Il Pomodoro di vetro

Artist: Anthony Adamsky
Title: Il Pomodoro di vetro
Medium: Glass

Memory Square Park was home to several schools throughout Louisville’s history. The original Louisville Grade School was located on the south east corner of the park and the brick school house (today’s Center for the Arts) was built as an overflow for first and second graders. The St. Louis Catholic School on the northern end soon added more students to the block. People often think of mining towns as populated by single men, but Louisville was always a place where immigrant families came to start new lives. Louisville was founded in 1878 and the grade school was built in 1881 – a clear sign that children and education were always central to Louisville’s character.

So that begs the question, what kept these schoolkids fed?

School lunches became common thanks to social reformers of the mid-1800s. Issues like children’s welfare became paramount to women throughout the country generating many conversations around access to school lunches. As hot lunch became popular, more women joined the work force to help behind the lunch counter. At the same time, women at home used newspaper columns in the Louisville Times, such as “Household Memos” by Lynn Chambers, to find new recipes for their children’s lunch boxes.  However, for decades to come, community members across the country, and even right here in Louisville, argued over which was better…hot or cold lunches.

By the 1940s, preplanned school lunch menus were published in the Louisville Times to give students a peek at the options to enjoy during the week. Lunches ranged from Spanish rice and meat sauce, lasagna and veggies, to tamale pies. In September of 1961, Louisville High School implemented a new hot lunch program, with Principal Steve Shuster sharing with the Louisville Times that 70 to 80 students were utilizing the hot lunch program per day. For 35 cents per lunch, Louisville teens decided hot lunch was the new, trendy way to enjoy the second meal of the day. Simultaneously, larger cities began offering free lunch programs to ensure school children were guaranteed at least one meal a day.

However, resistance to hot lunches also persisted. Columns in the Louisville Times written by nutritionists advocated that cold lunches could be nutritional and fun, too, offering advice on making the perfect lunch for their child, right in the comfort of their own home.

What about you? Do you prefer hot or cold lunch?