Gee,I started school in The Great Depression and we had to go home for lunch.
There was no complaining.
My mother had been widowed yet she still fed us.
They had the silly idea that parents were responsible for feeding the children.
.
My late father’s “lunch” was a piece of cornbread with a dollop of lard. But he usually was hired out to help support a large family. When we watched “The Waltons” he’d say “those were the rich people.”
When I was a grad school kid in the Fifties, my public school in Independence Ohio had a big kitchen staffed by older ladies. Lunch was 35 cents, and it was always good! Transferred to private school in 9th grade and lived in the dorm. Full time food staff. Always good except for the mystery meat.