Turkey twizzlers and mint custard – your memories of school dinners

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

Things have changed when it comes to eating lunch – or is it dinner? – 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.

Beef pie, creamy mashed potato and fresh vegetables is one of the options on some school dinner menus across Warrington (Image: Edsential)

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 – in your hundreds!

Here are some of the meals – good and bad - that you remember from your childhood:

• Howard Trust: I loved school dinners and went back for seconds almost every day. Sometimes I didn’t need to after eating all the food the other kids didn’t want!
• Michelle Ireland: The puddings as they were always served with custard. I would go back for second helpings and ask for the layer of skin off the top of the custard.
• Davina Wills: The chicken pie, mashed potatoes, peas and gravy.
• Val Marshall: I make it all to this day – cheese pie, coconut cake, cornflake tart, Manchester tart.
• Katrina Hooton: Pink custard.
• Kevin Jarvis: Chocolate concrete and pink custard.
• Tracy Whitty-Haddock: Semolina pudding.
• Paul Seddon: Chocolate cake and mint custard.
• Kelly Frances Unsworth: Cornflake cake with jam and custard.
• Lesley Fewtrell: Manchester tart.
• Claire Bradshaw: Canteen cheese pie.
• Chris J Dundon: Chicken drummers with chips and gravy.
• Dave Baines: Putting the sprouts in my blazer pocket so I could back for seconds with a clean plate.
• Louise Roscoe: Cornflake cake and custard, and mash served with an ice cream scoop.
• Mashworth Services: Rushing to get to the front of the queue so you could get some of the custard skin from the gigantic bowl of custard.
• Benita Lee: Vegetables. Not being a meat eater, I would swap anyone my meat for their cabbage – I loved it.
• Emma Heyes: School cake, chocolate and vanilla sponge.
• Julie Baker: A square of rock hard chocolate cake with pink custard – delicious!
• Joanne Robinson Manning: Chocolate sponge and mint custard. Also the steak pie, chips and gravy with loads of vinegar.
• The Abbey: Arctic roll.
• Becky Carmichael: Pasta, turkey twizzlers, chocolate crunch, sausage roll, chips and gravy. Not a vegetable in sight!
• John Ford: Semolina. Nobody on my table liked it so I got the lot.
• Christopher Holden: Turkey twisters.
• Alan Parlane: Chocolate brownie and yogurt. The brownie was that hard it bent your spoon.
• Chris Cumpstey: Liver and chips with onion gravy.
• Andrew Hadikin: Chicken curry with raisins and chicken pie.
• Linda Hemming: Chocolate concrete with pink custard.
• Jaime Glenn: The chicken pie, and the Manchester tart with coconut shavings on top.
• John Harrison: Yogurt and shortbread biscuit.
• Ian Emery: Corned beef pie.
• Debbie Bowden: School hotpot and rice puddings washed down with a milky coffee in a red plastic cup.
• Ruth Kenton: Cheese pie, chocolate pudding with strawberry blancmange.
• Heather Gray: The mash with turkey twizzlers was spot on.
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