With school fast approaching, if it hasn’t already arrived, I thought it would be fun to have a little look at the history of school lunch in the United States.
I won’t be covering the historical evolution of the school lunch programs or nutritional requirements in detail, at least not right now. This is more of a sampling/selection of recipes and resources I found dated between the years 1916 and 1960. Consider it something of a visual timeline!
There are plenty more where these came from, just click the links to the digitized texts in the Internet Archive. I hope you have as much fun as I did perusing these old recipes!
School Lunch Recipe Timeline
1916: “The Rural School Lunch.”
Cheese Fondue (more common than you’d think)
1928: “School Lunch Box.” Radio Transcript
Sandwiches Six Ways
1929: “School Lunch Box.” Radio Transcript.
Scotch Wafers plus Sample Menu
1934: “School Lunches with Recipes to Serve 50 Children.” This one includes three weeks’ worth of menus! This should give you a good idea of what a 30’s-era school lunch would have looked like.
Codfish, Spaghetti, and Tomatoes
1943: “School Lunch Recipes”
Liver and Rice Loaf
Soya-Egg Roll
1944: Lunch at School. If you’re interested in reading about three types of lunch sponsorships and nutritional requirements as laid out by the War Food Administration, check out this six-page pamphlet.
1949:“School Lunch Recipes Using Potatoes”
Codfish-Potato Cakes
1949: “School Lunch Recipes Using Cheese”
Cheeseburger Sandwich
1951: “School Lunch Recipes Using Turkey”
Turkey Pie and Turkey Noodle Scallop
1953: “Additional school lunch recipes : supplement to School lunch recipes for main dishes and desserts”
Date-Peanut Butter Pudding
1959: School lunch recipes using dried whole egg solids (stabilized)
Baked Scrambled Eggs
1960: “Colorful Cranberries for School Lunch Programs”
Cranberry Betty
A Dollop of History 
Reblogged this on Dave Loves History.
LikeLike
An interesting read indeed!!!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Fascinating! Thanks for sharing!
LikeLike
I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Interesting to see how school food has changed over time.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I will definitely try one of these as soon as the school reopen😅
LikeLike
Ooh I hope you do! Did you see the Cheeseburger Sandwich? haha
LikeLiked by 1 person
Wait…cheeseburger sandwich !!
Just finished😋😋😋😋………
..
..
..
Sending hugs to u🤗🤗🤗
LikeLike
You know I too have started my own website😊😊
LikeLiked by 1 person
I LOVE this post, and the first one I read about school lunches! Really great. ~I did have to read your cheeseburger sandwich recipe about three times, kept looking for the “burger” (!) My grandmother ran a boarding house in a university town circa 1930; I have her cookbook and love to read (and try) her menus. Overall, what, if any, main changes did you notice between ’16 and ’60?
LikeLike
I’m so glad you enjoyed it! It also took me a minute to see the burger-less cheeseburger sandwich. What’s your favorite recipe from your grandmother’s cookbook? What a fun snapshot of the past and your family’s lives!
I would say the biggest differences between ’16 and ’60 are processed food and the shift away from communal dishes like fondue. Notice as you go down the years codfish and liver starts to disappear and processed ingredients like soya, dried egg and margarine start to gain in popularity. And there seems to have been a wider variety of dishes before the 1950’s. Just take a look at the 1920’s to see what I mean.
LikeLiked by 3 people
I DID notice the codfish->soy … As I was reading, I smiled thinking about serving up a nice warm plate of those hearty staples to our kids today. If it isn’t half preservatives and wrapped in plastic, it’s not food! 😉 Happy to continue this by e-mail, info@seasonsofparenting.com
LikeLiked by 3 people
Hey Sara
Waiting for a next post. Please share one soon.
I’m curious to read one more interesting post and just give a “thumbs up” and comment on it.
But wait what can be the next post 🤔🤔
Let me think before you post it right😁
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’ve got a couple in mind! The older ones take a bit more time to research and put together but hopefully you won’t have to wait too long. 🙂
LikeLike
😃😃😃😃
LikeLike
Sara till then will you please check out my site too .
https://liveit8.wordpress.com/
Here is the link
LikeLike
Will do!
LikeLike
I do not even know what Graham bread is!
LikeLike
I had to look this up too! Simply put, it’s a type of bread made with graham flour.
In the Victorian era, however, graham flour was actually coarsely-ground unsifted whole wheat flour that was milled at home. The bread was ideally made without any chemical additives like alum and was often not leavened as thoroughly and contained less yeast. This was considered the ultimate “health bread” at the time.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Ew It sounds really tough to chew. Thank you for that!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Terrific article, thanks!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Cottage cheese and cabbage on raisin bread sandwich..oh…yum. lol.
LikeLiked by 1 person
This is what happens when you need to make 3 days’ worth of groceries last a week. Or it’s time to clean out the fridge.
LikeLike
Informative ❤ post.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s definitely more interesting than what we came looking for. I especially liked Cranberry Betty 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
What a neat find! I think I might even try to pull some of these off for homeschool lunch…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Lovely collection of menus!
LikeLiked by 1 person