School
Lunch Reform
From Diet for the
School Child
The
Foodways of a 50's Childhood
It seems remarkable to
think about it now, but I went home
for lunch until high school. I dashed
home on my bike, about four blocks,
sat down with my Mom and ate lunch at
the kitchen table. We discussed our
mornings. I played with my dog a few
minutes and then biked back to play
with friends in the schoolyard. Some
students brought lunch but not many.
Those were the days most moms were homemakers.
I didn't encounter a school cafeteria
until I was in 9th grade.
Another strong memory
of growing up in the 50's was how almost
every family had a vegetable garden
in the backyard. These were habits formed
by wartime victory garden necessity.
We would all pour over the seed catalogs
that piled up in winter. Parts of every
weekend were dedicated to working in
the garden with my Dad.
My family, like most families
I knew, always sat down for meals together,
including breakfast. We were expected
to be on time, help serve, clear and
clean up. We were also expected to participate
in the conversation. Sunday midday dinner
was served in the dining room. We wore
our best clothes and used the best china.
We all ate the same food,
no special menus or diets were considered.
We certainly were expected to "clean
our plates" and if we balked the
"starving Armenians, or Chinese
children" were quickly mentioned.
Many of my fondest childhood
memories are food related....my parents
canning surplus fruits and vegetables,
for instance. I loved watching their
assembly line. Later they put a big
freezer in the basement and froze their
excess garden harvest, as well as buying
and freezing meat fresh from wholesalers.
No wonder I had so many friends--my
parents kept a steady supply of popsicles
and ice cream sandwiches which were
freely distributed.
I can remember enjoying
watching my parents cook up huge pots
of vegetable soup, Saturday night feasts
of "corned beef and cabbage,"
my Dad sharpening his carving knives
for baked hams, and roast beef. My mom
grew up on a dairy farm and my dad was
a city fellow who enjoyed eating. Once
a month or so we went out for dinner.
We dressed for this occasion as well.
On Tuesdays, my dad was usually away
on business and my Mom took the night
off from cooking and we all went to
Yvonne's Diner for dinner. Yvonne's
menu featured the same things we ate
at home. It was all cooked from fresh
ingredients and not at all fast. I can't
remember ever having Chinese take-out,
eating pizza or any other ethnic food
until I was away at college.
The type of food my family
cooked or ordered out, I guess, could
be identified as standard American/British.
Meat, potatoes, a green veg, dinner
rolls, salad and dessert. Once in a
while I got my mom to prepare my favorite---"Spanish
rice." This was the most ethnic
we ever got. It was pork chops cooked
in stewed tomatoes, bell peppers, onion,
sugar and some spices poured over rice.
The only time we did not have potatoes
with a meal was this one dish with rice.
We ate out of our garden
from spring to the middle of fall. But
we still made regular trips to the farm
stands on the edge of town for fried
green tomato orgies and, of course,
sweet corn. My Dad ate prodigious amounts
of corn on the cob and he said we didn't
need to bother growing it in our garden.
We also ate corn chowder, corn fritters,
corn pudding and corn a dozen other
ways.
In peach season we sat
with our neighbors out on the porch
and took turns cranking our own ice
cream.We also had fresh strawberry ice
cream and later in the summer, blueberry.
A big deal in high school
once we all got driving licenses was
to drive out of town to the highway
and hang out at a place called Gino's
Hamburgers. We would buy a bag of silver
dollar sized mini hamburgers and a separate
bag of fries, all washed down with strawberry
milkshakes. We watched as these meals
were assembly-line mass produced and
passed through a window. We would go
back and lean on our cars to eat. Little
did any of us know that we were experiencing
the birth of the fast food revolution.
In my junior year I lived
with an Italian family in Florence,
Italy. It was altogether familiar to
me that they too, sat down for every
meal as a family. Everyone came home
from work or school at midday for lunch
and a rest. I had developed the hamburger
habit, nevertheless, and a big treat
to assuage my homesickness was tracking
down hamburgers in Milan and Rome.
A lot has changed about
how America families eat over this past
quarter century. Now in most families,
both parents work, kids are required
to eat lunch at school, few people have
the time or energy to tend much of a
vegetable garden; eating out is common,
ethnic restaurants and fast food outlets
are everywhere, people don't need to
know how to cook to feed themselves
as packaged convenience foods and microwaves
cater to everyone's tastes and habits.
Kids spend their time riding in or pushing
a grocery shopping cart, not tending
the family garden.
What hasn't changed is
that early experiences with food imprints
habits and tastes that extend into adulthood.
Kids who eat well, participate in gardening,
cooking and sharing meals with family
and friends are more likely to continue
these habits as adults with their own
families, as my wife and I have done.
Now after several decades
of eating conveniently and fast, an
alarming percentage of two generations
are seriously overweight and out of
touch with their food.
Reformers feel the only
alternative is to reconnect children
at the earliest age possible with food
experiences in school settings that
were once a universal feature of family
life.
(Tom Hughes grew up in
Haddonfield, New Jersey, a town or 10,000
people nine miles east of Philadelphia.
In those days, Southern New Jersey was
still full of farms and small towns
each with their main street shops.)
