What School Lunch Looked Like Each Decade Since 1900

[Michie]

School lunches have changed a lot in a century.


At the turn of the 20th century, schoollunch as we know it didn’t exist. Most children went home for their meal; if they had a few cents in their pocket, they bought a less-than-healthy treat from a street vendor. In the decades that followed, the forces of business, public health, and politics would transform school lunches into a communal experience filled with adolescent power struggles, branded lunch boxes, and heaping portions of mystery meat. Here’s how the midday meal has evolved through the years.

MOST SCHOOLCHILDREN AT LUNCH AT HOME IN THE 1900S.

Continued below.
What School Lunch Looked Like Each Decade Since 1900

 

[Shane R]

What I most recall about school lunch in my early days was that we had real utensils. When I was in 4th grade I moved and changed school systems and the lunches were much more obviously out of a can and we had disposable utensils. When I was a kid if you didn't have money or food they'd give you a peanut butter sandwich and a piece of fruit so you at least had something for the day.

My daughter is a regular consumer of school lunch. She noticed after we moved to Ohio that many more of her classmates brought a lunch than at her old school. She asked me why I never pack her lunch. I suspect it's more a social thing than anything else. They give the children tons of fruit and carbs. The protein component is usually highly processed. Peanut butter has gone the way of the dodo bird.

 

[Michie]

I remember animal crackers when starting and pizza Friday’s.