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I Ate Free Lunch Every Day of My School Life
So did everyone else I knew.
They were neither delicious nor nutritious but they were… there. Enough kids in my school fell below the poverty line that they just gave it for free to everyone. I never in my life saw a lunchbox or brown bag lunch show up at the table.
We lined up and each took a flesh-colored fiberglass tray. Lunch ladies in plastic gloves dolloped out hot cooked green beans floating in murky water, instant mashed potatoes, and a soft abomination questionably called “Salsbury steak”. The sheet of food they referred to as “pizza” appeared to be a giant soggy saltine topped with bland tomato sauce and the tiniest sprinkle of government-grade processed cheese.
I was so traumatized by this experience that for most of my adult life I thought I didn't like pizza. It took my New Jersey husband years to wear me down into appreciating truly excellent pizza. I still won’t eat the frozen stuff.
The spaghetti was oily, but we loved it. Chili came with bread and peanut butter for reasons no one knows.
No one complained because there was nothing else. It was hot and plentiful. Most of our parents had eaten this same food in this same cafeteria on those same trays. It was part of our culture.
