Ask Lemmy

This is a 1:1 copy repost of a thread from months ago. Will post original if I find it again.

EDIT: https://lemmy.world/post/44664547/22841691

it was deleted

when I was in school which is when a lot of movies showed stuff like this. Only kids with money bought from the cafeteria or if they qualified for a program. the middle level often brought lunch. actually so did wealthier types. in high school people could work jobs and have money and some spent some of it at the cafeteria. enough that it was pretty busy. I think movies have showed the kids who went in line sometimes sitting down with kids who are brown bagging in some movies.

(GenX) when I was in school, the cafeteria food was trash: square pizza and fries were the constant staples, then a small rotation of things like burgers or chicken nuggets. The “fruit” was canned “fruit cocktail” in heavy syrup.

To a kid, that shit’s awesome. To my mom, it was horrific. So she went through all the effort of packing a healthy lunch every day. Lots of kids didn’t have that luxury, as other comments have addressed.

Due to the divide, I got mocked for my nutritious meal (think of that one scene in The Breakfast Club). This often ended with me bartering for some of that trash food or purchasing cafeteria food with my own allowance and the lunch my mom made was often wasted. I’m so ashamed of that.

Why America specifically? The same reason you ate cafeteria food or any other person does - it's easy and typically alright food that doesn't cost much (if anything). A cheap, easy, and healthy meal should be self explanatory.

Why are you asking about America? It's such a weird thing to call out when your entire post explains the universality of school lunches.

So, I'm not sure I understand the question - you said your schools have canteen and kids use them.

What reasons do they have?

The cafeteria at our school is free for everyone.

In my region, and this will vary a lot depending on what state and school district you're in, the median income is below poverty level, so the school offers free breakfast and lunch to every student.

It makes no sense for me to spend time and money preparing lunches for the kids if there's a free hot meal waiting for them.

When/where I grew up, free lunches were available to some students, based on the household income, and my parents packed me a lunch because it was cheaper than paying the daily cost.

When I went through school, I did both at various points. Sometimes I'd buy lunch in the cafeteria. Sometimes I'd take a bag lunch.

The cafeteria can do hot food, which you can't bring. But a bag lunch lets you choose options that aren't served in the cafeteria.

I mean, honestly, same subsequent to education, at work. People might bring a lunch, or might eat commercially-prepared food. Not really a universal standard.

The general logic seems to be if the kids are required to be at school all day then the school is required to feed them.

Also more practically, the school meals are the best meals some of these kids get, depending on their home situation.

I don't feel like the food I got in the cafeteria as a kid was slop, but there were definitely some dishes that did better when cooked en masse than others, and some that were more or less appealing. Like, pizza, ravioli, burgers, chicken sandwiches or nuggets, they all tended to be pretty consistent and good. The spaghetti tended toward being kind of weak and mushy because I imagine it's tricky to get a proper al dente when you're cooking for hundreds of people. Likewise, the baked chicken wasn't anything to write home about.

Most of where they'd drop the ball was with texture or with things not being spiced as well as they could have been. But again, at scale I'm sure it's tricky.

As others have said, though, the US is nowhere near as homogeneous as you'd assume if you only watch our media. A lot of the complaints about school food being inedible are also significantly overblown because it's something to complain about and bond over.

My kids both go to a Kansas school. One is lactose intolerant, so we often pack his lunch - yogurts and cheeses figure fairly heavily into the meal options. My other kid usually grabs whatever's being served, which includes hot options along with things similar to what you listed.

They have a school-issued card that they scan whenever they get the school lunch, which is linked to an account we top up online. I believe that qualifying families get either reduced pricing or funds for the account. Our kids actually keep assuming everything is free, because they just go through and get to pick so much from this station, so much from that station, etc.

I think there’s some relationship to consuming overproduction of American farms decades ago, isn’t there?

Depends on the kid: I never did and mine didn't either. Mostly just because the school lunches were bad.

I send my kids in with a home lunch because I don't trust the school food. I can do that easily because I'm home all day, I imagine overworked parents don't have the time or the money, they rely on the school to feed their kids.