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is the Lead Corporate Sponsor of the Lunch Hour NYC exhibition and related programming.Additional support for this exhibition has been generously provided by the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers.
Support for The New York Public Library’s Exhibitions Program has been provided by Celeste Bartos, Sue and Edgar Wachenheim III, Mahnaz Ispahani Bartos and Adam Bartos Exhibitions Fund, and Jonathan Altman.
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Sloppy Joes and cartons of apple juice. School lunch didn’t get much better than that.
But students didn’t always get to enjoy such fine delicacies, plunked on their trays by cafeteria employees. New York’s school lunch program began in 1908 when reformers realized that poor schoolchildren were too underfed and did not have the energy necessary to grasp concepts and facts. So The New York School Lunch Committee, an independent charity headed by the activist Mabel Kittredge, introduced the city’s first school lunch at P.S. 51, an elementary school on West 44th Street. The first lunches included thick slices of bread, a warm soup or other entree, and a small dessert of sweet potato, sweet crackers, or cake. Sounds pretty delicious to me!
Over the course of the next century, school lunch became a federal program, and its nutritional value remains a hot topic to this day.
Learn more about the history of charity and food in New York.
What was your favorite school lunch growing up?
Photo and text submitted by Marcia Bricker Halperin
Don’t get me wrong - the Lunch Trucks serve great food, but I long for the days when you could find a midtown Cafeteria to while away the hours. A map in the exhibit of the Bryant Park area shows no less than 2 huge cafeterias, the Governor and the 42nd Street Cafeteria that stretched through a city block.
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Marcia’s right; cafeterias used to be hugely popular. Their rise began in 1898 when the Childs brothers opened Childs’ Lunch Room, New York’s first self-service restaurant outfitted with trays and a tray line. The concept took root in cities all over the country, and by 1920, nearly a thousand cafeterias made New York their home. But after World War II, it became too expensive to keep operations cheap and spotless, and many cafeteria frequenters turned to upscale locations like Schrafft’s and Chock Full o’ Nuts.
Learn more at our online exhibition. And just for fun, check out this iPhone case with a Childs’ Lunch Room menu printed on it!
In the days of soda fountains and handmade suits, not everyone desired a quick, get-in-get-out lunch. Schraftt’s provided an escape from the bustle of the city with its comfortable dining rooms and light meals.
In the 1910s, the Massachusetts-based candy and chocolate company expanded to New York with a new restaurant division. Their chain steadily grew, as women flocked to an environment they felt safe in. From the beginning, female customers always outnumbered males.
In the 1960s, 50 locations existed around the city, but it wasn’t meant to last. Although the 70s saw Schrafft’s struggle and failure to adjust to a new culture, we can still celebrate its mission to bring people together in a quiet haven of tomato bouillon and ice cream cake.
Read more at The New York Times on Schrafft’s history and restaurant design.
Photo:
Manhattan: 5th Avenue - 36th Street. Photo. The New York Public Library, Irma and Paul Milstein Division of United States History, Local History and Genealogy, Photographic views of New York City, 1870’s-1970’s / Manhattan. Digital ID 708594f.
Schrafft’s. Menu, 1955. The New York Public Library, Rare Books Division, Miss Frank E. Buttolph American Menu Collection. Call number 1955-0094_wotm.
