Monday, October 29, 2007

School lunch monitors

Today I asked one of my students if I could take his picture and tell you about the custom of "Lunch Monitor" in Japan.

In most elementary schools in Japan, lunch is prepared in the school kitchens and all students are required to eat the school lunch. No bag lunches are allowed which is handy for the mothers and gives the kids a chance to acquire a taste for different dishes. A monthly menu is handed out just so mothers won't give their family the same evening meal I suppose. I always found the menus handy for planning my own meals though some of the combinations were a bit odd. Grilled fish and sweet buns for instance. Even though the schools have kitchens, they don't have a lunch room which means that each class eats lunch in their own classroom. According Yasuaki, there are 8 lunch monitors for each class (average 30 kids to a class) and each child takes a one week turn.

At lunch time, the monitors suit up in their white coats, hats and masks and head for the kitchens where pots are placed on carts along with dishes, bowls, trays, chopsticks and cartons of milk. The children roll the cart back to their classroom and then the rest of the class lines up in front of the cart. Each child gets a tray with the dishes etc.on it and then the lunch monitors divvy up the day's menu. This takes some skill. Yasuaki-kun said that you have to be careful that the people at the beginning of the line aren't given too much so that the people at the end of the line get gypped. Sometimes they have to recall some of the people who have been served too much which means no one is allowed to eat until all are equally served and seated. Then everyone says "Itadakimasu!" (roughly translated as "We gratefully partake") and finally everyone can eat.

When my kids were in school I remember that there was a rule that you could leave one thing on your plate (but only one) if you didn't like it. This was a real headache for Leiya who was a picky eater. Leave the vegetables, the fish or the salad today? Nowadays, Yasuaki-kun said that most teachers won't let you leave anything or at the very most you must divide the portion and not touch part of it so that you can give it to someone who likes it and you must eat your small portion. I asked some of the neighbor boys what their favorite school lunch was and unanimously the answer was "Curry Rice!" When I asked what they liked least there were a variety of answers, "Seaweed salad!" "Cheese!" "Sweet Bean Jelly!" You can see that school lunch is somewhat different from American school lunches!

After lunch is finished all the dishes and trays are returned to the cart and the monitors take it back to the kitchen. The kids all get out their toothbrushes then and give their teeth a quick brush before going about their academic day. On Fridays the lunch monitors take their white jackets and hats home in a little bag and the mothers wash them over the weekend and they are brought back and passed to the next monitor on Monday morning. A very efficient system don't you think?

At the pre-school where I teach lunches are also made for the children but each lunch is pre-served on dishes and brought to the classroom by cart. On the day I took this picture they were having a slice of salmon, broccoli and mayonnaise, carrot and burdock root, rice, miso soup and a canned pear slice. Yum!

9 comments:

Tracey in CT said...

Thank you for sharing this with us, Tanya! I always thought school children in Japan carried lunch to school in a bento box?
Very interesting...

meggie said...

This such an interesting post Tanya. I will tell my friends about it, & their daughter can see what she might get!

It sounds yummy to me too!!

Quilt Pixie said...

the organization and discipline this daily lunch takes is amazing! I have enough problems getting gym clothes clean and back to school...

Lazy Gal Tonya said...

very different to the cafeteria lunches I had in school. I can't imagine an american school lunch with salmon - I bet none of the kids would eat it. not to mention it's so expensive.

Elaine Adair said...

Lots to comment about, but ... that quilt (last photo) with the letters and houses, etc., is simply amazing! LOVE it - I just gotta do one !!! You did a beautiful job!

Shelina said...

I'm glad you were able to bake your cookies at Marlene's house - quick work and good company too. You'll know who to call the next time you want to bake some cookies!

I really enjoyed your lunch discussion. I just love how you find so many things to teach us about. I thought I should do that about Indian stuff but just can't think of what to talk about.

Jane Weston said...

Wow that pre-school lunch looks very fancy! Your system of a family served meal is generally same as in our school...however there are no white coats or masks involved...though there probably should be!!

andsewitis Holly said...

Being a "lunch lady" myself, I found this post extremely interesting. I should share it with the gals at work :) Those dishes are so pretty. It would be way too expensive to serve salmon for our lunches but I can see how in Japan, fish being a staple, it isn't too expensive. Is the price of meals included in the tuition or do the kids have to pay every so often since they are not allowed to bring sack lunches?

Enjoyed reading about your day with Marlene. And your quilt is looking awesome!

Helen said...

What a fascinating post. I wonder why the schools have kitchens but not dining rooms for the school lunches? The pre-school lunch looks much yummier than the marmite sandwiches we took to school when I was a kid.