So, I know I’ve blogged before about school lunches – I think two years ago when I first visited Owen’s first grade lunch.  We are pretty used to what our kids eat and the process in which school lunch happens now.  But after being in the US last month and talking with a couple of friends about our children’s schools, I thought it was time a blog revisit.

Yesterday we had Open School at our kids’ elem. school.  Parents could visit any classroom in a three or four hour period.  I knew that Annie was on lunch duty, so I made sure that I was there for that time.

One-third of Annie’s class has lunch duty every day for a week, and then they switch.  On her week, Annie needs to take a mask in her little lunch bag (which includes a cloth mat and chopsticks).  When she is done her week, she brings home the lunch uniform for me to wash and iron and send back on Monday to the next child who’s duty begins that day.  Below is one of Annie’s friends – he swims a bit in his uniform since they are one-size fits all:

It is pretty cool to watch these ten kids in action as they go pick up, set up, serve, and clean up lunch.  Each class serves the lunch outside of the classroom, and once it has been served everyone eats together at their desk (the teacher too!).  All the food gets served up, carried to the desktops and placed on top of the lunch mat, and then if there is any extra food the kids who want it do “paper, scissors, rock” to see who wins it.  (Aren’t they soo cute?)

What was interesting in Annie’s class was that as soon as the food was served, and everyone was seated, there was suddenly a mad scramble among about eight kids to rush back and put back a bit of their vegetables.  I guess Annie’s teacher is a little more lenient than most.

And I have to say – it really was a good day for me to be there with a camera.  Here is the main protein in their lunch (dried whole female fish with eggs in the belly – mmm! mmm!0).

Here is the whole lunch:  some kind of vegetable salad, a kind of soup/stew, rice, and milk.  Milk is every day.

Annie this week is in charge of giving out milk.

Annie caught my eye when she was seated at her desk.  She pointed to the fish and rolled her eyes.  We both giggled.  She’s still getting used to first grade school lunch, but doing a pretty good job of it.

As I stood in the back and talked with a couple of moms, they asked if school lunches in the U.S. are the same.  Wow.  I’m not sure I can think of anything that IS the same.  Oh – do they still serve milk?