School Food Memories: Part I – Breakfast in the Classroom

School cafeterias: heavy on nostalgia!

This is the first in a series of blog posts about school food memories; food, and the act of eating, leave indelible memories for us and school food is no different. Today I am sharing my own memories of food and school—and food in school!—and over the next few weeks I’ll be sharing school food memories written for me by high school students in Upstate New York.

When I think about school food I think about my very favorite hot school lunch: Turkey a la King, or simply “The King.” At my high school this hot meal was deceptive in appearance: shredded turkey and cooked vegetables in a slightly florescent yellow gravy, all over mashed potatoes. But the gravy wasn’t just spooned over the mashed potatoes; our lunch ladies (today referred to as School Nutrition Specialist) would take an extra moment to create a well in the potatoes with the back of their ladle, and then pour the turkey gravy over the top. Yes, please! It was so hot and warm and satisfying, and for all of its slight florescence, it tasted very much like Thanksgiving leftovers. At my school, the King ruled—literally and figuratively. I think the school nutrition staff liked King Day as much as we did–it made them happy to see us so happy, and that’s why I think they took that extra moment to create the King Volcano in the mashed potatoes.

I also have to confess that I let myself fall into some bad habits with school lunches, mostly because I had a very rigorous academic schedule in addition to a busy extra-curricular schedule. I cringe a little when I remember how much time I spent in the a la carte line, but I’m thankful that I had staff who would actively encourage me to make healthier choices, pointing out the fresh fruit that was next to the chips, or telling me what was for sale in the longer “hot lunch” line that day. I was–and remain–a big milk drinker, so even on days that I wasn’t making the healthiest choices for myself I was still consuming 1-3 of those small cartons of skim milk each day at school. I “got milk” way before it was cool!

Do you have school food memories? Share it with us in the comments!

4 Comments

Cheri White

June 7, 2011

I have very fond memories of my childhood’s school food service. My grandmother was the food service director in the school I attended. It was so fun and most comforting to see her smiling face every day as I went through the line. It is interesting how things come full circle since I am now a school food service director. Although, I will never be the baker that she was – I will never forget those homemade breads!
liz campbell

June 7, 2011

I have fond memories of the King too. I learned at home what a balanced meal should look like and that’s why I always went through the “hot food” line at school. I would love a hot turkey a la king plate for lunch today!
Mary Asplund

June 7, 2011

My favorite meal was chili and a cinnamon roll at Jefferson Elementary School in Medford, Oregon. I would wait until the menu came out and ask my Mom if I could eat that day. Those were the days when your milk carton was inspected to make sure you ate everthing that you were served. I was in 4th grade…days were so long and about this time of year, I could just smell summer coming.
- Julio
  
  October 8, 2012
  
  Great Post Yoni!I’d like to provide a litlte of my own experience. I live in Downtown Ottawa, an my kids are at a local public school. The school provides pizza lunches on Fridays (Pizza Day) This was fine by us as we eat healthy home cooked meals most days and send a healthy lunch on the other days.The school’s health and environment comittee, setup a Salad Bar day on Wednesday. The uptake was a litlte slow last year, but this year it has surged. They are serving locally grown organic vegetables and fruit and the peer pressure seems to be encouraging more kids to try foods they would not normally. The vegetables are heirloom varieties and a litlte odd: purple brocolli, purple, orange and yellow carrots, etc. At first the kids enjoyed the novelty factor, but the flavour seems to have won them over. Every week we have roll of the dice on what is delivered. Occasionally, a dip is provided (prepared by the volunteer parents) which is healthy and flavourful. I have heard that there are a few other schools in the region which are providing salad bars in addition to the pizza days.I like the idea of reducing the amount of cheese on the pizzas. when we order, we usually ask for ‘light on the cheese’ as we find the normal amount a litlte overwhelming.great suggestion.

4 Comments

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