Lunch lady, in Canada and the United States, is a term for a staff member or contractor, often a woman, who cooks or serves food in a school cafeteria or canteen. The equivalent term in the United Kingdom is dinner lady. The role is also known as cafeteria lady, school caterer, lunchtime assistant, school meal supervisor, midday supervisor or kitchen assistant. Lunch ladies may also patrol the school playground during lunch breaks to help maintain order.
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Dinner ladies in the United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom, dinner ladies are often also parents, and "can provide a useful bridge of interaction with the community". They are "part of the authority-structure of the school". With training, they can help to address bullying in schools. They have been described as having "a significant role in the educational system". In some schools, school lunch staff live locally and are "part of [children's] lives both inside and outside of school". They sometimes staff breakfast clubs.
The dinner lady Nora Sands, who worked at Kidbrooke School in London, was an important part of the television series Jamie's School Dinners presented by Jamie Oliver. Sands later published Nora's Dinners (2006). Another dinner lady, Jeanette Orrey, worked with Oliver on his campaign for better school meals, and received an MBE for services to food in schools. She has spoken about the way in which dinner ladies became deskilled in the 1990s. Oliver opened a training school for dinner ladies in 2005.
School meal staff in North Yorkshire took legal action in 1987 under equal pay legislation, because dinner ladies were paid less than men in comparable jobs. In Camden, dinner ladies campaigned to receive the London living wage.
In popular culture
Dinnerladies is a British TV sitcom broadcast on BBC1, although it was set in a fictional factory rather than a school.
Miss Beazley from the Archie Comics franchise is a lunch lady.
In The Muppet Show, Gladys serves as the cafeteria lady for the Muppet Theater's canteen. In Season Four, Gladys is replaced by Winny.
Lunchlady Doris is the Springfield Elementary School lunch lady on The Simpsons.
Adam Sandler on Saturday Night Live performed a song called "Lunch Lady Land" and accompanying skit with Chris Farley dressed up as a lunch lady. The song appeared on Sandler's album They're All Gonna Laugh at You!.
The school lunch lady plays a key role in the plot of "Earshot", an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Rosa Petitjean is a fictional lunch lady of Kadic Junior High School in the French animated series Code Lyoko.
Edna is the highly unhygienic lunch lady for Bullworth Academy in the video game Bully. She often coughs, sneezes and blows cigarette smoke on any food she prepares, believing it "adds flavor". She also is unconcerned about the opinions of health inspectors.
The band The Darkness has a song named "Dinner Lady Arms" on their album One Way Ticket to Hell... and Back.
In the Nickelodeon TV series Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide, Lunch Lady Rose (portrayed by Loni Love) is a psychic lunch lady who can see the future in the beans, peas, and corn.
Mrs. Sara MacGrady (later renamed Leah MacGrady in and after the episode "The Great MacGrady"), the lunch lady for Lakewood Elementary School in the TV show Arthur.