What`s your memories of school dinners?

I always had packed lunch at primary school, so my only memories there are Club biscuits, Take-a-Break bars etc and those funky coloured metal water jugs.

At secondary school, it was pretty much fries every day. You could have this with pizza or burger, of which you could have chicken, spicy chicken and pork but not beef (CJD!). 50p for fries, 50p for burger or pizza.

Meal of the day was sometimes the most awesome gammon, chips, pineapple and parsley sauce. About the only day I had something different.

By Year 9 we used to go out to the local cafe for jacket spuds or toasties or chippy on Friday. However, they stopped Year 9 going out, so we used to sneak out until we were caught. We argued our case with the head but we lost, and had to spend each lunch back to him every 10 mins to show we'd not disappeared!

6th form was mostly sarnies again (health conscious ofc) or Friday chippy. Or Thursday pub - no wonder I blobbed A Level Biology!

/edit: now I'm a teacher, though I rarely have lunches. It's on a 3 week rotation, chips and pizza/fish only on a Friday. Choice of jackets, salads, baguettes or Pasta King every day too. So much more variety!
 
I never had school dinners in secondary school, but in junior school, all I can remember is the revolting smell and the plastic meat, though I enjoyed it at the time.

Oh, and the Rice Pudding was really good.
 
Chocolate sponge and custard all mixed into mush for me as well. We used to have it every friday. Highlight of the week. Use to enjoy mint custard as well. Can't find it anywhere now.
 
Bubo said:
"For what we are about to recieve, may the lord make us truly grateful"

Most overiding memory is the single bucket that everyone had to scrape their leftovers into after the meal. Just the memory of this now is making me feel slightly nauseous.

Second memory is the metal jugs filed with red liquidy jam/syrup they put on the tables which told you you were going to be having semolina pudding.

School dinner is were I fashioned my current deep seated hatred of beetroot.
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Sounds like my primary school!

There was a belief that the slop bucket you have described was served back to you in some form later!

My parents never made me have school dinners, I could have pack lunch if I wanted, and perhaps as a result my memories are mostly positive. The puddings were great. I always loved the Christmas dinner.
 
I used to take packed lunches but I have two memories of school lunches:

  • Junior school - mashed potato that made me sick. Even the thought of it today makes me feel sick. It was obviously some instant crap.
  • Secondary school - lovely apple/rhubarb crumble and custard. They also did lovely chips and bread rolls.
 
Didn't do school diners at secondary school but did at primary. They were pretty good. Not a turkey twizzler in sight. They used to have this annoying numbering system though. Tables were number 1-9 and this dictated the order in which you could collect your meal. Numbers were rotated daily, great when you're number 1 but say good bye to your lunch hour if you were number 9.

I do remember every now and again they'd have a "milk shake" as desert. What a rip off :(
 
The two things I remember above all else were being served something simply referred to as a 'savoury', which was a flat, rectangular piece of reconstituted meat coated in breadcrumbs and fried. No idea what the meat was, if it was. The other was being served mashed potato with an ice-cream scoop. Everything else is only a vague memory.
 
I LOVED my school dinners, fantastic value for money and the food was always very nice, some of the things that stick in my mind as being particularly good would be:

Sausage pie

Mince and dumplings

Corned beef pie

Mashed potato (piped out then baked)

Homemade sausage rolls & Cheese pasties

Apricot cobbler

Pineapple upside down cake

Cornflake tart

Chocolate cake

All of the flavoured custards.

Happy happy memories :)
 
Heh, School dinners were interesting... especially once we got to know the dinner lady in charge of puddings quite well... One particularly momentous day 3 of us each demolished more than 5 helpings of rice crispy syrup cake, with custard... having gone easy on the main meal. And we used to get table service if there were just a couple of portions left :D

Now, I work in the same school and its a bit different... Roast of some sort 4 days a week, and the 5th is international, so Indian, Chinese, Mexican, Moroccan rotated throughout the term. All served with adequate veggies &/or good salad. Its pretty damn good quality considering they produce 3 meals a day for 1500+ people!
 
I seem to remember chips with everything, turkey drummers with chips and gravy, roast dinners and those trays of sponge pudding and custard :)
 
In my early days of school, the memories are bad. Early eighties tapioca pudding and being forced to eat peas. It has taken me nearly thirty years to start eating them again. Will never touch tapioca for as long as I live.

Later in my schooling I can fondly remember iced buns with cream, cheese rolls with cheap margarine which tasted AMAZING, and chips and beans. Got to love chips and beans, sometimes with cheese on the top.
 
I used to love school dinners!

I was lucky enough to go to a school where we had a good selection.

Choc brick with pink custard was epic! :D
 
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