1970s Adelaide school canteen menus you have to see
Pies were 16c. Double-cut rolls just 2c extra. Then, a sudden mystery price jump. Take a look at these Adelaide school canteen menus from the 70s and weep at how cheap it was.
SA News
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Three Adelaide school canteen menus from the 1970s show the jawdroppingly cheap prices back then — but also the striking price rise in just a few years.
Typed out by harried canteen lunch ladies in the mid 1970s and saved in desks and boxes until now, they were sent into Advertiser.com.au after we shared this story on a 1974 NSW school canteen menu.
If you peer closely no doubt the first thing you’ll notice is the earliest one — from Surrey Downs Primary in 1973 — didn’t even offer double-cut rolls, which has to be some sort of sacrilege. The poor underprivileged children of Surrey Downs in the early ’70s.
The prices are pretty astonishing. Pies for just 16c, and sauce a mere 1c extra. You probably still burnt your mouth on them. I ordered a pie once as a five-year-old, seared the roof of my mouth clean off, and refused to order one again for the entirety of primary school.
At the international-leaning Surrey Downs, you could also could order a half French stick. (I guess that’s what Fr.stick means. I’ll stand corrected by someone who actually knows.)
I’m curious to know what cinnamon dunkys were. I googled it, and found soaps, so that’s probably not it. I’ll hazarding a guess it was a cinnamon bun thing you dunked in tea, but what Surrey Downs primary school student is walking around with a cup of tea?
The kids just down the road Ridgehaven Primary in 1974 suffered a minor price rise, but also had a lot more to choose from. These guys had curried egg. And Strength bars!
Double-cut rolls finally make an entrance, for a mere two more cents. That is a bargain.
The bun options are extended too. Chocolate doughnuts. Pineapple doughnuts! Fancy doughnuts! Just 9 cents!
I recall getting many chocolate doughnuts when I was in primary school, but I was partly scarred by them. This is because when I Mum allowed me my first lunch order as a Reception in 1982, I was told by an tall, intimidating Year 2, who, for some inexplicable reason was in my class, that all receptions had to share their first lunch orders with their entire class.
Terrified of reprisal I went around and offered each of my classmats a bite of my pastie and chocolate doughnut and later burst into tears out of hunger when my mother picked me up at the end of school. The moral of this story is, never trust Year 2s.
Snips, one of the five food groups for a South Australian child in the 70s and 80s, are on offer at Ridgehaven for a mere 7c, but you had to order them fast. As soon as that clock hit 1.05pm, it was all over.
And flavoured milk’s now available. In Year 1 I was finally allowed to order a chocolate milk with my weekly lunch order, but couldn’t work out how to open it and spilt the milk all down my white T-shirt, which featured an old-fashioned car. My best friend at the time, Daniel Smith, would continue to relate this story even through high school.
The Ridgehaven principal, Mr Slee, had a bit to say about the benefits of a good lunch, too.
Flash forward to 1977 in Black Forest, and prices have risen substantially, much like the lunch Mr Slee expects his students to have.
Frankly, the layout of the menus have improved too.
Pies are about 10c more but take a look at rolls. Prices have virtually doubled. Sauce has tripled. Someone was getting rich.
Maybe it was to fund the new items. Suddenly, we have Toobs! Licorice sticks! Chedos! Chocolate frogs! Even Coke and Fanta! These kids aren’t getting any work done after lunch.
Note that there’s a 10c refund on that bottle. Unchanged then, since 1977.
What are you memories of lunch orders at school? Let us know in the comments and if you remember cinnamon dunkys, please enlighten me.