Students celebrate school lunch in style - Celebrating 40 Years of School Lunch

Food and Nutrition, Oct, 1986 by Wini Scheffler

Students Celebrate School Lunch in Style

This past spring, third and fourth graders at Marston Elementary School in Hampton, New Hampshire, found an unusual way to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of the National School Lunch Program.

They took a simulated spin in a time machine with special menus and activities arranged by schoolmates to capture the flavor of three decades in school lunch history--the 1940's, the '60s, and the '80s. Each of three shifts of students to pass through the lunch line was served a distinct menu characteristic of one of those decades.

First group got a taste of the '40s

The first children in line for the special anniversary lunch had a typical 1946 menu. While the Andrews Sisters, Artie Shaw, and Glenn Miller crooned in the background, the fourth grade hosts explained a collage they had assembled of fashion, sayings, and celebrities from the postwar years. They also briefed their schoolmates on the early years of the school lunch program.

Each table was supplied with a bowl of peanut butter to spread on homemade whole wheat bread and a bottle of chocolate syrup for their milk and ice cream dessert. The main course was a macaroni-and-beef casserole and green beans.

Ruth Osgood, a guest of honor, felt right at home. From 1945 to 1949, she was part of the staff that prepared meals for the town's three schools.

"We started with a 5-cent cup of cocoa,' she recalls. "Later, we added soup and bread and butter. When the federal government began providing support in 1946, we adopted the nutrition standards used nationwide. A complete meal cost only 15 cents, and any children who couldn't pay the price could earn their lunches by helping out in the kitchen.'

Students are no longer allowed to work for the cost of their meals, but free and reduced-price lunches have long been available to children from low-income families.

Menus from 1966 and 1986 were next

The next group of children ate a 35-cent 1960's menu to the tunes of the Monkees, the Beatles, and the Beach boys. Their trays were filled with whipped potatoes, Sloppy Joes, green beans, homemade rolls, peaches, and milk.

They heard their schoolmates comment on the "neat' and "groovy' world of the '60s portrayed in the poster collage of Nehru jackets, bell bottoms, and flower children. What was history to a 10-year-old was only yesterday to several of the teachers, who came bedecked with bandannas and pendants salvaged from their "hippie' days.

The last shift of children had an up-to-date menu of French bread pizzas or steak subs, which they munched to the strains to pop rock. They served themselves a tossed salad and corn, strawberries and mandarin oranges; selected chocolate, whole, or lowfat milk; and topped it off with a fudgesicle or brownie. It was still a bargain at 85 cents.

"The key word is choice in today's menus,' recited Andre, one of the student hosts. "Fast foods have changed our eating habits,' he added, introducing the collage of pictures, sayings, and menus his classmates had gathered to created the '80s image.

"This last group probably enjoyed their meal most,' says school food director Nancy Stiles. "The food is more familiar to them. But even with the less popular 1946 and 1966 menus, we matched our usual 75-percent participation. This means the children value the lunchroom for activities as well as for the food.'

Activities part of ongoing program

Nutrition education is a focus of many lunchroom activities, and it is here that Stiles has put her personal stamp on the last decade of the lunch program in Hampton's three schools.

Because in many families both parents work, today's youngsters make more of their own food choices, she says. "More than ever, they need to know about good nutrition and how food and exercise affect their health.'

To meet this need, Stiles developed a series of week-long mini-courses in nutrition. The children who hosted the special cafeteria program were the last of six classes of fourth graders to complete the course.

As hosts for the day, they dished out the entress and tidied up the tables. With considerable poise, they used exhibits to share with their schoolmates the lessons they had learned during the week.

Brian used Billie, a cutaway plastic model of the human torso, to trace the path of food through the digestive system.

Pointer in hand, Rebecca explained the six major groups of nutrients printed on another display.

"The mini-course proves that the food service program doesn't have to stand alone but can be linked to the rest of the curriculum,' Stiles says. "When teachers and food service staff cooperate, the cafeteria becomes a place to learn and a fun place to be.'

Many teachers use nutrition materials

Although the nutrition lessons fit most readily into the science curriculum, teachers can expand and adapt the material to other subject areas. For instance, a language teacher might assign a composition on a nutrition topic, and an art teacher might choose food themes.

Rosemary Buia, the teacher whose fourth graders helped plan and prepare the anniversary program, says she coordinates studies of the human body with the nutrition lessons.