How much were school lunches when you were a kid?

[MonkeyFunk]

Ours were 35 cents. Every night, Mom would lay out four stacks of 35 cents on the kitchen table for us to take with us in the morning.

On days they served a side of rice and gravy, I got an extra dime because for some reason I just LOVED that dish. My mom never ever made rice - so it was an exotic treat for me.

[mwooldri]

1. Depends...

When I went to first and middle school all I got handed was an envelope of money, so I can't remember. At first we got set dinners, that's what you got to eat like it or lump it in the first four years. The next four years (middle school) I had a choice between a couple of dishes, unless I came to lunch late.

When I went to secondary school I initially got shipped to school with a pound coin. It increased a bit as food prices went up but I tended to often get sausage, baked beans and fries... once a week I had something nicer (a roast). Always drank milk.

When I went to sixth form college I needed two pound coins plus 55p for the bus. Muffin and milk in the morning, sausage, baked beans and fries for lunch.

Yeah, we had fast food crap in England too.

Mark.

[MonkeyFunk]

2. pfft...

what's that in real money?

I don't know a tuppence from a shilling.

[mwooldri]

7. Nowadays just double everything:

£1 = $2 (effectively).

[Lil Missy]

3. My parents bought me a monthly ticket, and I think it was 35 cents per meal.

But I was given a job to punch the tickets, and all my meals after that were free.

[astral]

4. Hey, mine was 35 cents too---

at least through 4th grade. We got HOT lunches,too! And teachers who didn't like to let us waste any food off our plates. My favorite was anything that came with apple crisp. I think we sometimes got chicken chow mein over rice which I also loved.

The good ol' days . . . . . when junk food wasn't what you grew up on but only an OCCASIONAL treat.

[CreekDog]

5. $2 then $3

high school

[ashling]

6. 1st grade we all had to bring our lunch

the school (St. John's Lutheran, Galveston TX) brought in milk in glass bottles w/ paper tops.

2nd grade was .25 (Island Elementary, Galveston TX)

[Awsi Dooger]

8. Quarter, then it went up to 35 cents

My gig was arranging trades. At our huge table I'd makes deals based on what certain kids liked or disliked. Then every time that item showed up, we'd agree to hand it over. I despised grilled cheese so that was gone from my plate in a flash. I always ended up with tons of fish sandwiches and broccoli, among other things.

Looking back you'd think there would have been disputes, if a kid wasn't going to get much to eat if his main course was handed over. It wasn't always one for one on the same day. But my memory is it went smoothly. Seemed like I got the best of it, but all of us probably felt that way. :)

[RebelOne]

9. 35 cents here, too.

That was in the late 1940s and early '50s.

[sarge43]

10. We were on the barter system

Bring in whatever dad or mom hunted/gathered and cook would do it up over the campfire.

[Chan790]

11. It changed a lot....

In grade school it was $1, later $1.25.
In middle school it was $1.35.
I went to a private HS and we didn't have a lunch program per-say...we had a dining hall/commissary...I spent between $3-$5/day.

[pokerfan]

12. 50¢ in high school

how much cheaper in grade school, I don't remember.

[Misskittycat]

13. Mine was 35 cents also.

[Blue Diadem]

14. My granddaughter's is $2.50, my kids' prices were from

$1.25-$1.90. IIRC, my own was somewhere in the $.60 range when I was in high school, seems they were .35 when I was in elementary.

A group of us girls were able to talk one of our cooks into making us small chef salads so that's when I began to buy my lunch with my own money my Jr. yr in HS. All she requested is that we let her know before school so she could make them and I think she charged us just a nickel more. Our school was small so it was possible. Before that, my lunch was packed by my Mom, a sandwich and 3 devils food cookies e.v.e.r.y.d.a.y. The lunch wasn't her fault, my Dad controlled the selection of foods in our house and his taste was simple and never varied.

I'm surprised the kids have a menu of the day but also have several alternate food selections now. Somewhere during my children's school years, I saw that change happen.

[raccoon]

15. A quarter. nt

[EstimatedProphet]

16. I don't remember having to pay for them

If I did, I'm sure it was very little, like maybe a quarter.

[Whoa_Nelly]

17. $5 for a month

So, 40 cents.

That was back in the days when the cafeteria ladies would already be cooking and setting up by 6 AM. We would have real meat (pork chop, chicken, beef something or other, fish sticks on Friday), two choices of veggies, always a fresh hot homemade roll with butter pat, 2-3 choices for dessert, and we ate it all off of some sort of resin tray.

Having pizza, chicken nuggets, burritos...never happened.
It was always home cooking, and really pretty good.

I always liked the fried okra :9
But, hated it when they served grits x(

And, for some reason, it seemed necessary to always serve us a HUGH!!!1! prune every Friday.
Guess they figured we needed cleaning out for the weekend. :eyes:

[Midlodemocrat]

18. Same here. And, if you brought your lunch, milk was $.02.

Although, we actually went home for lunch most of the time. We had an entire HOUR to eat, so my mom came and picked us up, fixed lunch and we watched cartoons for a bit before we headed back.

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

48. My situation

was that I could walk home for lunch, then go back to school..............wow! Today that would never happen.

[Midlodemocrat]

49. LOL. We could have, too.

In fact, we walked to and from. At lunch, though, my mom picked the three of us up so that we could have more time to eat.

She'd be shocked if she saw what passes for lunchtime for kindergarten kids these days.

[trof]

19. I think .15? And you usually bought a weekly 'ticket'.

Every Monday you had to remember to take your lunch money for the week.
You got a ticket that the cashier lady would punch.
And when you lost your lunch ticket, she'd remember that you had paid.
:-)

[DarkTirade]

20. I don't remember exactly... I think it was in the 1-2 dollar range.

But I could be wrong. It's been a while, and my parents rarely had us buy our lunches.

[China_cat]

21. We didn't have a cafeteria and school lunches.

If you rode the bus, you carried your lunch or you walked 'downstreet' to one of 2 little places to buy lunch. If you lived in town, you went home for lunch. (It was a very small town, so you could get there, have lunch and get back easily in the hour we were given for lunch.)

I understand the school now has a cafeteria and only 20 minutes allowed for the kids to eat.

[Arkansas Granny]

22. I think our lunch cost us 25 cents. Extra milk was 2 cents per carton.

It's been so long ago that I'm not really sure about the lunch.

[SacredCow]

In high school (85 through 89) ours were $0.90...

and to add a milkshake to that cost $0.25.

Prior to 9th grade, I was in private school so I had to bring a lunch.

[bif]

23. 35 cents at a Catholic school in the 60s

[philosophie_en_rose]

24. 80 cents in elementary school overseas

$3.00 or more in high school, for ala carte junk.

[IndianaJones]

25. 65 cents. nt

[Sheets of Easter]

26. $1.25 or $1.50.

By high school, I could get additional a la carte items, like nachos, ice cream or cookies, for extra.

[skygazer]

27. I'm not sure about lunch but milk for snack was 3 cents

Usually my mom made my lunch - she had six kids and would lay out bread on the table like an assembly line. Six paper lunch bags, each with our name on it. Sandwich wrapped in wax paper, snack, and maybe a piece of fruit. Six pennies for snack milk and lunch milk.

The empty bread bags were used to line our boots in the winter in order to keep our socks dry. :rofl:

[flvegan]

28. 50 cents in grade school.

I think it was $1 in high school.

[KansDem]

29. I think they were 30 cents: 25 cents for the meal and 5 cents for the milk (optional) n/t

[Tikki]

30. 35¢ and 3 pennies for milk only...I know 'cause I was....

the ticket girl in 5th grade and the milk girl in 6th grade.

Tikki

[ceile]

31. Mom paid in advance, so I'm not sure.

We'd get the menu ahead of time and I'd pick which days I wanted and she'd write a check for the month. The other days I took my lunch. But I think it may have been about $1.50....

[femmocrat]

32. Geez am I old!

We went to a neighborhood school and walked home for lunch! I never set foot in a school cafeteria until HS, and I can only remember buying a scoop of tuna salad for 10 cents. Everything else was inedible.

[Reverend_Smitty]

33. I can't remember and it wasn't even that long ago

I think it was around $1.50-2.00 for high school, I would usually only buy lunch on taco day...man were those tacos great. I shudder to think of what kind of meat was used but oh well

[Fran Kubelik]

34. elementary school = 50 cents

I usually brought my own lunch and bought milk. White milk was 5 cents and chocolate milk was 6 cents. My mom would never give me that penny.

By Jr. High it was 85 cents. My parents always asked for the change to make sure I bought a school lunch and not junk food. :(

[last_texas_dem]

35. The tray was $1 when I started 1st grade in 1989

I remember it went up t $1.10 after a couple years, and by the time I graduated high school it was up to at least $1.25. It always stayed a pretty good value, especially for someone like me who actually liked most cafeteria food!

[Q3JR4]

36. I don't know,

we never paid for it. If it wasn't for the availability of free school lunches, I'm thinking I probably wouldn't have eaten back in the day.

Q3JR4.

Edited to add:
For the purposes of this post, "back in the day" = "11 years ago."

[LisaM]

37. Now that you mention it....I think ours were 35 cents too

but you could get a punch card for a week, and for some reason, I think it cost $1.05. That seems like a weird number, so maybe I'm wrong. I remember getting those occasionally when for whatever reason we had to buy lunch every day in a week.

[Shell Beau]

38. When I was in elementary, they were $1.

When I got to high school, they were more like $2 or $2.50.

[Kali]

39. 35 here too, but our house rule was we only got to buy once a week

we had to bring the rest of the week. Subsequently I actually LIKE cafeteria food.:rofl: Give me some mac and cheese or soggy baked chicken any time!:9

[MISSDem]

40. A dollar for a week or 25 cents per day.

Can you believe it?

[Celeborn Skywalker]

41. 80 cents

when I was in kindergarten in 1989. By 2002 (my senior year), they were $1.60.

[bikebloke]

42. Quarter

Then it went up to 30 - 35 - 45 cents.

Early on I hated pizza, because they served it with green beans. The combined aromas were awful.

[MountainLaurel]

43. 50 cents

And they were free or 25 cents for the free/reduced lunch kids.

[Karenina]

44. 32 cents

[Connonym]

45. I don't remember the price but I remember we had an actual cook who made stuff from scratch

Little old Italian lady. My only memory of anything that was "icky" was stewed prunes which got served a couple times a month. Otherwise it was always good food.

[pitohui]

46. 25 cents, god i'm old EOM

/

[Mutley]

47. Started off at $1.00, then went up to $1.25.

[alphafemale]

50. I rarely bought lunch. The food was nasty. Plus, the insanity of standing in line for 15 mins.

People at the end of the line would have to wolf down their food in 5 minutes sometimes.

[Bombero1956]

51. 25 cents

plus 3 cents for midmorning milk. With the quarter we bought lunch tokens.

[libnnc]

52. for a hot lunch

at elementary school (before Raygun gutted the program) it was fifty cents. And it was REAL food. Big slice of ham, peas, real mashed potatoes, homemade soft roll, pudding and milk. Back then a pint of milk was a dime. We had a meatless day, navy beans (pintos or black eyed peas), turnip greens, stewed tomato, cornbread and cobbler. I don't remember pizza and fries being on the menu until after Carter left office.

[Kickin_Donkey]

53. 40 cents for the meal ...

it stayed that way when I was in school from the late 1960s to 1980 in California.

[Faygo Kid]

54. "School lunches?" Why, we'd cut through the blizzards at lunch to trap game. . .

. . . and in the summer, we'd catch fish, then walk 40 miles home where we had to milk the cows and farm stuff like that.

At least that's how I remember it.

[fortyfeetunder]

55. I think it started at 25 cents

by the time I got into high school it might have been 40 cents.
The high school cafeteria staff could COOK. My favorite was baked turkey wings. Big mamma jammas. Mostly fresh food, way back when. They even served a decent breakfast too.

[Redstone]

56. For quite a while, they were free; Government Surplus food. Some of it wasn't bad.

I actually liked the cheese, and the SOS.

Redstone

[u4ic]

57. In elementary school, I went home for lunch

The kids that stayed for lunch brought it with them to school.

Don't remember how much it was in high school - but I lived on the caf's fries and gravy, or Chinese food. I loved their "bo-bo balls" (which I have not seen since).

[Lyric]

58. I don't know. We always had Free Lunch,.

Which was supremely embarrassing when I lived in Virginia. The schools there required you to say "I get Free Lunch" out loud in front of everyone. Up here in WV, you just slid your lunch card along with everyone else.

I hated Virginia public schools. :(