SCHOOL LUNCHES: PROGRAM HAS BEEN AROUND FOR 50 YEARS

Cafeteria lunches aren't always popular, but when Bessie Mider fixed her vegetable-beef soup at Schoolfield, Va., every student ate lunch in the cafeteria.

John Seay has spent almost 50 years since then trying to find anyone who can duplicate Bessie's menus or her cooking. "It was great for a nickel," he said. "The soup was delicious, and I've never had anything like it again."

Another culinary delight were Bessie's oatmeal cookies. Each one was 6 inches in diameter. "You could get them either real crispy or gooey," he said, adding that each cookie cost about 2 cents. Today, most lunches cost about $1.

School lunches aren't the most popular around, but the national school-lunch program has fed 25 million students in 92,000 schools during the past 50 years. The program celebrated its Golden Anniversary Tuesday.

As the years passed, school menus changed. In 1958, Cape Girardeau schools served Vienna sausages, pan-browned potatoes, peas, pie and milk. Another meal was tuna-fish sandwich, baked Lima beans, turnip greens, apple cobbler, and a half-pint of milk.

But those menus wouldn't create any rush to the cafeteria today. Now the move is to more low-fat choices, said Lisa Elfrink, food services director for the Cape Girardeau public schools.

"There won't be much change," Elfrink said, explaining that the district already has tried to meet the new, healthier standards.

Every menu is planned to include an item from each of the five food groups -- meats, dairy, breads and grains, fruit, and vegetables. "We do throw in an occasional fat, but now it will be a lot less often."

The favorites are still pizza, cheeseburgers and French fries. The most unpopular foods during the past year were Beefaroni and meatloaf.

The menu favorites usually follow a cycle, Elfrink said. "You see the same stuff repeated because it's what they like. When you know what they like, it's easier to plan."

The schools don't plan cyclic menus but depend on student tastes to determine what is served.

Jean Seay remembers that students likes and dislikes kept The Dump open for business near her school in Clayton.

"The food was excellent," she said of the restaurant. "The chili was the best. It was always 50 cents a bowl."

Usually Seay and her friends would sneak off campus once a week to dine at The Dump. "We named the place; it wasn't called that," she said. But years later the nickname stuck and became official, Seay said.

Competing with off-campus restaurants is still a problem for school cafeterias, Elfrink said. "It's not cool to eat at school when you're in high school."

Despite the competition, Cape Girardeau's school cafeterias feed about 2,300 students daily, which equals about 65 percent of the student enrollment.

When Hazel Kester's mother started a hot-lunch program at a country school north of Cape Girardeau, she didn't have any trouble feeding the students -- she just increased the recipes she had used at home.

"She furnished the food so I'm sure it was something we grew," Kester said. But she doesn't remember many of the menus.

"When it was first started, Mom cooked and it wasn't difficult to increase what she served at home," Elfrink said, adding that now cooks need some increased training and computer skills to feed the 2,300 little mouths.

REMEMBER WHEN?

School lunch menus have changed over the years

1958

Monday -- One-half pint milk, beef burger on bun with pickle, buttered corn, fresh fruit salad cup.

Tuesday -- One-half pint milk, ham sandwich with lettuce and mayonnaise, cabbage carrot salad, buttered potatoes, ice cream bar.

Wednesday -- One-half pint milk, Tuna fish sandwich, baked Lima beans, turnip greens, apple cobbler.

Thursday -- One-half pint milk, chili with crackers, pimento cheese sandwich, celery and carrot sticks, fruit Jell-o with whipped cream.

Friday -- One-half pint milk, fried catfish and tartar sauce, seasoned spinach, corn bread and butter, apple sauce.

1996

Monday -- Chicken strips, French fried, carrots, fruit, bread, milk.

Tuesday -- Quiche and cheese, oven brown potatoes, green beans, fruit, bread and milk.

Wednesday -- Ham, baked potato and sour cream, corn, fruit and doughnut, bread and milk.

Thursday -- Peanut butter sandwich, macaroni and cheese, California blend vegetables, fruit, and milk.

Friday -- Cheese pizza, whole kernel corn, carrot sticks, apple crisp, milk.