Memories of Lunch Lady Land

Thursday, April 08, 2010















  1. We didn't have cafeteria's in our school, we had a "snack bar" in junior high and a "lunch room" in high school. Balanced meals served in both, but we had pizza in jr. high - wrapped in plastic and kept in warming trays - steamed pizza! It wasn't very appetizing.

    It's the fault of the parents. We were free to buy crap at our schools, but we preferred eating lunch.

    It's also the fault of manufacturers - you never see small cartons of anything anymore, just humongous cans. It's sad, really.

  2. The problem is psychologists,pediatricians,scientists,and even the goverment all decided that children are sensitive and complicated so we as parents/teachers/adults/grown folks need to be careful of their needs,and provide choices,many of them. Psh! It still needs to be you have this or nothing. I am a 30 yr old teacher and parent,so I see where the problems lay at all the time,and its usually the parent who has to rely on someone to tell them how to raise their kid. Whatevs!

  3. I really dig the Jamie Oliver series on trying to get schools to eat healthy. Here in NZ we dont' have school lunches, parents or children pack the lunches here and yes you get the junk food but there's more emphasis on fresh fruit and veges.

  4. I always bought my lunch from home. I might've gotten something in the cafeteria a few times. It's so true that the portion sizes are very big nowadays which is not good. It's a shame that things have gotten so bad nutritionwise in this country since we were kids.

  5. I hope the J-Ol series helps Americans focus a little more on diet. Coming from Europe, I was shocked by the quality of food over here: it's an endemic problem and school food is only one component of that. If you go out to a restaurant here--even pretty good ones--you're given a plate with vast quantities of carbohydrates and empty calories with ingredients that we should all be avoiding (waaaay too much high fructose corn syrup, for instance). You'll find lots of cheap meat, but very few vegetables.

    And on top of that, you're given a portion that's at least twice what any normal human being should be eating in a meal. And this is considered normal.

    This kind of approach to food--fast, cheap and plentiful, but lacking in portion control and balance--is just everywhere.

  6. Totally agree with everyone's comments. Barbara and Amy, interesting about the lack of cafeterias. Out of sight, out of mind on junk food in that case. Would be interesting if they did that here, now.

    @Richard, I get increasingly disgusted with the amount of processed food here in the States and the portion sizes in restaurants. Someone once asked George Burns how he stayed so skinny when he out all of the time and he responded that he only ate half of what was on his plate.

  7. Haha! You know, that's what I try to do too: eat half there and take the rest home for tomorrow.

    I've still put on a good amount of weight since I've been living in the States, though! :D


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