In January 1934, Ridgeway school cafeteria offered something new on the menu: hot school lunches. Lunch was available at the school, but now a hot dish was available thanks to the Civil Works Administration (CWA) which later became the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The CWA paid for the labor, but the school had to provide the food and supplies. The school asked the community for donations of vegetables, milk, beef and money. Students were charged one cent and were asked to bring their own soup bowl, plate, fork and spoon.
The program was discontinued in May 1936 and the committee studied the outcome, looking at students’ weights, the number of meals served and grade improvement. The school again started serving hot lunches in November, 1937 after again asking for donations of home canned produce to help stretch the food budget. The price went up to five cents, but a student could barter for lunches by bringing food to be used in the program. The cooks asked for potatoes, eggs, whole milk, carrots, beans, corn, onions, meat ,and tomatoes or tomato juice. The value of the food would be determine by the cooks and the student would receive a ticket to be used to buy lunch. Menu options were similar to today’s fare: soups, meat loaf, sandwiches, chili and hamburgers were the menu for one week in 1937. The program was very popular with 94 students choosing the hot lunch the first Friday of the program and over 400 lunches were served that week. The numbers continued to go up and everyone was happy with the program.. In 1937, there were 338 students enrolled in the Ridgeway school on the first day and more expected to enroll later.
