Twitter Poll Results: How Much Did You Pay For School Lunch?

We visited the school our children will be going to when we move to California later this year. How much was lunch, I asked? $2.95 per day. Wow. I’m old. It was like 55 cents when I was a kid. And I can remember skipping lunches often in high school (I think I got $1 per day then) to scrape together some spending money.

I twittered my surprise at the rise in lunch cost and was impressed by the reaction. Everyone wanted to remark! OK, not everyone, but it was a strong response. So I asked people on Twitter to tell me what they paid when they were in school and when that was.

Below, just a fun round-up of what came back.

	matt_mcgowan @dannysullivan $15.34
	StephenPace @dannysullivan $1.50 for a pizza slice, fries, onion rings, and a coke – lunch of champions! This would probably be considered abuse today.
	IamJustinM @dannysullivan $1.50 1995
	TheOtherJeff @dannysullivan $1.95 back in 93-96, but it came with chocolate milk! a
	williamvicary @dannysullivan lol 55 cents! $2.95 would be quite cheap, when i was in school food was like $3.50 at least.
	zaknicola @dannysullivan It was a dollar for the school lunch back in 94
	amyalcin @dannysullivan about $1.35 for my school lunch in 01′. Did you hear about the new concern over school lunches?
	rishil @dannysullivan year was 1999…
	kentjlewis @dannysullivan last lunch I bought was junior year in high school. Burger, fries and a milk ran $1.10 (at Garfield High in Seattle 1990)
	calamier @dannysullivan My last year of school was 2003.
	JRBCS @dannysullivan 2004 $2.35 in 6th grade, I believe
	autohousewife @dannysullivan 1.25 a day in 1994
	feydakin @dannysullivan 1984 $0.85
	rishil @dannysullivan i remember paying 10 pence for chips and 15 pence for a bottle of pop!
	kid_disco @dannysullivan – Healthy sack lunch made by mom, for me… ’98
	calamier @dannysullivan There are actually some really good government programs for that sort of thing, I know some kids get it free…
	BlahGeeTsa @dannysullivan 85 cents
	calamier @dannysullivan I think our lunch was 2.99 but I come from a huge family, so we paid like .10 cents a day.
	KeriMorgret @dannysullivan I paid 90 cents in elementary school. I remember keeping the dime as change.
	CarrieHill @dannysullivan – i think we were $1.50 – i remember getting pissed at mom for giving me quarters all the time
	JenniferLaycock @dannysullivan $1.10 for my lunch from 92-95 in high school.
	JRBCS @dannysullivan It was 65 cents less just 5 years ago…shows you how strong the dollar is, eh?
	Skitzzo @dannysullivan, I think it was like $2.25 when I went… I guess that means I’m still young eh?
	numberneal @dannysullivan except on days that i wanted skip the chicken pot pie, and grab a slice in its stead.
	CarrieHill @dannysullivan – our highschool has a chef that makes salads and burgers to order – it’s cheaper for the kids to go to McD’s – WTF?
	numberneal @dannysullivan it was free, with my free lunch card.
	samiwasnt @dannysullivan look at it positively. With the USD worth what it is today, your 55 cents might actually have been more than todays rate
	zaknicola @dannysullivan it was a buck when I was going to school