In article <[email hidden]>,
Nancy Young said:"Goomba38" <[email hidden]> wrote
Quoted message said:Nancy Young said:They let the parents eat at the cafeteria? That surprises me.
Our elementary schools encourage it. Parents can eat with their child one
day a week, and they are always holding special "Grandparents Day" or
"Dad's/Mom's Day" events. Parents and kids can either bring their lunches
to share or buy the school cooked meals.
Cool! I'm sure there was nothing like that when I was a kid,
you didn't see parents in the cafeteria. Of course, that was
ages ago.
Quoted message said:But the cost for the visiting parent meal is a higher cost than the
student meal.
When I go to the schools, I always feel a bit sorry for the kids whose
parents never seem to come 🙁
It's tough, some parents aren't interested in it and others just
can't take a day off whenever the school decides to have bring
mom to school day.
This thread brings back fond memories!
I was born in 1961 and from kindergarten through the sixth grade, my
lunches were eaten at home because it was only a five minute walk from
school. My entire school career, including college was in Philadelphia.
I never set foot in the school's cafeteria for lunch when I was in
elementary school, except on special occasions such as holiday parties.
Every day, I would sit at our kitchen table and eat lunch. For some
reason, my sister always ate lunch at school even though we went to the
same school, so it was just me and my mom. My dad was always at work
during lunch. My mom would serve me lunch and sit and ask me how my day
was going. It was the same thing every day. If I ate fast, I might have
time to watch a little TV before walking back to school.
One or two days a year, the school would host a family lunch where each
kid had to order his food a few days in advance. Parents and teachers
would join us for lunch. Lunch was always hot dogs, Philly soft
pretzels, and those little cardboard half pint cartons of milk or
chocolate milk.
I had to bring home an order form for my parents to sign to indicate the
number of hot dogs, cartons of milk, and soft pretzels I wanted. My
parents had to enclose a check or cash to pay. The lunch was very cheap,
even in those days. I always ordered three hot dogs, one pretzel, and
two chocolate milks. Soda was never an option, nor was any kind of juice.
My mom is a kind and sweet person, but she was never much for cooking.
The lunches I ate at home were not healthy. One of my favorite lunches
was a bowl of piping hot Campbell's tomato soup and a Kosher salami
sandwich on rye with a bit of yellow mustard. Sometimes, my mom would
give me left overs from the previous night's dinner, but mostly, mom
served me one of those Swanson TV dinners that came in an aluminum tray,
or she made me a small frozen pizza, or fish sticks with tomato soup.
I went to a Woodrow Wilson Junior High for grades 7, 8, and 9, which was
about a mile from home. I walked to and from school most days, but it
was too far to eat lunch at home. When I got to high school, I went to
Northeast High School and I had to walk a few blocks further from home
to get there. So from the 7th to 12th grades, I ate lunch at school.
The cafeteria in Wilson schools served mostly junk food. The closest
thing to a healthy menu item was apples. Each day of the week was a
different main course. For example, I think Monday was cheeseburger and
french fries day, Thursday was shepherd's pie day, and I am pretty sure
Friday was French bread pizza day. One day a week was chicken nuggets
and fries day.
When I got to Northeast High School, the cafeteria had a featured menu
item too each day, but there were other choices. Some were healthy (such
as a green salad), but the featured items were the same junk food as in
Wilson Jr. High. There was a Burger King across the street, where many
of my classmates would eat lunch, even though it was against the rules
to leave school property for lunch. There was also a pizza place and a
convenience store. I don't think I ever want to the pizza place or
Burger King for lunch, but I did go to the store once in a while. A lot
of kids would get their lunches from the pizza place or BK and just
bring their food back to the cafeteria to eat.
All through school, I had a great paying job on weekends working for my
dad, so that was much lunch money most days. Once in a wile, I would
bring a sandwich from home, but that was unusual.
