Plenty on the Menu, But Students Still Love Pizza Best-October 10, 1967

Italian spaghetti? Irish stew? Kosher pickles? German hot dogs? Swiss cheese? Hawaiian pineapple? French-fried potatoes? Danish pastry? Chinese chow mein?

It sounds like the exotic menu of a high-end international restaurant, but it actually reflects the diverse offerings served up in school cafeterias across the nation as President Lyndon B. Johnson proclaims National School Lunch Week. The annual observance is designed to promote public awareness of the national school lunch program’s profound value to children, families, agriculture, industry, and the country as a whole.

Still the Best Bargain Around

Established in 1946 in the wake of World War II to safeguard children’s health and encourage the consumption of domestic agricultural goods, the school lunch remains the ultimate bargain for students. While a balanced meal costs between 50 and 55 cents to prepare, it is priced for students at just 25 to 30 cents.

Members of the modern “Now generation” who might otherwise attempt to survive on a chocolate candy bar, a bottle of soda, and a bag of potato chips instead receive one-third of their minimum daily nutritional requirements right in the school cafeteria.

“Training in nutrition and proper food habits is a major factor in the development of the child,” points out Mrs. Lois M. Carley, cafeteria supervisor for the Needham Public Schools.

Local Cafeteria Operations and the Power of Pizza

Across neighboring towns, school lunch programs report enthusiastic participation:

• Norwood: Norwood school lunch supervisor Mrs. Madlynne Connolly notes that children are “notoriously poor eaters in the morning.” To counter this, the town provides a nutrition-packed hot lunch. Charging just 25 cents per meal (while most surrounding towns charge 30 cents), Norwood serves hot lunches at the high school and the Callahan Elementary School. During September, an average of 934 students purchased lunches daily. However, Mrs. Connolly points out one notable exception: on days when pizza was featured as the main course, lunch sales surged to 1,384 hungry fans. Excluding labor costs, the town subsidized the program by only $30 a week to keep it running smoothly.
• Needham: Students take full advantage of the hot lunch program, with 597,349 meals and 970,517 pints of milk served last year.
• Westwood: Going a step beyond lunch, Westwood introduced a student-council-backed breakfast program served between 7:00 and 7:30 a.m. Out of 2,900 students, over 2,000 purchase the 30-cent hot noon meal. Cafeteria supervisor Miss Margueritte Knight reports favorites ranging from pizza to submarine sandwiches, with 32,000 hot lunches and 53,000 bottles of milk sold last month alone.
• Medfield: Supervisor Mrs. Irene Todd notes growing participation, with more than 1,350 of the town’s 2,185 students buying lunch daily, helping children’s nutrition and assisting parents pressed for time in the mornings.
• Wellesley: Students enjoy a choice between a complete hot meal for 30 cents or a soup, salad, and sandwich combination for 35 cents, with nearly 2,500 daily sales. Over 150 students also buy a la carte breakfasts featuring cereal, juice, milk, hot chocolate, doughnuts, or Danish rolls.
• Dedham: Supt. James Dunne reported a sharp drop in lunch sales due to double sessions at Dedham High School, which forced high schoolers to stay late and junior high afternoon students to arrive early—slashing daily sales from 1,200–1,300 down to roughly 450–500 on a good day.

Archival Note: This article has been dynamically reconstructed from the original public record print archives of the Patriot Ledger