Your memories of school dinners in St Helens in the 1980s and 1990s

Packaged, processed and full of nostalgia – school dinners in the 1970s and 1980s!

Things have changed when it comes to eating at school.

This week is national school meals week – a whole week dedicated to the canteen food on offer to children at lunchtimes across the UK.

Gone are the days of turkey twizzlers and lumpy mash followed by sponge pudding and custard every day.

Sometimes the custard was pink and tasted of strawberry or it was green and tasted of mint!

Youngsters can now enjoy tasty and nutritious meals that are prepared fresh each day with mouth-watering options like chicken korma, spaghetti bolognaise and roast dinner on the menu.

READ MORE:

St Helens children get ready to celebrate national school meals week

The menus run on a three-week cycle and there is always freshly baked bread, seasonal vegetables and salad followed by fresh fruit and organic yogurt available.

They’re a real hit with hungry children taking a break from the classroom with youngsters in Early Years and Key Stage One entitled to free school meals every day.

But what were school dinners like in days gone by? What do you remember about midday meals when you were growing up?
We asked and you told us.

Turkey twizzlers and dinosaurs with smiley faces and spaghetti in tomato sauce (Image: Facebook) Here are some of the meals – good and bad - that you remember from your childhood:

Emma Jones Chocolate concrete

Christine Cunliffe I loved Friday for fish and mash and sponge and custard after

Nicola Davies Junior school - cheese pie and then the pink and green custard

Ged Collins Mash served with an ice cream scoop.

Mandy Jane Windlehurst 1975. Last year in junior school and going round each class for numbers for dinners with Diane Arnold. Taking it to the canteen and getting a piece off cake on the menu that day as a treat. Manchester tart, chocolate sponge cake with pink custard, jam sponge cake with custard

Andrea Jones Christmas Pudding with a hidden 5p piece

Jan Stout Chocolate cake with pink custard

Allan Hore Cheese Pie, Manchester Tart and Rice Pudding and skin

Carla Giza Dance Cheese flan

Sharon Eccleston Chocolate sponge and green custard

Helen Edwards Steak pie in primary school

Lindo Holloway Rainbow sponge with chocolate custard in primary school and chips, chicken soup, powdered barm in high school

Andy Atherton Loved them! Grange Park in the late 70s / early 80s were the absolute best. Chips, hotdog and curry sauce every day. Food was gorgeous

Hilary Keenan Cheese and onion pie

Kerry Leanne Old school cake and custard

Shaun Birch Chocolate sponge with mint custard

Neil Marsh Pink custard

Lisa Wilson Turkey twizlers

Elaine Twist Manchester tart

John Berry Hated the rice pudding with the big dollop of jam slopped in it

Wayne Harrison Had to be the roly roly pudding with custard. I hated the liver and onions as it was that dry it crumbled. Nearly put me off it for life till someone made me liver flash fried