The history of school meals revealed: 1940s-70s (2013)

The content of school meals has changed a lot throughout generations.

Unhealthy School Meals have decided to investigate these changes looking at the 1940s and 50s to the 1960s and 70s.

School meals in 1940/50:

Just after the Second World War, food was scarce. Rationing continued until 1954 so during the 40s and 50s school dinners mainly consisted of bread and potatoes.

‘Dinner’ was considered the main meal of the day, therefore it was expected to be a cooked meal usually between 1pm and 2pm. This meant that a lot of children went home at lunch time.

“Myself and about 30% of children in my school went home for an hour at dinner” (Enid Freshwater, 77).

There were no guidelines of what foods had to be in the meals, however similarly today, they mainly contained carbohydrates (bread, potato) and vegetables. A typical school meal in the 40s and 50s would include boiled potatoes, vegetables and some sort of beef e.g. minced. Mary Watts (80) described them:

“They always smelt horrible. You always knew what you were going to get… soggy vegetables seemed to be the thing!”

Jugs of water were always available on the tables, and this was the only drink they were allowed. Students were also provided with milk occasionally as rickets (bone problems due to a lack of vitamin D) were a common problem.

Dessert came in the form of rice pudding or some sort of sponge, which many of the people we spoke to said was the best part of the meals. According to online sources, desserts were always served with custard and were nicknamed “stodge.”

School meals in 1960/70:

Food in the 60s and 70s has been described as being “very British,” containing foods such as sausages, fish and potatoes. There no foreign influences such as curry or pizza, and pasta was rarely available as a school meal.

A typical school dinner would include a meat cut such as beef or lamb, potatoes served roasted, mashed, boiled or as chips, lots of vegetables such as onions, cauliflower, peas and spinach, and meals were always topped with gravy. Fish and chips was also very common, as well as roast dinners and liver; all deemed healthy.

“They weren’t overly nice,” says Nicola Moore (45). “Friday’s were definitely the day we all looked forward to.”

The ratio between school dinners and packed lunches was roughly 60:40 as this was the time when packed lunches started to become popular amongst children.

The standards since the 1940s seemed to have dropped a bit as foods such as chips were served, as well as desserts such as jelly, which weren’t as healthy as some parents wanted their children to have at the time.

Desserts were also the most favoured part of the school meal, and these included rice pudding, fruit crumble, jam tart, jelly or semolina.