Public schools, private foods:Mexicanomemories of culture and conflict in American school cafeterias

In this article I present and explore the school cafeteria childhood memories of four Mexicano (Mexican-origin) adults as illustrations of the importance of the school cafeteria as a complex public eating space for ethnic minority students. For students from non-dominant groups, the school lunchroom is more than just a place to eat lunch, it is a place where assimilative food pressures and peer relationships collide, forcing children to negotiate a home-school cultural divide through food and eating choices. The stories and memories of the adults considered here reflect the various ways they as Mexicano children balanced the social and class dynamics of the school lunch program and the potentially disparate food norms and dietary lessons of the school institution, those of their school peers, and those they knew from their own homes and communities. In addition, their stories had nutritional implications as well—specifically how school food served as a daily “American food” contact point for them as children, and how the school lunch catalyzed changes in their childhood food habits and those of their families. Personal accounts like those presented here display the significance and complexity of the American school cafeteria as a problematic “public” eating space for Mexicano children and a need for nutritionists, educators, and food service professionals to consider this setting in discussions of multicultural schooling and dietary acculturation.