S/O Ice cream/school lunch thread....

England here,

The primary school (4-11 years of age) was small,only 120 children. But there was a kitchen which was attached to the main hall. The catering team cooked everything fresh every day, cost was about £2.00 at the time, maybe less, for a main meal and desert. There was a choice for each course. Food was lovely but pizza day was especially popular followed by roast dinner. You could send lunch in if you wanted to. Kids ate together except for the children of a particular religion who ate apart even on school trips.

Secondary school (11-16)

Food catered on site but school was much bigger, 2000 students so not possible to have everyone seated. There were multiple eating areas all over the school premises. Payment was by fingerprint tech, parents added money to the food account and gave their kids a lesson in budgeting!

There are free school meals for those who qualify.

www.gov.uk/apply-free-school-meals

It's funny, I was just thinking about this, because I was remembering when I was in elementary school back in the Days of the Dinosaurs. Mostly everyone walked home for lunch, but some kids did stay at school. I remember I stayed a few times on days when my mom couldn't be home at lunchtime (rare). No lunch room, everyone ate in their classrooms. But no adult was in the room, instead there were several (no idea if it was teachers or admin) who roamed up and down the halls keeping an ear on all the rooms. -- Everyone brought their own lunch but we could buy milk..the money was collected first thing in the morning, then at lunch the cartons were brought to each classroom for those who had paid. -- As I said though, I rarely stayed because I had no friends who stayed so I had to eat by myself. I much preferred to walk home. 

My dgd is in grade 2 in a lower income city. Her school is old and the kids eat in the classroom. Breakfast and lunch are free for everyone because a huge majority qualify.

We don't have it here in Alberta, either.  Some years they'd put out tables and folding chairs in the gym for the kids to eat at, but everyone brought their own lunch to school.  Otherwise, the kids ate in their classrooms.  No such thing as meals provided at school other than hot dog day, pizza day, etc. 

We didn't have a cafeteria in my HS. My graduating class was about 44 girls. We ate bagged lunches in the gym.

I went to a small catholic school thru 8th grade without a cafeteria. If you wanted milk with lunch you paid for it at the beginning of the week. My DS went to the same school and took a bagged lunch and as far as I know that school still doesn’t have a cafeteria.  

Small town northern Alberta here. My DDs are 22 & 20 and they also ate in their classroom with the teacher supervising, just like I did. Their school had a business sponsored breakfast program, granola bars, yogurt tubes, apples and oranges, take if you need.

When I was in elementary school, in the 80s, we had hot lunch Fridays. The parents of kids in grade 6 had to do this as it was the fundraiser for the grade 6 field trip. Hot dogs, hamburger, chili, you'd have to bring the rest of your lunch. We also had the milk program you could pay for. A small carton of white or chocolate milk, you could choose how many days a week you wanted.

From grades 7-12 for me, my DDs went there from 9-12, it was bring your own lunch and find a place to eat. There is a food booth selling pizza pockets etc and some tables and chairs in same area to eat at. Or sit on the floor in the hall.

I'm in So Cal. Our schools do not have a cafeteria and the "kitchens" mainly just have ovena to heat up prepackaged food that get delivered. Kids eat outside at lunch tables. If it rains they eat in the classrooms and the playground assistants roam the halls to monitor the classrooms.

The high school has a small lunch table area but kids sit anywhere on campus, which is mostly outside spaces. Not sure if some teachers let students eat in their classrooms.

These schools were built in the 70s.

The school I taught at was built in the 50s. It did have a full kitchen but wasn't really used fully. Still had lunch tables, and at in classrooms if there was rain.

All schools have a multipurpose room (MPR) that has a stage and a large open space. But the entire school doesn't usually fit.

Lunch is free to all since the pandemic.

I'm in Florida and yes, we have school cafeterias with staggered lunches (by grade in K-8 and by your 5th block teacher in 9-12 (half the school eats then goes to 5th block, the other half goes to 5th block and then eats). Our entire county has free breakfast/lunch due to the high poverty levels here. As a side note -if your child rides a school bus, there's no guarantee they'll arrive early enough for breakfast - at the elementary level, the cafeteria accomodates late bus riders but afaik, not so at the higher grade schools and I know MY child's bus is always either pulling in as the bell rings or late.

growing up - I don't remember what lunch was like at my school in Germany (British Forces school) but I assume there was a cafeteria and a cooked lunch. In Cyprus (also British Forces school) we were on a tropical schedule and school ended at lunchtime and we all ate at home afterwards. In England - we had a cafeteria and a cooked lunch (dinner really) prepared on the premises - lovely food -shepherds pie, roast dinner, mince and mash...and always pudding (hot dessert) as well.

In the States - cafeteria with the option to bring lunch and optionally buy milk or buy the hot lunch. In high school there was also an a la carte line (cash only) with hamburgers/chicken sandwiches and the like in addition to the standard tray lunch (cash or free/reduced price)

To be honest though, at the high school level, my kids have always chosen to eat in a teacher's classroom - they either grab a tray from the cafeteria or pack their own lunch. BUT the teachers in question have chosen to open their rooms at lunchtime and provide supervision and it's a minority of the teachers I believe. And back in the day, I remember hanging out in the guidence office with a couple of friends (including my now-husband) during lunch

I grew up in very small town Iowa. We had a lunch room/cafeteria with only one line. I don't think there was more than one option for main dish but I am not sure. Of course people could also bring cold lunch from home but not many did.

We now live in MN in a larger school district (but not the biggest). Elementary has one lunch line with a few different options to choose from, as well as salad bar every day. Middle school has more options and also a la carte which is extra items like cookies, fruit snacks, etc. High School has four or five different lines with a variety of food at each one (grilled items like hamburgers, main dish, etc). This year MN is providing free breakfast and lunch for all students regardless of income. I am not sure how that has affected the choices. I know they still have a la carte and they pay for that and second helpings with their account, that part isn't free.


It seems like it would be really embarrassing for students who don't have food to bring with them with the way it is described in Canada.   

My kids brought lunch 4/5 days a week. They were allowed to buy lunch 1x a week they usually picked either pizza day or breakfast for lunch day.

As I alluded to in the other thread when my child was in 2nd grade their lunch card was used way more often than that. Lunch cards were required to remain with the cafeteria staff so the child wouldn’t loose it. Their ‘system’ was to lay the cards all out in a table by the door and 7 years olds were supposed to pick their card up to use. The staff was SUPPOSED to verify that the kids were using their own card. Obviously that didn’t happen. Clearly someone was using my child’s card either by mistake or on purpose. When we complained the staff did literally nothing and insisted that my child was lying and buying lunch in days they shouldn’t and I should take that up with my child. We insisted on a log of when he bought lunch. Turns out lunches were bought on days my child was absent - the school finally admitted that ONLY those days he was absent they would refund us the rest my child was obviously lying. We were supposedly they only family with this issue ( not true I know of others ) so they would not be changing the system. WTF? Your “system” clearly isn’t working if my kids card is being used when they are verifiably not there?

Any way we reverted to cash only child never once lost their money they were way more responsible than the adults.

Years later when mine were almost out of school the district switch to not accepting cash because someone was accepting cash AND charging accounts for lunches. No one could ever prove it but several families were having issues ( thankfully not us this time ) and cash was no longer acceptable. Funny coincidence but that same lunch lady we had problems with in elementary was now in charge in the school with the new issues. But at least for the older kids the account was attached to their photo student ID

The system at our school sucked, the lunch person was not careful enough and it was traumatic for us and we could afford lunch so I can imagine how bad it is for people who can’t.

It’s weird

I’m 100% in favor of free school lunch for all. Simply because 7year olds shouldn’t be accused of lying because adults can’t/won’t do their jobs competently

Very few (if any) NZ schools have a cafeteria, I’ve never heard of any.
I’m pretty sure that in most primary schools, the kids still sit outside their classroom to eat, then can go off and play, just as we did when I was young. Who monitors them? No-one. I can’t really imagine why they would need monitoring. I know my 5 year grandson told me that his class just sits together on the bench seats outside his classroom, then after a while a bell rings and that means they can get up and play. It’s just the kids, their teacher has gone off for their own lunch & free-time.

As I typed that, I realised that we might have different looking schools here for primary kids (ages 5 to around 11 or 12). By far most of them are single storey, with classrooms in blocks of 4 or 6, so each classroom has a door opening to the playground outside, and another at the back going to the toilets (the block of 4 or 6 classrooms would share a set of toilets).

On rainy days, the kids do eat inside their classrooms, and then there is a monitor - a kid from the oldest grade class is assigned to each classroom. It was, and I’m sure still is, quite an honour to be a ‘rain monitor’. 5year grandson confirmed it still works like this in his school.

The teachers all disappear off the the staff room, though there is always one or two teachers ‘on duty’, maybe more in a big school. They rotate around so everyone has a periodic duty day, when they walk around the playground, or through the classrooms on a wet day, so all the kids are aware there are still adults about (!) and to take charge if anything untoward happens.

My kids went to school in eleven different cities over four provinces and this was pretty much their lunch routine in each place. Sometimes we lived close enough to the school that they could come home at lunch (which was how it was when I was in school during the days of cavemen). I know from friends that are elementary teachers, the system is still in place in at least two school boards in Ontario.

They did have a cafeteria in high school but again, depending on where we lived, they came home for lunch.

I know there was a breakfast program in at least one of their schools - juice, fruit, and the like were on tables in the hall and the kids just helped themselves. It was available at the school they went to in Toronto for sure.

southern california here. all i remember were school lunches in cafeterias. that's why i never brought a bag lunch unless we were going on a field trip.

i don't remember ever eating in the classroom much except on some rainy days and that was only in elementary school. otherwise, it was the lunch benches outside of pretty decent sized cafeterias in junior high and high school. we had what was called "nutrition" in the morning. it was some hot breakfast and prepacked foods. for lunch, they had hot food, packaged sandwiches and a salad bar. and this was back in the early 80's though. things must have really changed since then.

ETA: i don't recall having food accounts back then.  it was pay as you go or some kids had the subsidized lunches and they had cards that they showed to the lunch ladies.