$20 for lunch?

Ouch! How many people can afford to let their child buy lunch at school if that is the sort of price you have to pay? 

Okay that was one of the higher prices. In the article one of them went up even higher than that. 

The lowest price seemed to be $6.50 at a school where the canteen is still run by the parents on a volunteer basis. That lunch consisted of a sandwich, a piece of fruit and a drink. 

It seems however that "time poor" parents do not have time to see that their children take lunch with them. Are they the same parents who buy that daily coffee and their own lunch? 

Buying our lunch at school was a major treat. It was almost unheard of for us to be allowed to do it. Our parents did not do it either. Most of the time of course we lived in rural areas where there was no school canteen. Everyone brought their lunch to school. There were Vegemite sandwiches, jam sandwiches, meat left over from Sunday sandwiches and 'roo sandwiches. Cheese and gherkin sandwiches appeared once in a while if your mother was feeling generous. If there happened to be a tomato handy it might get added to the cheese. On rare occasions there might be an egg sandwich. That was a treat too.

You would probably get a bit of cake or a biscuit - homemade - and you might get a bit of fruit. You drank water unless your mother let you have "a bit of cordial" in the bottom of the drink bottle - which you then filled with water from the tap. 

The only "bought" thing which appeared with any regularity were the "Bush" biscuits. These were about the size and shape of some mobile phones. Some of the boys would have two of these - sandwiched together with butter - for "recess".  

Other bought biscuits appeared more often in the city but there was still homemade cake or biscuits to go along with the sandwich. Sandwiches were white bread of course. Brown bread was almost unknown. Grain breads, rye breads, wraps and other forms of "bread" were unknown. 

If you bought your lunch the choice was limited to pie, pasty, sausage roll, roll or sandwich. There were things like "cream" buns, "finger buns" or "custard tarts" for afters...if you were very lucky. Now most of these things are considered to be unhealthy by the food police so the "vegetarian wrap" comes into play instead. 

"Most of it is yuck" I was told by one earnest seven year old. 

Last Sunday Middle Cat and I spent all day at the Fibre Feast. I cut lunch for both of us - multigrain rolls with ham for her and cheese for me. I added cherry tomatoes and small celery sticks. There was a rather special biscuit for later in the afternoon. We drank water and then, as a treat, iced chocolate for me and iced coffee for her. That was all we bought. We might not even have bought that but we wanted to support the vendors who were making the effort to be there. 

It did not cost us $20 even for two. If we had not bought the drinks it would not even have cost the $6.50 it would cost for one at the school. Yes, I had the time to prepare it - or rather, I made time to prepare it.  I was able to observe some of the other stall holders around me. Some of them did as we did. Others bought the hot chips and other treats which were available.  

One person in passing said, "That looks so good". I did not say "You could have done it too" because I knew she had come from interstate and was probably in a motel for the night. 

It was good. It is not to say we would not have enjoyed fresh hot chips or a wrap prepared by someone else or liked to have taken advantage of the "bacon and egg" breakfast offering earlier in the day. It is just that we did not need it and we did not need to spend the money...but we still had that small treat. We had the treat, a day out and money to spend on something else which would be a permanent reminder of the day if we wanted one.