I went to a very small elementary school. When lunch was ready, someone from the kitchen would come to the classroom and tell the kids to come line up to get our trays, and we would eat in silence at our desks.

When I was in the third grade, my dad's union went on strike. I don't remember how long the strike was, but it was long enough that we ended up relying on members of our church to have us over for dinner and bring us meals so we wouldn't go hungry. During this time, the lunch lady came to our room to announce lunch and said "Not the Smith kids. Your parents still owe from last week". She was the type of person who probably got some kind of sick pleasure from that.

It was so confusing and embarrassing to have to sit alone at my desk while all my classmates got their food. I remember not wanting to take the food the other kids offered to share with me, but I was hungry so I took it. One boy openly mocked me for being too poor to afford lunch.

This was a church school.