School Lunches — 1948 (Tuna and Cream Cheese Sandwiches)

<p class="has-drop-cap has-text-align-justify" value="<amp-fit-text layout="fixed-height" min-font-size="6" max-font-size="72" height="80">We have come to the time of year in the northwest when the bounties of summer are being harvested and preserved. My green beans and tomatoes have been canned, the peppers have been roasted and put in the freezer, the peaches and pears are in jars lining the pantry shelves and the local grain has been harvested. Just around the corner, the apples will be ready to pick and process into applesauce and pie filling, the onions and potatoes are ready to be dug, the pumpkins are turning orange and the county fair has come and gone. Our blissful daytime temperatures are in the 80s with our nighttime temps flirting with freezing and the children have gone back to school (although school in 2020 looks somewhat non-traditional).We have come to the time of year in the northwest when the bounties of summer are being harvested and preserved. My green beans and tomatoes have been canned, the peppers have been roasted and put in the freezer, the peaches and pears are in jars lining the pantry shelves and the local grain has been harvested. Just around the corner, the apples will be ready to pick and process into applesauce and pie filling, the onions and potatoes are ready to be dug, the pumpkins are turning orange and the county fair has come and gone. Our blissful daytime temperatures are in the 80s with our nighttime temps flirting with freezing and the children have gone back to school (although school in 2020 looks somewhat non-traditional).

<p class="has-text-align-justify" value="<amp-fit-text layout="fixed-height" min-font-size="6" max-font-size="72" height="80">Early in my elementary career, schools across America began experimenting with school lunch or hot lunch as we called it. Today school lunch is as American as apple pie, but up until then, generations of children brought their lunches from home. While reading from an old cookbook — <em>Watkins Cook Book</em> 1948, I discovered some advice, albeit dated, for packing a child's lunch box. Early in my elementary career, schools across America began experimenting with school lunch or hot lunch as we called it. Today school lunch is as American as apple pie, but up until then, generations of children brought their lunches from home. While reading from an old cookbook — Watkins Cook Book 1948, I discovered some advice, albeit dated, for packing a child’s lunch box.

The Lunch Box

Throughout most of the twentieth century, cookbooks were seen as a way of educating housewives on food safety, nutrition and technique. If the cookbook was sponsored by a food production company, one would also find nouveau recipes and methods for using their products. Watkins Cook Book 1948 is one of these cookbooks. Intertwined in the advice and advertising we can catch a glimpse of how lunches might have been prepared and what American school children might have been eating post WWII:

Sandwich Fillings

Watkins Cook Book 1948 offers the following suggestions for sandwich fillings. I wonder how popular or even practical some of these suggestions were back then, however, a #7 on wheat toast sounds pretty good.

A Compete School Lunch with Advertising

Extending the suggestions for sandwich filling, Watkins Cook Book 1948 lists ten ideas for complete school lunches (mixed with a little advertising). I wonder about the feasibility of these lunches as they seem quite labor intensive and unrealistic. However my mother-in-law packed her children’s lunches with sandwiches made from homemade bread well into the 70s…then she would go out and milk the cows (No kidding!) It also seems like a lot of food for a child.

Tuna and Cream Cheese Sandwiches

Most of the time when I took a cold lunch or sack lunch to school, it contained a tuna sandwich on store-bought white bread and that wasn’t bad. I actually liked them especially with potato chips placed under the top slice of bread just before eating. It makes me hungry just thinking about it. A number of years ago I purchased a cookbook that I often refer to — Cooking from Quilt Country 1989 by Marcia Adams — featuring Amish and Mennonite recipes. This book contains a recipe for a tuna salad with cream cheese, toasted pecans and lemon juice. I adapted the recipe and served these sandwiches at a women’s luncheon a few years ago. The ladies enjoyed them and many asked for a copy of the recipe. Thankfully the tuna fish sandwich is not obsolete, it has just had a makeover. (Well drained canned chicken can be substituted for the tuna as well). Enjoy!