School Lunches, a Decade or Two Later

By Melia Dicker

A couple of years ago, my dear friend Melia made the amazing and brave decision to go back to school. As in start over from kindergarten. I'm sure your initial reaction is "Well that sounds easy!" but you and I both know that you would be out of the game at 3rd-grade Geometry and you are absolutely not smarter than a 5th grader. But her ambition and dedication to this project are not the only reasons I love Melia. This is a woman who never turns down a costume party or an SF Mission taco crawl. She can also school anyone in a game of early 90s trivia. I asked her to share some of her experiences with school lunch here, and she graciously obliged.

With all the national attention that healthy school lunches are getting these days, you might wonder how the lunches at your own schools have changed since you were a student. I wondered the same thing, and a couple of years ago I happened to have a chance to find out.

I committed the fall of 2008 to a “do-over” of my schooling, like Billy Madison but for real. I got permission to spend a week in each of my old school classrooms in the San Francisco Bay Area: kindergarten, first grade, and so on, all the way through college. The project was called Reschool Yourself, and its goal was for me to make peace with 17 years of school that I had found did not prepare me for life. (You can read more about the project here.)

Along the way, I dedicated myself to “method lunching,” eating cafeteria food with my fellow students. If there were options that had been on the menu when I was enrolled the first time around, I ordered those and assessed how they stacked up. Here are some highlights from my school lunch adventures.

1. Elementary School: Hot Dogs
El Verano Elementary School, Sonoma, CA



When I was a kid, the only day that I’d buy lunch instead of brown bagging it was Friday, because it was Pizza Day. Miraculously, 23 years later, Friday was still Pizza Day, so I planned to buy “hot lunch” from the school cafeteria on that day of the week.

Imagine my disappointment when I saw hot dogs instead. “We barbecue the first and last weeks of school,” said the lunch lady. “It’s a special occasion.”

At least they were chicken dogs. Here’s what I wrote about my lunch that day (read the full post):

The principal, who was graciously helping serve lunch that day, gave me an extra helping of peppered macaroni salad, a slice of watermelon, and a chocolate chip cookie. At the end of the counter there were bowls of fresh fruit, mini bags of carrots, and boxes of raisins, all for the taking; I was happy to see a broader, healthier selection than we’d had in the 80s…

I (was) surprised that the food tasted so good, the buttery cookie in particular. The hot dog wasn’t half bad, especially with relish and ketchup, and the pepper in the macaroni salad gave it an original flavor. The flailing arms of the (kindergarteners) had slid my watermelon wedge onto the table, and I left it untouched, following one of the cardinal rules in education: No matter how hungry you are, never eat anything that has touched kids’ fingers or their tabletops.

The best part of the meal was the chocolate milk, that thick, rich chocolatey goodness packed into a tiny carton. Turns out that the secret to the thickness is….corn starch. Yum. I drank half, enjoying it thoroughly, and pitched the rest.

2. Middle School: Turkey Sandwich
Altimira Middle School, Sonoma, CA



The deli turkey sandwich on a French roll came in a plastic bag with a white tie, the kind that’s sealed flat and forces you to rip the whole bag open. The sandwich was as gloppy and delicious as I had remembered it having been a decade and a half before. It contained thin slices of textured turkey, not the slimy processed and packaged mystery meat. Here’s an excerpt from the blog about it (read the full post):

I think those sandwiches are responsible for my little sister’s passionate hatred of mayonnaise, given the globs laden on the sandwiches that used to squirt out of the sides of the bread. My sandwich last week actually tasted great, its bread and turkey fresh, and its mayo now in proportion.

Disappointingly, the cafeteria had run out of burritos from La Casa, a local Mexican restaurant, which I remember as being delicious. I hope to get one tomorrow. I’m stunned at how inexpensive the food is — $0.75 for half a cream cheese bagel, $2.50 for the most quality sandwiches and burritos. I’m used to paying three times as much for similar items in San Francisco cafes and airports.

3. High School: Cheese Pizza
St. Vincent de Paul High School, Petaluma, CA



I didn’t document my high school lunch on the blog, probably because it was tasty but unremarkable. I ordered lunches from the “snack shack” a couple of times during my return to high school and remember them being fairly healthy, reasonably cheap, and satisfying. I think it may have come from a pizzeria chain, maybe Domino’s. The slice of cheese pizza was triangular, unlike the thick, square slices that some school cafeterias serve. The cheese, sauce, and crust were all just fine – not great enough or bad enough to leave a lasting memory.

4. College: Veggie Sandwich
Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, CA



When I was a student, Aramark ran Santa Clara University’s dining services, but Bon Appetit has since replaced them. The dining commons have been updated and now (unfortunately) have flat-screen TVs mounted above some of the tables. Oddly enough, the woman who rang up my meal had worked there when I was a student, and she remembered me. The veggie deli sandwich I ordered during my reschooling was nothing to write home about, but it I enjoyed the fresh bread, honey mustard, and pickles (read the full post).

At lunchtime on Saturday, I (ate) during peak hours. Actually, on weekends Benson (the student center) seems to be bustling all day, as students roll out of bed and into the dining commons in sweats. I had hoped to order a burrito, which used to be my favorite lunchtime option. Sadly, the burrito bar was closed by the time I got there, so I settled for a deli sandwich. … I reminded myself to get a vegetarian option, since I didn’t eat meat from the ages of 13 to 23. (Traveling in Germany after college broke me of the habit.) I’ve always found the good selection of food at Santa Clara to be fresh and of high quality, and this hasn’t changed.

All in all, during my visits I found the food at my old schools to be good for my health, my palate, and my wallet. A decade or two after I’d graduated, I enjoyed my cafeteria lunches as much as, if not more than, when I ate them the first time around.