Meat pies were 90 cents, a salad roll $1.10, a vanilla slice a treat at 70 cents and a small flavoured milk only 60 cents. Lunch done.

While most of the staples are still available - albeit at a much different price (pies are $3.50, salad rolls $5, cakes at $3.50 and milk at $2.50) - much has changed on the menu at school canteens over the years.

Now students are more likely to order sushi, teriyaki chicken with noodles, pesto pasta, falafel wraps with salad and hummus, Caesar salads, or rice paper rolls filled with fresh prawns.

Pam Knight, the current canteen manager at St Edmund's, has been in the lunch game for more than 20 years, 11 of those at St Edmund's.

"When I first came here the boys would always have a pie in a bun, a sausage roll in a bun, it was an Eddies' tradition," Knight says.

"We used to order about four dozen hotdog buns a week, now I'd get eight in a week. Eight buns, not eight dozen and that's to cover hotdogs as well."

She says the boys now order such things as sushi, and in summer the fresh sandwiches do well. In the cooler months "the burgers and the curries walk out the door".

Some things stay the same, she says, white, not wholemeal, is the bread of choice. They're still a little partial to a flavoured milk and the occasional lolly. One big change she's noticed is the boys using food delivery services such as Uber Eats to order their lunch.

"And one day I remember seeing the Domino's pizza delivery car out front." The hide of them.

Knight is conscious of the fact that she helps feed growing boys and that there should be a balance in the canteen.

She restricts spending on lollies to $1 but she says the majority of the boys regulate things themselves.

At Taylor Primary School in Kambah canteen manager Mel Donnell sees the canteen as much more than a place where the students can get something at recess or lunch.

The space is welcoming and colourful. Out the front are buckets for recycling and reusing. If they order a healthy treat they get rewarded with a small trinket from the lucky dip box.

"The canteen is about more than food," Donnell says. "Food is life, it's about sitting around eating with people, talking about things, it's about some fun."

Donnell is a canteen powerhouse. Not only does she manage Taylor primary, but also the kitchen at the Communities@work Taylor Child Care and Education Centre next door and Bonython Primary School.

A mother herself, with school-aged children, she's employing mothers in her canteens (they're not volunteers for the best part), helping them return to work once their children are in school.

"It can be so hard for mothers to find work in school hours, that's flexible and family friendly," she says.

"I've seen some of the women get diplomas and do really well. That's a big part of it for me as well."

The students at Taylor Primary love the canteen food, fruit salad served in an orange half, icy poles, "frushi", which is fruit served as sushi.

Kaela Marriott, 12, says she only uses the canteen on a Friday (good to see parents are still running out of bread late in the week).

"If I do I'll get a sandwich or maybe a sausage roll, but my favourite thing is the icy poles," she says.