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.

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.