Students eating school lunch. Stock photo.
School lunch has evolved quite a bit over the last century. Serving a standard lunch to school children started, in both Europe and the United States, with private organizations who were interested in child welfare. It was not a nationwide event, but something that took place in individual states and cities over an extended period. At the turn of the 20th century, concern over malnutrition in children inspired philanthropic groups to provide balanced meals to students during their lunch hour.
In the early part of the 20th century, the midday meal was considered the main meal of the day. Most families worked and went to school near the home, so they were afforded the luxury of breaking for a meal at their own dining table. Children either ate at home with their families or packed a lunch if they attended a school that was too far away.
One-room schoolhouses and schools in rural areas faced a unique problem in that there was rarely space for developing a kitchen and dining area, so serving a warm meal proved to be quite difficult. Some clever teachers began to utilize the stoves that served to heat the classrooms. Soups were placed in large kettles and left to heat on top of the stove. In Wisconsin, a program called the “pint jar method” became quite popular. Students would bring pint jars filled with reheatable items like macaroni, cocoa, and soup and would place them in buckets of water on top of the stove. By lunchtime, the food would be warm and far more comforting than cold sandwiches.
As Parent-Teacher Associations became involved in the school lunch movement, donations in the form of funds, pots and pans, and sometimes even small cooking ranges were given. These types of groups were responsible for expanding school lunch programs throughout the 1920s.
Unfortunately, the school lunch program was not growing as rapidly as necessary. Without any sort of legislation that would guarantee the continuing success of school lunches in the years ahead, school boards were reluctant to take on the program. In addition, kitchen equipment was expensive, and adding a dining room often meant extensive remodeling.
Finally, in 1946, the school lunch program was made official when the 79th Congress recognized its importance. President Harry S. Truman signed the National School Lunch Act, authored by Senator Richard B. Russell Jr.:
“It is hereby declared to be the policy of Congress, as a measure of national security, to safeguard the health and well-being of the Nation’s children and to encourage the domestic consumption of nutritious agricultural commodities and other food, by assisting the States, through grants-in-aid and other means, in providing an adequate supply of food and other facilities for the establishment, maintenance, operation, and expansion of nonprofit school lunch programs.
– Sec. 2 The National School Lunch Act, 1946
School lunch is something most of us have experienced at some point in our lives. Whether we have opted to bring a brown bag lunch or took a chance on the cafeteria’s fish sticks, school lunch is a rite of passage for most Americans. Low-income families often rely on school lunch programs to provide their children with what may be their only balanced meal of their day. The healthfulness of school lunches has been called into question in recent years, and the Obama administration sought to implement new standards to increase the nutritional value of lunches provided by schools. Years pass and food trends change, but the challenge of nourishing our country’s youth remains!
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