[Sca-cooks] School lunch was bundt cake?

[Olwen the Odd]

>Anahita wrote:
> > Grades 6-8 - junior high (ages 11-13)
> > We were all bussed to junior high, where the kids from several local
> > elementary schools converged. We all ate together in the school
> > cafeteria. We either brought our own or ate what the cafeteria was
> > serving. Occasionally they had something edible... but not often.
>
>Did you pay for cafeteria lunches in junior high or high school?  On
>Buffy etc, you never see the kids actually paying.  Most Australian
>schools have "canteens" or "tuck shops" or "cafeterias" (same thing,
>different names) where you can buy your lunch.  The food tends to be a
>range of reasonably decent hot and cold quasi-convenience foods:
>sandwiches, meat pies, hotdogs, packets of chips, slices of cake,
>muffins, juice, milk, cans of soft drink, ice-creams, etc.  Parents at
>some schools exert pressure for the school to provide healthier foods at
>the tuckshops, with varying degrees of success.  The tuckshops are often
>run on a non-profit basis with parents as staff.
>
>Some tuckshops have a "lunch order" system where if you write your order
>on a paper bag and leave it in a particular place, they will prepare
>your lunch for pickup and "express" payment.  Some schools have similar
>deals with local shops, where you can drop off your "lunch order" at a
>certain place at school in the morning, along with the cash for your
>lunch, and the shop delivers a big basket of packed lunches at
>lunchtime.  My primary school had this latter arrangement... some kids
>got to have lunch orders every Friday, but I was only allowed on my
>birthday or if I reeeeeeally begged.
>
>I remember a really bad birthday lunch order experience... when I was
>aged about 11-14, my stepmother was convinced I was obese (I wasn't) and
>forced me to diet (apparently just to be manipulative and nasty).  So
>when my birthday came I was given my $3 (or whatever it was) to buy my
>lunch.  Of course I ordered a meat pie with sauce, chocolate donut, etc.
>When I got home, one of my stepmother's friends was there, and asked me
>how my birthday had been, and what I'd ordered for lunch.  Since my
>stepmother was right there, I lied and said I'd had a salad sandwich and
>I forget what else, but healthy food anyway.  Stepmother then proceeded
>to taunt me, in front of her friend, about how it obviously wasn't
>worthwhile having special birthday treats if I wasn't going to take full
>advantage.  Though I know that if I had told the truth, it would have
>been much worse.
>
>My favourite tuckshop treat of all was these cheese rolls they had.
>They were flattish, soft-crusted bread rolls with cheese sprinked on top
>before baking.  The tuckshop staff would cut them in half, butter them,
>then stick them in a toaster oven thing so they would be all hot and
>dripping with butter when served.  Mmmmmm.  They were 50 cents.
>
>Yours,
>
>Katherine

When I went to school, mostly we packed a lunch if we were swimming at
lunchtime or went home.  When I got to the mainland, we still usually packed
a lunch but there was a cafeteria that ran sorta like a buffet line.
When my daughter went to school, she mostly packed in lunch or got free
lunch with a ticket but she didn't like them much.  At her high school, they
had a cafeteria where there were choices of hot or cold stuff, salads,
soups, fruit, etc.  She stopped getting food there into the first year
though when she was standing in the cue with her tray a mouse fell out of
the ceiling onto the tray.
Olwen

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