Deli display, Nottingham Elementary School in Arlington, Va., 2011. U.S. Department of Agriculture

What is it about school lunch that evokes such intense feelings of nostalgia, loathing and delight? Perhaps it’s because school is the first place we consistently eat away from our parents’ watchful eye; the place in which group allegiance is made public; where time is distinctly different from the classes on either side; where controlled chaos often reigns; and where the food veers from inedible to not bad at all.

School lunch is universal, and yet differs from place to place (except for square pizza, which seems to be a constant). And it has changed dramatically over the years, just like education itself.

President Truman signed the National School Lunch Act in 1946, making permanent what had previously been a year-to-year appropriation by Congress.

President Truman signs National School Lunch Act, 1946. Department of Agriculture.
Harry S. Truman Library & Museum.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the legislation was passed in answer to worries that “‘many American men had been rejected for World War II military service because of diet-related health problems.’ Its purpose was to provide a market for agricultural production and to improve the health and well-being of the nation’s youth.”

That year, liver loaf was one of the recommended dishes for schools to serve. Since then, what districts feed children has come under intense scrutiny. In the 1980s, early in the Reagan Administration, the Agriculture Department had to retract its proposal to make ketchup and pickle relish count as vegetables in school lunches amid a national outcry.

Former first lady Michelle Obama took on school lunches as one of her signature issues, and succeeded in making them healthier when Congress passed the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010. Salads, whole fruit and whole grain bread appeared. Sodium levels were scaled back. Now, the Trump Administration is putting the brakes on some of those changes.

The nation’s attention on what students eat will wax and wain, but the kids will be there, every day, grabbing a plastic tray and heading through the line to pick out food prepared by cafeteria workers, the unsung heroes of a student’s day.

Food service staff, Oxon Hill High School, Maryland, 2014. U.S. Department of Agriculture

Below is a photographic trip through school lunch history, beginning around 1905. There is a missing decade because there were no pictures freely available.

1900s

A hot lunch being prepared and served in a Benton County school, Oregon, circa 1905

1920s

Public School 28, New York City, 1921. Library of Congress

1930s

Lunch pails in rural school, Wisconsin, 1939. John Vachon, Library of Congress

1940s

Lunch in the nursery school at the Farm Security Administration farm workers community, Woodville, Calif., 1942. Lee Russell. Library of Congress

(L) A grade school student eating a hot lunch, Penasco, N.M., 1943. John Collier. (R) Free morning lunch, Washington, D.C., 1942. Marjory Collins. Library of Congress

Recipes for school cafeteria cooks, 1946

Bureau of Home Economics, 1946. National Archives

Bureau of Home Economics, 1946. National Archives

1950s

Duplin County Schools, North Carolina, 1953. State Archives of North Carolina

1960s

Trinity Lutheran school cafeteria, Missouri, 1967. © Ken Steinhoff — All Rights Reserved

1970s

Fountain Square in downtown Cincinnati. School class takes a lunch break, 1973. Photograph by Tom Hubbard/The U.S. National Archive

1990s

A cafeteria worker at Tarawa Terrace II Elementary School serves a child a lunch, Tarawa Terrace, N.C., 1999. U.S. Marine Corps.

2000s

National School Lunch Program. Bob Nichols/USDA

A cafeteria manager serves plantain samples to students from the 5th grade classes at Yorkshire Elementary School in Manassas, Va., 2012. Photograph by Lance Cheung/U.S. Department of Agriculture

Lunch at D.C. Public Schools, 2012. Local beef burger on a whole wheat bun, roasted Brussels sprouts, baked potato fries, cantaloupe and milk. D.C. Central Kitchen

Academy for Global Citizenship students eat lunch., 2014 Photograph courtesy of the U.S. Department of Agriculture

First lady Michelle Obama joins children for lunch at Parklawn Elementary School in Alexandria, Va., 2012. Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy

Food service staff at a Delaware high school serves a locally sourced lunch, including kale from the school farm, 2015. U.S. Department of Agriculture

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