National School Lunch Week: "What's Cooking, Uncle Sam?"

Lunch hour at the Raphael Weill Public School, San Francisco, California, 1942

Ed. Note: In honor of National School Lunch Week,  the National Archives new exhibit, "What's Cooking, Uncle Sam?" explores the many ways that government has affected the American diet. It’s on display at the National Archives in Washington, DC, through January 3, 2012.

This morning my six-year-old son asked me if he could bring lunch tomorrow because it’s pizza day at school. He’s the first child I’ve ever met who doesn’t like pizza. I wonder how he might feel about some of the recipes for school lunch on display in the National Archives’ “What’s Cooking, Uncle Sam?” exhibit—like liver loaf and soy vegetable chowder.

These recipes were published by the Bureau of Home Economics in 1946, the year the National School Lunch Act was passed.Federal involvement in school lunch began as an effort to stabilize the price of farm commodities during the Great Depression. The U.S. Department of Agriculture purchased surplus foods and donated them to schools. When it became a national program, the intent was still to serve agriculture, but also to strengthen children through good nutrition, and thereby, strengthen the nation. The nutritional value of liver loaf and other recipes was carefully calculated.

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Source: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/10/14/national-school-lunch-week-whats-cooking-uncle-sam

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