Mr. Schwegmann said his committee estimated that replacing Styrofoam would add "a penny or two" to the cost of cafeteria meals.

"This shows that companies would benefit from encouraging richer social connections," Professor Fidel said, and suggested that companies provide free cafeteria meals once a week.

The menu of foods served in city schools is being revamped to eliminate junk food in vending machines and create more nutritious cafeteria meals.

To supplement cafeteria meals, Sarah's roommate receives weekly packages of home-baked cookies, individually wrapped, from her mom.

He was given one free cafeteria meal a day and someone would occasionally bring him food.

Students are responsible for the cost of cafeteria meals and for personal, incidental expenses.

These include an unsatisfying part-time job and the introduction of fast-food companies to her school's "closed-lunch" program, where every child is served a cafeteria meal, rather than brown-bagging it.

I didn't open my eyes until I was sure my stomach wasn't going to reject my cafeteria meal.

Here, nationwide food shortages, combined with old-fashioned institutional cooking, made the cafeteria meals a dreadful prospect.

A similarly dismal story could be told regarding federal efforts involving special education, vocational education, racial desegregation and subsidies for students' cafeteria meals.