand, and there were no school lunches. When I went to high school, I went to a boy's private boarding school, where three meals a day were provided, and were generally very good and always nutritious. But of course, the cost of going to such a school is huge (today, it is well over $50,000 Canadian for 1 year of high school -- so $200K for 4 years).

I've never understood how the Children's Aid afforded my first year, but I do know now that (they never told me when I was there), that the following years were because I earned bursaries each year. I'm so glad, because I loved it there.

 

[Viker]

This is Kentucky. We had to hunt for our lunch. Some of the lazy kids would just scrape road kill for their lunch. Cooks didn't mind either way as long as kids cleaned their own meal first. The vegan kids usually starved to death.

For the kids who didn't/couldn't hunt, there were always pb&j sandwiches to pack. I still don't know if bologna is actually food or not.

 

[lewisnotmiller]

In Australia bought food is called “tuck shop.”

Not where I grew up. Was always the canteen.
(Melbourne in the 80s)

 

[lewisnotmiller]

Wow! That’s a long time to go without a meal though
My high school was “odd.” In that we did Mon to Fri 820 am to 1:55.
Instead of 9-3 like everyone else. Because in year 11 and 12, excepting Monday, you finished at 3:10 and had a day off in exchange.

And school was 9.00 to 3.30 almost universally.

 

[SomeRandom]

And school was 9.00 to 3.30 almost universally.

Not at my high school hehe
Also 330?
Damn, you Melbourneians went hard. We all finished at 3 lol

I had every Friday off during my last two high school years lol

 

[Guitar's Cry]

. The vegan kids usually starved to death.

In Maine, wild Tofurky is pretty common and easy to catch. You must not have them down your way?

 

[VoidCat]

I can't remember.

I do know i got free lunch at some of the many schools I went to.

 

[lewisnotmiller]

Not at my high school hehe
Also 330?
Damn, you Melbourneians went hard. We all finished at 3 lol

I had every Friday off during my last two high school years lol

Meh...that was back in the day. I'm sure the younger generation is less hard now, because...well...it makes me feel tough to think that.

 

[SomeRandom]

Meh...that was back in the day. I'm sure the younger generation is less hard now, because...well...it makes me feel tough to think that.

Fair enough

 

[Stevicus]

I also recall that the cafeteria at school always had a distinctive odor - something kind of like cabbage but hard to describe. I occasionally come across a similar odor in some eateries and it gives me a reminder of my school lunch days.

 

[Callisto]

In my day (late 20th century), schools in US cities typically had cafeterias and you either brought your lunch or your parents paid for school lunch. Regardless of which, many kids also brought "milk money" to purchase a small carton of milk (choice of regular whole milk or chocolate).

Most of the time in elementary school, I brought my lunch in my way cool lunch box with a thermos of milk or juice. The school lunch menu was a rotation of meals for each day of the week. Usually, it was like fish sticks, pizza, Salisbury steak (read: hamburger with gravy), hot dogs, with a veggie (mash potatoes, corn, baked beans, or french fries) with a dessert of either a fruit (banana, apple) or a pudding or gelatin/jello cup, plus milk. So, if you normally brought your lunch but it was pizza day and you wanted that instead, you could bring "lunch money" for that day (but usually those who ate school lunches paid ahead, I think for the week or biweekly).

My high school's cafeteria was open for breakfast and lunch. It was an all-girls school and everybody came early to either hang out at a nearby coffee shop (read: to smoke and hang out with the boys from the boy's school ); or in the cafeteria where you could buy bagels and pastries, scrambled eggs with bacon/sausage, and coffee or tea. There were also vending machines (and a way cool old skool jukebox). The cafeteria was open all day so it was an optional place to go during any of your free periods. I usually brought my lunch but sometimes bought the soup or lasagna day; there were also hamburgers (on a bun), pizza, sandwiches and salads. I don't remember what else, only that it was more diverse than elementary school. You also had the added choice of sodas besides the milk, juice, and coffee/tea. You paid for each item/meal as you purchased instead of paying ahead like in elementary school.