Ring the Bell, It’s Lunchtime! An Opening Celebration

From liver loaf to chicken nuggets, frozen peas to instant mashed potatoes, take a journey through the history of carbohydrates, vitamins, calories, and the food pyramid. You’re tasting science with every bite!

Join the Science History Institute as we celebrate the opening of our newest exhibition, Lunchtime: The History of Science on the School Food Tray. Drawing from nearly 250 years of rare scientific instruments, posters, pamphlets, photographs, and period editions of books popularizing new ideas about a “proper” diet, Lunchtime delves into the surprising backstory behind one of the most familiar rites of passage—eating a school lunch.

Visitors will learn about the complex story of food science and the difficulty of feeding schoolchildren nationwide, which included innovations like dehydrated and frozen foods, preservatives, and cellophane.

Plus, learn about the unique and important Philadelphia connection in jumpstarting a national conversation around children’s access to food in the early 1900s.

Highlights from the evening include:

• A school lunch-inspired tasting
• Sampling of Rebel Ventures’ Rebel Crumble, a youth-created healthy cake served in schools and stores throughout Philadelphia 
• A behind-the-scenes look at the exhibition with curator Jesse Smith 
• Quizzo! See how the lunch trays stack up with a special school lunch-themed quizzo round; prizes include restaurant gift certificates and other food-themed awards 
• A memory wall inviting you to share your favorite school lunch memories, or help us envision lunches of the future 

This event is FREE, but registration is required.  

Major support for Lunchtime has been provided by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, with additional support from the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Univar Solutions, Quaker Houghton, and Fred and Elizabeth Weber.

Featured image: Penny table in Philadelphia schools, from School Feeding: Its History and Practice at Home and Abroad, 1913.