Grade school, I remember we had some mashed potatoes and gravy with some ground beef that was bomb. HS, the chili dogs were dope. I think we had a slush puppy machine there too.
Freshman and sophomore year, 94-95, they had rice krispie treats that were like 6"x6"x2". Huge, and they were like 30 cents. They got too popular, they shrunk them down to "normal" sizes and started charging a dollar. Nobody bought them any more.
I'm grade school like twice a month we had "breakfast for lunch". Pancakes, eggs, bacon etc. It was cool that the lunch rooms were staffed by volunteer moms from the school (for both grade and HS)
Grade school, I dunno if it was like this here, but our school lunch consisted of two little lunchable sized packs. One was aluminum foil, the hot part of the lunch, pizza, burger, etc., and then one plastic container with crappy fruit and veggies. Then a choice of milk, and afterwards, those strawberry or chocolate ice cream bars.
I think I usually only got school lunch like once a week, until high school, when it was more ala carte. I had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich every day, essentially, from kindergarten to senior year. middle school it was 2, high school it was 3.
Yeah I think maybe grade school was more sporadic. Maybe 2-3 days per week. We had Plastic trays that were divided and they put stuff in each compartment when we stood in line. I think we converted the school gym to a cafeteria with folding tables with benches.
in middle school, our lunch benches folded out of the walls in the 2nd gym. And I think by that point we had the trays with the different compartmnets.
PSU had several local fast food or more quick food things on campus, like Taco Bell, another known burrito joint that wasn’t totally fast food, and a couple of other local joints on campus that weren’t flat-out fast food. So, I’d say that was my favorite.
Don't remember much from grade school food but remember junior high getting to have a little school store that sold all the junk food and the pizza pocket there was awesome. I also remember they made some pretty good nachos that were fully loaded and the chicken sandwich wasn't bad either. By the time I got to HS (late 90's) we were sophomores and were off campus 1/2 the time, and Junior/Senior year was off campus probably 95% of the time for lunch. As a HS teacher now I really feel for the kids, the food is horrible. They can't even do basic stuff like chicken nuggets correctly, it all tastes like cardboard. Sad that every year they roll out new items and they all taste like garbage. I get that they want to regulate the bad stuff (aka good tasting) out but I really think it just drives kids to want the junk even more. I worked here going on 5 years and not once have even thought of getting the school lunch.
I had some dude get really angry with me for taking the last weiner wrap one time. I don't care how many pickles they put on those hamburgers, they were nasty.
The crappy lunch lady pizza was my favorite. I loved it and all it's glorious averageness. Here's some childhood trauma for you all associated with school lunch time. In middle school we had a little snack shack and I would always buy the pepperoni sticks after lunch while we were still on break. I had braces also so it would stick in my teeth some. Well one day I was talking to my crush after I had my daily pepperoni stick. Afterwards she told everyone I had stinky breath and made fun of me because I also had food stuck in my braces. I was devastated and humiliated. I didn't eat pepperoni sticks for years after that and became obsessive about dental hygiene. I am very thankful I didn't grow up in the social media age.
The hamburger Gravy or fish sticks is all I remember about elementary lunches. I never ate school lunches in middle or high school. We did have a burgerville across the street from the high school, but it was crazy busy during lunches.
I ate (Catholic school) hot lunch every day for 8 years (and boy howdy did I ever envy those kids that had the cool metal lunch boxes). Most of the food the school got was "government", after the public schools got theirs off the top. The lunch ladies were absolute artists when it came to turning those "leftovers" into good lunches. I remember wiener wraps, pizza and (most favorably) spam sandwiches on white bread with mayo (yeah, I know. It's an acquired taste). The days to carry a bag lunch were when they were serving chili (major classroom fug after lunch).....or mystery casserole (from a weeks worth of leftovers and large cans of "WTF do we do with this shit?"). They also made (on a regular basis) some sort of applesauce cake with a coffee frosting......that I would pay big bucks for today. But the bottom line was that we ate well.....and no one could blame me (or the others who bought lunch) for those homemade lunches stinking up the cloak rooms for eternity (unrefrigerated tuna anyone?). In HS the food quality and selection sucked. I pretty much existed on Cheetos for lunch......
