The DU Lounge

They had actual cooks and a restaurant style kitchen. The women who cooked (it was all women) seemed to take a lot of pride in their work. They were better cooks than my mom or grandmas, maybe on par with my dad who only cooked on weekends and holidays.

My parents had more kids than they could comfortably support so we were only allowed cafeteria money one day a week, at most, and we got to look at the menu sent home the previous Friday and choose which day we'd eat cafeteria food. Otherwise we were expected to make our own lunches from an early age.

My children got free lunches in school, we live in a place where so many children qualify for free breakfasts and lunches it's not worth collecting money from those who can pay, but the lunches were assembled factory-style in the school district's central kitchen and delivered daily by truck and were not very good. Our children preferred to make their own lunches but it was nice knowing that if they forgot to make a lunch or, more often, forgot to bring the lunches they'd made in the rush to get out the door, they wouldn't go hungry.

In my elementary school we could go back for seconds after everyone had been served, and if you'd forgotten your lunch you could grab someone else's tray and get food that way. Unfortunately that usually wouldn't be the good stuff, it'd be side dishes like canned bean casserole and a chunk of corn bread, which may have been a wink-and-nod sort of socialism.