School lunches

of the "bought from the canteen" variety are under attack today - not by me but by the state newspaper.

It needs to be said here that state schools in this state do not provide lunch. Students need to take their own or buy it from the school canteen. Many rural schools do not even have a canteen and everyone takes their lunch.

When I was a kitten buying my lunch at the school canteen was a once a term experience. We didn't have the money for that sort of thing. My brother and I went to school most days with a Vegemite sandwich and a biscuit or a piece of cake (home made of course) and a piece of fruit. Occasionally we had meat left over from the weekend roast or a thin slice of cheese or an egg would be shared between the two of us. Those lunches were not exciting but we ate them. We would have been given them again the following day if we had not. As it was we were young and generally ravenous and ate all of what was there.

We rather envied the children who came to school with jam sandwiches and bought "sponge roll". All of us envied the children who bought their lunch from the school canteen.

"Lunch orders" were what happened first thing in the morning. The teacher took your order and sent it with the "lunch monitor" to the school canteen in some places or the "tuck shop" in others. The canteen was run by our mothers but the tuck shop was usually next to the school and used by every worker in the district who needed lunch. 

The range of food was limited - pies, pasties, sausage rolls and sandwiches or rolls for the most part. Then there were "cream buns", "kitchener buns", custard tarts, jam tarts, "chester squares" and vanilla slices were about the only things available. As kittens my brother and I thought these things were highly desirable. Our mother, even if we had been able to afford it, thought otherwise. Once a term was quite sufficient - and we had to earn it with very good marks in our Friday tests. Oh yes, we worked for those canteen lunches.

I read through the article on the cost of canteen lunches and realised that I would probably do much the same as my mother. The cost of buying lunch every day, even if I could afford it, is not something I would be prepared to do. These lunches are not like the school lunches I experienced in England. Looking back they were really rather remarkable. The children I knew there, often from poorer areas, seemed to thoroughly enjoy them. I never saw anyone turn down a second helping if there happened to be left overs. A hot meal in the middle of winter must have been wonderful for many of them.

Looking at the prices now I wondered why a very basic "ham sandwich" - no more than two slices of white bread with a scraping of ersatz butter and a thin slice of ham - should cost $7.20. Then I realised that school canteens can no longer rely on the mothers to give up time to help, that there are all sorts of food handling procedures that people must attend training courses for and ways in which other issues must be handled. There is one school I know of with a number of Muslim students. The school has ceased to serve any sort pork products and the other meat products are only those which are halal approved.  Canteens are expected to cater for "allergies" too as well as being expected to ban such delights as "ice blocks" in lurid colours and very artificial flavours.

One year I remember buying my entire class those "orange juice" ice blocks at the end of the year. I had one boy in the class who was a diabetic. He and I agreed that a small packet of chips was a good substitute. It was the only concession I needed to make. I didn't even ask the mothers whether it was okay to do this. Now I would need to send a note home to get permission - and the surprise would not have been possible. Ideas have changed.

I remember those rare occasions on which we were permitted to "buy our lunch". I remember the anticipation as the two lunch monitors carried the order box into the classroom. I remember the aromas of pastry and yeast and the greasy brown paper bags. Oddly I don't remember the taste as well as I remember these other things. Perhaps it is just as well. I wouldn't want to pay the prices being asked - and I suspect what I would take from home might taste a good deal better.