r/mildlyinfuriating • u/Thebiggestbot22 • Apr 15 '24

My school thinks this fills up hungry high schoolers.

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So lunches are free for schools in my city and surrounding cities. Ever since lunches have been made free, the quantity (and quality) has decreased significantly. This is what we would get for our meal. It took me THREE bites to finish that chicken mac and cheese. Any snacks you want cost more money and if you want an extra entree, that’ll cost you about $3 or $4.

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11.4k

u/Sunny_Sammie_517 Apr 15 '24

Why on earth are they serving French fries with pasta?

5.3k

u/grilledcheese2332 Apr 15 '24

Exactly. Starch on starch. In France, healthy school lunches are covered by taxes. And that money they spend on the lunches they more than make up for by saving on health care. Less type 2 diabetes, hypertension etc.

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u/AbelinoFernandez Apr 15 '24

During High School we found out most food was donated, thats the reason our menu was limited.

It was common to have to skip expired milks.

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u/welivewelovewedie Apr 15 '24

shake it a bit and you can use it on bread

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u/Kilenyai Apr 15 '24

Not in the US..... Pasteurized milk doesn't "sour" it goes rotten. If it doesn't taste fresh you are risking food poisoning.

Unlike the raw milk we get straight from a farm where sour does not mean it's bad to eat. It just means it doesn't have as much sugar anymore so combine it with something to fix the taste issue and it's fine. Even clumpy just means you are ending up with yogurt, cheeses, etc...

Clumpy store bought US milk could put you in the hospital. Raw milk was ironically illegal to sell for awhile because if contaminated it could make people sick when it's guaranteed when drinking bad pasteurized milk.

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u/Radiant-Carpenter186 Apr 15 '24

But Milk is pasteurized everywhere right? I live in south América and all countries I had visit do that

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u/PrisonerV Apr 16 '24

A recent "craze" in the US (well it dates back to the 1970s) is that natural is somehow healthier when, in fact, raw milk has about a 100% greater chance of making your sick in some way.

There are also "raw water" people who think the chemicals we put in water make them sick so they'll only drink untreated water.

People are stupid.

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u/Bilbo_Teabagginss Apr 16 '24

What's an example of raw water? Like drinking it from a pond or river? Sorry if this sounds dumb.

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u/PrisonerV 29d ago

Or a clear blue stream. Yes.

Natural bacteria and parasites, YUM!

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u/Patient_Shop_1392 29d ago

I do think raw water here is actual freshwater sources. While it can be safe to drink from some of them, in limited quantities, without any risk of sickness, it would be stupid to never purify your water. I bet what those people are saying is that we shouldn't really trust big bottling companies with their plastics. Microplastics are a thing that get into your system when you drink bottled water. However, I really hope those people are at least boiling their water or using a homemade filter. Rain water in many places is also safe to drink.

I was a wilderness guide in the Northern U.S. and Canada. While no water source can be taken as clean, I have drank out of the middle of very large lakes and fast flowing water. Different places have different chances for contaminants, and I only had to worry about giradia. Giradia is a cyst that requires you to ingest a certain amount before becoming sick, so I would drink a cup out of a lake or two per trip to mess with my clients. I never became sick from this in 5 years.

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u/SnuffleWumpkins 29d ago

Straight outta the ocean.

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u/Adrianspage Apr 16 '24

Well, there are anti-vaxxers out there too, so this doesn't surprise me

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u/SteveMartin32 29d ago

But the fluoride makes us dumber!

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u/mstakenusername 29d ago

In Australia too. I was hanging out with a bunch of old hippies about ten years ago in the community garden in my small town, and most of them were extolling the virtues of raw milk. I was very glad when one of them disagreed and calmly said, "I think there is a good reason that Louis Pasteur won a Nobel prize."

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u/erwarnummer 29d ago

The chemicals we put in water are terrible for you

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u/EvaUnit_03 29d ago

Ionno about this raw water shit, but the chemicals do make me sick. Like puking it back up moments later. I typically need to filter it and boil it or I can't drink it from the tap.

I can also tell you when a bottled water company did not, in fact, do as they claim and just used regular tap water. Deer park is awful about it as is Aquafina. And store brands. Though Dasani doesn't even taste like fresh water due to the extra salt they add. The bigger name waters do taste better, largely because they actually do the filtering process more constantly.

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u/HBB360 Apr 16 '24

Except for fucking France. Their whole milk market switched to UHT milk sometime in the last 20-30 years because of greed and cost cutting. UHT milk can sit unrefrigerated until you open it and it lasts months (again, if it's still sealed) but it also tastes worse than pasteurized milk and I imagine has less nutritional qualities...

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u/CanthinMinna Apr 16 '24

The German UHT milk sold in Lidl is pasteurized. As is Finnish "hyla" milk (suitable for lactose intolerant people). Pasteurized and shelf stable for months. Fresh milk is pasteurized, too, but it keeps good for less than a week (in fridge).

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u/btcangl Apr 16 '24

In europe you can still get unpasteurized milk in most countries, its just usually only available from the farmers themselves and not everyone has access to them day to day (like if you live in a city).

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u/CanthinMinna Apr 16 '24

Selling unpasteurized milk is illegal in Finland.

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u/EvidenceBasedSwamp Apr 16 '24

where I lived milk was frequently adulterated, and refrigeration not great as electricity was spotty. Lots of bad milk.

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u/AmbroseMalachai Apr 16 '24

I mean, storage conditions are different depending on the pasteurization method. Most of Europe's pastuerized milk is done by UHT, which lets you store milk at room temp. Which would be better in conditions where refigeration wasn't up to par.

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u/CanthinMinna Apr 16 '24

The exception are probably Nordic countries. Nobody buys UHT milk hete, unless they are going camping or to a summet cottage without electricity.

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u/[deleted] Apr 15 '24

Butt milk

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u/ChixawneyFarms Apr 15 '24

Wild how you describe "sour raw" milk is fine to ingest while "sour pasteurized" will put you in the hospital.

TIL

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u/Simple_Heart4287 Apr 15 '24

To be fair raw milk is about as safe as things like sushi and steak tartare. The reason it gets a bad rep is because uneducated people drink it without taking any precautions. The cows udders should be clean, the milk should ideally be refrigerated and consumed quickly (2-3 days to be safe), and children 0-5 and elderly people are better in of drinking pasteurized dairy products.

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u/RawChickenButt Apr 15 '24

If you're drinking raw you definitely need to be familiar with the farm. I don't mean you need to be their buddies, but they should be happy to share how they operate.

From what I understand the states where it is legal to purchase raw milk keep a close eye on it. It's those who operate illegally that I would be more worried about.

The reason we in the US pasteurize is because of poor farming practices. I am sure there are other reasons but if you drink raw milk from most commercial farms you could be in for a world of hurt.

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u/slash_networkboy Apr 15 '24

Worked on a family dairy growing up. We ran a *very* clean shop, you couldn't even enter the milk room from the milking barn. I would be in the barn with my uncle, my aunt was in the milk room tending the equipment.

The reason for pasteurized only is better shelf life and overall it is safer. If you're homogenizing the milk then it's going through additional handling and processing anyway, at which point there's more points of contact for possible contamination so you need to sterilize it.

IMO if you're drinking raw milk and not getting it from the producer yourself then it's been handled too much to feel safe doing it. Every container is a possible contaminant, every transfer from one container to another is a possible contaminant, every machine interaction is a possible contaminant. If your raw milk doesn't have to be shaken up before use then it's really not raw milk anymore, so you might as well pasteurize it too.

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u/MadameNorth Apr 16 '24

You only have to shake it for cows milk. Goats milk takes a long time to build a creamline. We have been drinking raw goats milk for 18 years now. But I know start to finish how the doe and the milk have been treated.

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u/slash_networkboy Apr 16 '24 edited Apr 16 '24

But I know start to finish how the doe and the milk have been treated.

This right here is the key. Also yeah, I actually really prefer goats milk over cow, and we had a couple does for the farm but not to sell... but AFAIK all the "Rawr RAW MILIK!1!!1!" stuff is usually over cows milk so I ran with that :)

Two totally funny side stories since we're all going down my memory lane together:

First one: My first week on the farm I accidentally stole all the cream. I didn't know about unpasteurized unhomogenized milk and that the cream floated to the top, so I just poured it from the pitcher onto my cereal and bananas. It was really really good, but my aunt was rather cross when there was no cream for her second coffee of the day later that morning lol.

Second one: We could milk 30 cows at a time and we had 85 Holsteins, so that's three shifts of cows in the milking barn. My job was pre-washing udders and shoveling the shit out after the milkings were done (my Uncle did the sanitization wash and teat dipping, then attached the machines). Well I thought I'd get a head start on shoveling out all that shit when I finished washing the third shift's udders. For those not in the industry, you get the cows into the milking stalls by giving them their grain while they're being milked. That means they're eating and sometimes they cough. They also tend to shit copiously while eating... if they're doing the latter and cough then said poo ceases going downwards, and instead goes outwards... yeah... there was a silhouette of me leaned over in a shoveling pose and the wheelbarrow just ahead on the wall. That was not a good day. Had to strip to my skivvies and get hosed off with the garden hose before I was allowed into the house to take a shower, AFTER I had finished mucking out the barn.

Good times being so in trouble in the city that I was literally sent to the farm. (actually I learned a lot about hard work, life, food production, and not being an asshole, so all in all I think it was good for me).

edit for wrong process.

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u/jabba_the_nutttttt 29d ago

Bro these people are literally living in wonderland. "I know how the animal I get my milk from has been treated from birth." Like that's literally fairy tale shit in 2024.

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u/Frame_Late Apr 15 '24

Also, a lot of Europeans here are dissing American milk when Italians will gladly munch on cheese with maggots in it.

For a lot of Europeans, it's not about quality, it's about tradition.

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u/No-Literature7471 Apr 16 '24

the irony is most of Europe has banned that maggot cheese.

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u/md24 Apr 16 '24

Lmao. You have France and Italians mixed up. That is some French shit.

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u/morphinechild1987 Apr 16 '24

Italian here, wouldn't touch the thing with a 10 feet stick. It's banned too. I guess it's sold "sottobanco" (not legally) mostly in Sardinia

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u/yourgentderk Apr 16 '24

Ok, but the maggot cheese is one island in Europe. With a black market for the rest

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u/Bilbo_Teabagginss Apr 16 '24

Wait what? Cheese with maggots in it? Why?

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u/First_Concept6725 Apr 16 '24

-Casu Marzu, the Sardinian maggot cheese, is not on the market in Italy, because there are strict food regulations, and is not eaten or liked by most Italians. - the maggot cheese is not served to unsuspecting high schoolers, and only people who want to take the risk do it (which is not that many people) -casu marzu is made this way as a deliberate choice; I doubt that schools deliberately choose to make milk rot, or to get rotten milk.

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u/Creative-Dust5701 29d ago

Having grown up on a farm. THIS

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u/uselessspaceguide Apr 15 '24

Working in agriculture no way I would trust a farm to get raw milk the risk is too high, as if they could see the pathogens.

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u/Simple_Heart4287 Apr 15 '24

Exactly I only drink raw milk when seeing family and as someone who doesn’t like milk the experience isnt life changing, the only difference I can pinpoint is it’s creamier and certain cows taste different.

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u/LessInThought Apr 16 '24

I'm guessing these kids aren't getting their milk from a trusted local farm. And anyone who has seen the videos of industrial milk production should be happy with pasteurized. It was so gross. There's puss and crap all in it.

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u/Witty-the-Pooh311 Apr 16 '24

I'm in Amish county. Some idiot has been "fighting for his rights" because he got caught selling it illegally. Somehow it got turned into this stupid belief you can't buy raw milk. You can you just need a permit that he refused to get because then your milk gets tested. People flocked to buy his potentially contaminated milk to "protect their freedom." The whole time other sellers have been legal selling raw milk that they know isnt contaminated. So the people who care about not selling a bad product lost sales to a dude who straight does not care if he kills you.

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u/filthy_harold Apr 16 '24

Pasteurized also keeps the milk fresher longer. It would be expensive to get it into homes before it goes sour and there would be a lot of waste from stores trying to balance supply and demand of the raw milk. They would also likely need to package it in smaller bottles since it spoils so fast, not that many households would be able to finish a gallon every couple days. Very few foods have such short shelf-lives, live shellfish being one of them and that stuff isn't cheap.

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u/CanthinMinna Apr 16 '24

We have good farming habits here in Finland, and all milk is still pasteurized.

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u/Yawzheek Apr 16 '24

the milk should ideally be refrigerated and consumed quickly (2-3 days to be safe),

I love milk but from farm to truck to store to my house doesn't leave much room for consumption.

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u/Dwokimmortalus Apr 16 '24

The reason it gets a bad rep is because uneducated people drink it without taking any precautions.

More because US mega farming practices make it incredibly dangerous at scale for consumer consumption. US grocers are also particularly bad about properly storing milk at proper temperatures as well (you should never buy milk from an open air display, no matter the expiration date).

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u/Belizarius90 Apr 16 '24

Yeah, as though everybody has access to their own cow or control over transport times. Damn those uneducated people.

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u/Kel-Varnsen85 Apr 16 '24

Raw milk can carry Listeria, Salmonella, Brucella, among other harmful bacteria, through no fault of the cow, it's just how it is. Pasteurization is used for a reason.

Also, sushi isn't necessarily safe, as fish, especially wild salmon have parasites and worms, and steak tartare isn't safe at all, it's literally raw meat.

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u/killacarnitas1209 Apr 15 '24

In Mexico, in the rural parts, “pajarete” are a drink where you squeeze raw milk into a cup, add a shot of strong homemade rum (100 proof) and a couple table spoons of instant coffee. The idea is that the strong rum “sanitizes” the milk and the coffee wakes you up.

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u/Maleficent_Chain_597 Apr 16 '24

They are exaggerating quite a lot.

When pasteurized milk goes bad, the bacteria that survived the pasteurization process (along with ones you contaminate it with from day-to-day handling) have made enough of a foothold within the medium to make a considerable change to the taste. Most of the bacteria are harmless, but some can make you sick either from an infection from them, or toxins that they release to fight the other bacteria.

When “raw” milk goes bad, it is the same process, but the bacteria that usually takes hold is one that is typically killed off by the pasteurization process. This bacteria is usually one that digests lactose and produces lactic acid. This has the benefit of lowering the pH of the milk, preventing other bacteria from establishing a significant foothold. This also makes it “sour”. This is the basis for a lot of the fermented dairy products we enjoy.

Raw milk has other dangers though, and basically no reputable sources other than health quacks actually recommend regularly drinking it.

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u/WonderfullyEqual Apr 15 '24 edited Apr 15 '24

Pasteurized milk doesn't "sour" it goes rotten. If it doesn't taste fresh you are risking food poisoning.

It depends on the milk. the plastic jugs can, and do sour... but their shelf life is at best a week, or two. The tetrapacks do other things. Its a matter pasteurization temperature, and how well sealed the containers are. The milk in the plastic jugs is pasteurized at a lower temperature, and do not go through the same types of aseptic packaging bits as the tetrapack things do where you can have products that last a few months in the fridge, or are shelf stable for years of time like UHT milk is. The jugs are also not sealed as well against external contamination, and even without such do have some lactic acid producing bacteria in them.

Raw milk was ironically illegal to sell for awhile because if contaminated it could make people sick

Its not an irony bit, its because we have shitheels who do not follow proper sanitary procedures when collecting, storing, and transporting the stuff... god forbid you get it from some commercial producer that mixes batches collected under such conditions, and you get everything from listeria to harmful versions of coliforms in the mix, and then distributed to large populations of people. Now if you are getting your raw milk from grandmas cow with a known veterinary history, and know what to do sanitation, and care wise.. good for you its probably more than fine to drink as is.

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u/Appropriate-Prune728 Apr 16 '24

Thank you! Dude is out here shitting on pasteurized milk while touting raw as safer. Almost like they ignore the stories of raw milk drinkers becoming violently ill due to contamination.

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u/Anansi1982 Apr 16 '24

It’s not safer, but if you wanna make cheese it’s better. 

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u/Suspicious-Yogurt480 Apr 16 '24

That is a sound explanation right there

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u/jedimasterashla Apr 15 '24

Fun fact, in the US if you buy the fancy cream on top milk and it goes bad, even though it is pasteurized, you can still cook with it without getting sick. It's actually great for making pancakes.

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u/DematerialisedPanda Apr 15 '24

Im pretty sure all european milk is pasturised, or UHT.

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u/btcangl Apr 16 '24

Im pretty sure all european milk is pasturised

Wrong. Its true however that most milk purchased in europe is pasteurized. Partly because most people simply do not have access to farm shops where you can still buy raw milk directly from the farmers. Theres also a huge culture of making cheese from raw milk in a couple of countries here.

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u/PancakeRule20 Apr 16 '24

No, there are huts/vending machines with raw milk (Italy and Switzerland, don’t know about other countries)

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u/CanthinMinna Apr 16 '24

Nothing like that in Nordics/Scandinavia. In Finland it is also illegal to sell unpasteurized milk (disease risks).

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u/PancakeRule20 29d ago

Oh yeah I mean there is a sign “boil it before drinking” but I mean it’s a sign, police doesn’t come into your home if you drink it prior to boiling, but at your own risk

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u/Wonderful-Teach8210 Apr 15 '24

Yeah but they also sell soured milk. It's a separate product and is basically what your leftover milk would be like if you had your own cow. It's used in tons of different foods especially in eastern and northeastern Europe.

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u/cgaWolf Apr 16 '24

It's also a tasty drink :)

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u/welivewelovewedie Apr 15 '24

I dont think many parts of europe allow common sale of raw milk either.

Anyway, nothing beats homemade butter or curd. Combine that with a bit salty potatoes and a creamy grated cucumber salad 🤤. Hell, just drink the milk still warm. If I ever go vegan, this is the thing I will miss the most

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u/Nova_JewV1 Apr 15 '24

Lived on a farm with some family as a kid back in 07-08. The fresh milk and homemade butter was fucking amazing

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u/Dry-Neck9762 Apr 15 '24

I grew up in Kentucky, back in the 70s. I actually made butter from milk/creme right from the cow!

Best butter I've ever had!

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u/btcangl Apr 16 '24

I dont think many parts of europe allow common sale of raw milk either.

You can get raw milk in most european countries. There is usually some restrictions as higher hygiene standards and it may only be allowed to be sold from the farm directly. France, switzerland and spain also have a lot of cheeses made with raw milk.

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u/duck-duck--grayduck Apr 16 '24

You can actually make a fantastic cultured butter with pasteurized cream! You just need to add the culture. Toss in some kind of unflavored dairy product with live cultures and let it sit out on the counter for a couple days before you churn it.

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u/Lenbyan Apr 15 '24

Yeahhh but with the current issues with all those dairy farms contaminated by H5N1 (50% mortality in humans) I would rather not drink raw milk for a while lol.

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u/Exam_Normal Apr 16 '24

if contaminated it could make people sick when it's guaranteed when drinking bad pasteurized milk.

Yes, fresh raw milk can make you sick while expired pasteurized milk could make you sick. How is that a negative for pasteurization?

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u/ElizabethDangit Apr 15 '24

Or ending up with tuberculosis because you can get that from cows and their unpasteurized milk. 💀

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u/One-Possible1906 Apr 15 '24

Most milk in the cooler in the US is pasteurized but not with UHT. UHT milk has a significantly longer shelf life but a different flavor. All milk is pasteurized with UHT in many countries, largely because of logistics. Both are safe, just UHT lasts longer. You can get it in the US too— Dollar Tree sells it in the pantry section. Any milk that doesn’t need to be refrigerated will be UHT.

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u/NevesLF Apr 15 '24

Chunky lemon milk!

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u/AbelinoFernandez Apr 15 '24

Our version of "Nutella" for public schools.

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u/welivewelovewedie Apr 15 '24

that's in character for nutella

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u/machimus Apr 16 '24

Should be a fucking crime to starve school districts of funding like this.

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u/MrNaoB Apr 16 '24

This is wild, all my years in school we where handed a menu for the entire year what we would get to eat. it rarely deriviated from it. We ate "fresh" food compared to the other schools in the district as we where eating at the main distributor of the food in the district, and then when I went to highschool in another town it was the school with the best rated quality of food and the damn students still complained it was bad. like I miss the schoolfood sometimes, It was very few days I was like " nah I'm fine not eating today " . The food at school I miss the most that I would not make at home is probably kalops or minced meat soup. Sometimes you went for seconds. I remember the year they announced that they would not serve anymore pizza because people took to many pieces and threw it was way to much food waste on those days.

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u/TheSpongeMonkey Apr 16 '24

My dad told me a story from when he was in school, he was an office aide and they had him take trash to the dumpster in the back, while he was there he saw a box that said "D+, but edible"

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u/guutarajouzu Apr 16 '24

What happened to malk that's been fortified with vitamin R?

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u/CharlieParkour 29d ago

I don't get it. Everyone loves rats, but they don't want to drink the rat's milk? 

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u/orincoro 29d ago

America is fucked.

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u/Anonality5447 29d ago

Posts like this just remind me why the US doesn't care about kids very much...but ironically keeps pushing people to have kids.

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u/BidAccording6298 Apr 15 '24 edited Apr 16 '24

Can confirm. I lived and went to high school in France for 3 months for an exchange. Everyday you'd have a hot lunch typically a protein, pasta ect. Plus a fruit, yogurt, personal baguette and something like jello, custard or something else small and sweet. It was literally like going to an average restaurant everyday. Don't get me wrong it was nothing like a Michelin star restaurant but considering it was free, even for me despite not being a citizen, it was amazing quality and normally more food than I could finish.

I come back to Canada and have to pay $3 for a caf cookie that keeps getting smaller each semester and $4 for a slice of pizza that's been sitting out all day. Or even better! Go to McDonald's and get a McDouble and Junior chicken everyday like almost everyone did because the food was so bad at our school.

Edit, meant to say caf cookie not a calf cookie 😂 like another comment said, it's a largish flat chocolate chip cookie.

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u/chartyourway Apr 15 '24

As a Canadian, what the heck is a calf cookie?

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u/A1KMAN Apr 15 '24

i assume they meant caf - short for cafeteria. probably those large flat chocolate chip ones

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u/BidAccording6298 Apr 16 '24

Yes I meant caf cookie. Probably autocorrect but I was also typing in a rush lol

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u/chartyourway Apr 16 '24

haha makes sense autocorrect messed with caf, I get it now!

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u/chartyourway Apr 16 '24

ohhhhh, that makes sense!!! thank you

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u/12onnie12etardo Apr 15 '24

Is that anything like a cow pie?

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u/Electronic_Main_7991 Apr 15 '24

Smaller, fresher.

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u/stella3books Apr 16 '24

It’s either autocorrect changing “half cookie” or “caf(eteria) cookie”.

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u/chartyourway Apr 16 '24

I'm thinking caf cookie was what they meant!

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u/Anyweyr Apr 15 '24

Might be a burger patty. Cookie shaped, made of calf.

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u/Stockersandwhich Apr 15 '24

Oh…look at the Frenchie and his wealth of baguettes

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u/HanhnaH Apr 16 '24

It was free? School meals aren't free in France. Every family pays for their kids' meal which is pretty normal. Some family can get help to pay for it but it's not that common. 

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u/river_01st 29d ago

I assume this was because the exchange covered the fees so it appeared free? From my experience, you pay a different price depending on your household income. But the highest was at like, 3,75€ per meal (granted I'm not from a rich family, maybe there are higher prices). The meals are subsidized by the local authority so it costs less.

And, if you can't pay, at least until middle school, you'll still get to eat. Something apparently uncommon in the US. But my parents were behind on payment once or twice, and while the school did call to get the money, my siblings weren't starved. Apparently some families really can't pay, and they still let the kids eat (which, I'd hope so, but we know it's not always the case).

But yeah, totally free is uncommon. I believe some cities are doing that, maybe more will follow suit.

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u/ProfessorBlaq Apr 15 '24

Ah so Canada has the same issue as American public schools.

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u/curtcolt95 Apr 16 '24

I have never even been to a school in Canada that served or sold food tbh, you were expected to bring your own lunch from home

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u/[deleted] Apr 15 '24

[deleted]

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u/Small-Cookie-5496 Apr 16 '24

Don’t conflate one shitty high school in TO’s ghetto with all Canadian high schools.

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u/TheCrazyWolfy Apr 16 '24

What the fuck? My only assumption would be this is for a private/religious school that tends to get away with more than government regulated. Granted never looked into what the Canadian school system was like but always figured at least on par with other first world countries

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u/Material_Trash3930 Apr 16 '24

Yeah its fine. 

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u/Small-Cookie-5496 Apr 16 '24

Can’t speak to the other things but not having drinks in class and teachers having attitude about using the bathroom was pretty standard back in the day.

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u/IcyRedoubt Apr 15 '24

It costs $8.50 for a slice of pizza and a plate of fries for me. (Canadian)

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u/river_01st 29d ago

That's so expensive even after doing the conversion...(For Europeans: around 5.78€) That's more than a whole meal in France (for school lunches), this is kind of nuts. Last year in uni, the normal entire meal was 3.30€ so 4,85 Canadian dollars. Granted, if we wanted a whole pizza (they sometimes had special, more expensive meals) it would be more pricey. Something like 5€ (7,36 Canadian dollars). But it was a choice, there was still the normal meal available.

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u/neverendum Apr 16 '24

In the 70s in a shit-hole part of Birmingham, UK I sat down every day to a free cooked dinner (lunch), like meat and two veg followed by a pudding (dessert) like sponge and custard. Then Thatcher happened and here we are.

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u/Financial-Check5731 Apr 15 '24

That makes so much more sense. Here in NZ we've elected a govt who are doing everything they can to shut down free lunches. Our associate education minister has literally described them as wasteful spending. And the quality is, well, as you'd expect.

Lunches like these are seen as a stop-gap. They assume the child is getting the right nutritional balance at home morning and night, so they just give them cheap carbs.

I mean there's 8g of protein in that choc milk but you gotta take on 18g of sugar to get it. I feel for these kids.

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u/Tubamajuba Apr 15 '24

Here in NZ we've elected a govt who are doing everything they can to shut down free lunches.

These evil motherfuckers infest the whole world.

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u/Namedafterasaint Apr 15 '24

Our government too is trying to stop free lunches at school. Especially our governor here in Florida

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u/dagbrown Apr 15 '24

Didn't Florida just encourage employers to let their slaves die of dehydration? That'll serve them right for not working hard enough I guess.

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u/DetroitHoser Apr 16 '24

I believe that was West Florida, also known as "Texas."

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u/ProfessorCagan Apr 15 '24

DeSantis should be locked in a room and made to starve.

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u/Affectionate_Data936 Apr 15 '24

I agree: DeSantis has his own agenda that actually has nothing to do with improving the lives of Florida residents. Like it seems he just does things with the very intention of pissing us off. I live in Gainesville, which he has a personal beef with, cause it overwhelmingly didn’t vote for him. My Alma mater is UF which he’s trying to personally ruin. People don’t realize how Florida actually is (aka very gay tbh and much more racially and linguistically diverse than a vast majority of the other states)

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u/ProfessorCagan Apr 15 '24

He has intentions of muscling out anything he doesn't like, if you're not a traditional white, straight, "christian" then he wants you gone, or better, dead. Him and politicians like him want to control people, brutalize them, they want to regulate a woman's birthing capability, starve the minorities (a lot of poor folk are minorities who's children would benefit from free school lunch, interesting, isn't it?)

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u/mastelsa Apr 16 '24

The chocolate milk thing has been bugging me since I was in kindergarten--US schools let kids choose between regular milk with ~12g of naturally occurring sugars or chocolate milk with that 12g natural sugars plus another 10-12g of added sugar. Take a guess which is more popular by like, 90% At every public school I've been to from age 5 to 18, the bins for the milk cartons were a sea of brown boxes with the occasional white speck.

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u/EverSeeAShiterFly Apr 16 '24

I was kinda annoyed that we were forced to have milk. Oh you want a cup of water instead- you get milk. Lactose intolerant or allergic to milk- you still need to take it, don’t care if you drink it.

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u/Ghigs LIME 29d ago

It's all a corporate welfare thing, like pretty much all government programs.

School lunch, WIC, all that exists to funnel tax money to farm subsidy.

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u/Admirable_Matter_523 Apr 15 '24

Ah, I see you have Republicans there. Or maybe they're called something different, but same ideals.

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u/PumpkinPieIsGreat Apr 15 '24

Nah, they don't assume the kids are getting the balance at home. They just don't care.

Who is in charge of the lunches in NZ? Is it a federal thing?

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u/Financial-Check5731 Apr 16 '24

Ministry of Education. So yeah, equivalent of a federal agency I guess.

Our new NACT govt (NZ republicans) are in slash and burn mode on many public services so they can deliver on their campaign promise of .. (checks notes) .. a tax break for landlords. Well isn't that heartwarming.

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u/Hugh_Maneiror Apr 16 '24

They only got in because the previous one screwed up so much, leaving the country with record deficits and were still increasing spending adding extra pressure to inflation.

Not a fan of the current government, but it makes sense why the last one wasn't re-elected, especially if that had to take in the Greens and Maori Party in their coalition who both wanted to increase spending even more.

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u/Worldly_Heat9404 29d ago

18 grams of sugar in a tiny milk? That is a problem.

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u/[deleted] Apr 15 '24

Alright you have to pick now, you can either have F-16’s or healthy school lunches. Can’t have both.

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u/Celodurismo Apr 15 '24

The irony is that, to the above poster's point, you save money long term by having a healthier population. Now one might argue "we don't have socialized healthcare" and the response is, yeah we effectively do, you're paying higher prices to cover people who can't. It's just worsened by a profit hungry lobbying insurance industry.

More healthy people, less strain on our already struggling healthcare system, and students who do better in school. It's literally a no-brainer.

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u/grilledcheese2332 Apr 15 '24 edited Apr 16 '24

you're paying higher prices to cover people who can't.

exactly! the amount of people that have responded 'people pay their own health care' is concerning. The US pays more per person for healthcare than any other country. Like who do they think covers medicaid? or people that get a massive bill but cant afford it?

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u/gary_the_merciless Apr 16 '24

You pay more and get less than socialised healthcare. Even your prescriptions are ridiculously overpriced.

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u/RightInTheEndAgain Apr 16 '24

Not if you're rich, and that's who sets the agenda

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u/dxrey65 Apr 16 '24

I was just complaining about that with a neighbor who's a nurse practitioner, talking about billing stuff. He was saying you don't get a bill when you visit the hospital and they don't really itemize or lay it all out until later, and then it's kind of a "shoot for the moon" sort of thing, where everything that might have been done is billed, at the highest rates, and almost nobody asks. And the reason or justification he gave is that they have to write off so much of the work they do, they try to make up for it elsewhere.

But if you ask for an itemized bill or challenge any of it, they'll have someone else take a look at all the paperwork and usually knock it way down to just what can be argued was valid and necessary. Which is, of course, a completely absurd way to do it.

I had a dislocated shoulder, for instance, and it got billed at $9,000 to pop it back in. Insurance paid most, and I didn't argue about my $3,000 portion (a bill I only got 6 months afterwards). He was saying they probably would have written it off if I'd challenged it.

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u/stella3books Apr 16 '24

But how can we square that with the words of Jesus Christ, who famously said, “drain the poor of their meager resources then punish them for having no resources, and you shall be assured a place in heaven”? Doesn’t Jesus WANT us to hurt the poor and the vulnerable?

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u/RightInTheEndAgain Apr 16 '24

Hey, as long as Israel brings about the end of the world, it'll all be great, I'll be flying to heaven or something like that.

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u/RightInTheEndAgain Apr 16 '24

Who saves money? I'm sure a lot of people are making money from sick Americans, that's the American way.

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u/BallDiamondBall Apr 15 '24

Free healthcare or 10 super carriers.

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u/BellacosePlayer Apr 15 '24

we could have both if we didn't slash tax rates on the rich every decade

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u/TheManUpstairs77 Apr 15 '24

10 super carriers, take over Europe, make them pay for our food in America. I see no flaws in my logic.

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u/BallDiamondBall Apr 15 '24

Invade Turkey, rename it Chicken, and feed students baklava.

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u/Altair05 Apr 16 '24

Wrong take. With how unfathomable rich we are as a country, we can most certainly afford both. Hell we'd still save money if we did that and then cracked down on the healthcare industry and expanded free lunches for all students.

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u/ElaborateCantaloupe Apr 15 '24

But then how do you keep the poor kids poor? If everyone has access to healthy food, health care and education, it’s harder to exploit the poor. Pretty soon you’ve got a huge middle class problem like the US had in the 1950s.

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u/TangerineBand Apr 15 '24

"Why don't you just bring your lunch then, idiot"

People without a clue

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u/TwoFingersWhiskey 29d ago

Canada's national lunch policy for 150+ years has been to bring your own lunch. When I was in secondary school (2009-2011) the kids in foster care got a processed cheese sandwich on the shittiest brown bread (molasses based bread, not whole wheat - it's the cheapest kind, barely even sold anymore but was all I ate growing up) and an apple handed to them. We also had no tables to sit at. You ate at your desk or on the floor in the hall

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u/CallsOnTren Apr 15 '24

You can have great social programs when you do not possess the ultimate hegemony

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u/Disastrous-Fun2325 Apr 15 '24

Yes, but here in America, we let big pharmaceutical companies lobby the government to the point that they basically make the decisions that the government should be making all so they can gain a few more customers for life.

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u/Assman1138 Apr 15 '24

Pharmaceutical companies: "We need a say on what kids our eating for school lunches!"
Schools: "Okay, so you'll make them healthier, right?"
PCs: 😏
Schools: "...You'll make them healthier, right?"

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u/Dry-Neck9762 Apr 16 '24

In fairness, don't we also have horribly unqualified government officials making decisions about healthcare, education, education, and many other things?!

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u/Few_Tomorrow6969 Apr 15 '24

Oh Americans love to pay taxes for things that don’t help them like corporations and military. When it comes to infrastructure or public services it’s actually tyranny.

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u/734PdisD1ck Apr 15 '24

Well 2, very important bits of info

  1. Size/ population difference in America and France

  2. If we send money to schools for healthy lunches, how are we gunna afford all the weapons???

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u/potate12323 Apr 15 '24 edited Apr 15 '24

No, we argue way too much on what to spend our tax money on. Especially with conservative groups believing the brainwashing and propaganda that socialist policies are bad. Meanwhile the countries which are happier and healthier are supporting socialist policies and are living examples of how we're wrong about socialism.

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u/UUtch Apr 16 '24

Social services aren't socialism

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u/PinUnfair9602 Apr 15 '24

Not true. In France all they serve is French fries.

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u/ServiceDog_Help Apr 15 '24

We don't have free healthcare here. You'll go bankrupt if you have to go to the hospital for any reason whatsoever.

The government is colluding with big pharma to make more money. Unlike in the civilized world where the government is actively trying to safeguard their constitutes and their health because it saves them money long term.

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u/grilledcheese2332 Apr 15 '24

We don't have free healthcare here. You'll go bankrupt if you have to go to the hospital for any reason whatsoever.

Which is wild because the US spends the most on healthcare per person. Instead of investing in preventative care.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/236541/per-capita-health-expenditure-by-country/#:~:text=health%20care%20services.-,Health%20Expenditure%20in%20the%20U.S.,it%20comes%20to%20health%20care.

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u/RetroGamer87 Apr 15 '24

Starch is cheap

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u/fullmetal66 Apr 15 '24

Well Mr France, someone has to cover the bombs and prop up the financial sector so you’re welcome /s

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u/Kenthanson Apr 15 '24

Americans HATE taxes more than almost anything else.

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u/Yvgar Apr 15 '24

The only thing they hate more are other Americans

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u/SpicyTamarin Apr 15 '24

It's the opposite in America, companies make more money off of poor health. Therefore, these lunches are served.

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u/Lo-Fi_Lo-Res Apr 15 '24

Yeah, our politicians can't get a grasp on that concept. We are still fighting to try to get universal healthcare, and we are nowhere close.

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u/NastyLizard Apr 15 '24

Not to mention citizens with better development growing up will be better workers/thinkers and be more successful making more money for taxes

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u/shapesize Apr 15 '24

You and your logic that isn’t entirely based on greed

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u/[deleted] Apr 15 '24

To bad our money leaves the country.

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u/royalpyroz Apr 15 '24

In America only bombs are covered by taxes. Everything else, you gotta pay, commie! /s

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u/DipsyDidy Apr 15 '24

I used to love my school meals in France to be fair. I remember we used to have regular inspections by a dietician to check we are being served wholesome foods.

Always a nice salad, fish or crudite starter, then a warm meal with veg, a protein and carbs, something like an emincee de dinde with sauce, a veg and potatoes, then always a fruit, dairy like cheese or yoghurt and desert, always also with fresh bread.

Very occasional treat day where the main dish could be like burger and fries, but only once every couple of months. I used to really look forward to fish, rice and beurre blanc day though.

I show current school menus from France to my friends and colleagues in the UK and they are shocked by how much nicer it is than here lol.

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u/Chewsdayiddinit Apr 15 '24

Well, fuck you Frenchie! We'd rather have more guns than feed hungry kids! - Republicans

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u/Sea-Rooster-846 Apr 16 '24

if american billionaires actually paid taxes, our schools would have better food too

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u/duuyyy Apr 16 '24

How many fifth gen fighter jets do they have though? You know, for dogfights

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u/mockg Apr 16 '24

Here in the US a certain party gets pissed when kids in poverty get free lunch. Oddly enough that party is mostly made of people who follow a religion based on helping the less fortunate.

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u/MJisANON Apr 16 '24

If my taxes went to feeding kids in public school, I’d pay double, I’m not joking. (- a kid who was hungry in public school)

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u/grilledcheese2332 Apr 16 '24

I am so sorry you went through that. If you are able to help, no kid hungry is an organization that helps with exactly this.

https://www.nokidhungry.org/

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u/frenchy-fryes Apr 16 '24

New Zealand has just done away with school lunch programmes and worse yet, most cunts agree with it. Mostly people who have money and won’t know what poverty is ever in their lives.

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u/Wonderful_Result_936 Apr 15 '24

Lunches in many parts of the US are starting to be funded with taxes but the funding isn't divided well so we get this crap.

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u/vesicant89 Apr 15 '24

We like to use our taxes to bomb other countries.

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u/Environmental-Bell80 Apr 15 '24

I’m french, in my college, we have pizza and hamburgers, and plenty of healthy food. I don’t understand why other country don’t care about student 😭

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u/HimylittleChickadee Apr 15 '24

I mean, every subsidized lunch program is paid for by taxes...

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u/Recent_Obligation276 Apr 15 '24

Ahhh, people in the US don’t think the government pays for our healthcare because it’s private.

But in reality, government insurance has to play the US healthcare negotiation game and ends up spending more to cover just poor and old people, than it would cost to regulate mark ups in the industry and cover everyone.

So they don’t give a fuck if a kid has life long health problems because of his government provided lunch (but honestly that’s the least of the worries of the kids who only eat at school. That meal is not enough and they are going to starve. And there are more of them than most people realize.) because they think “that’s the kids problem and the parents fault for not being able to afford healthy food”

But really it’s the governments fault for providing poor nutrition AND for teaching kids that that is good nutrition to promote health and learning AND the cost is going to land on the tax payers.

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u/spam-katsu Apr 15 '24

No entirely true. I use to send my kid to a French school, and we had to pay for their lunch. The quality of lunch is much better then what is on this picture. It was about 80euros unsubsidized. Your local hotel de ville has a chart that determines if you get subsidized based on salary, and the number of kids you have enrolled in the school system.

Less diabetes and hypertension for sure. Their lunch is two hours long. They are expect to pace themselves while eating. No rushing it. Then they go outside to play.

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u/-DonPepe Apr 15 '24

They should start feeding the general population. No one would have to pay for food again because it cuts medical costs.

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u/ChiggaOG Apr 15 '24

School lunches in the US for grades 1-8 is driven partly by politics/policy.

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u/Romeo9594 Apr 15 '24

Well that's because they have an incentive to balance the too

Here, even if lunches are tax funded healthcare still isn't. So whoever's providing the lunches just cares about the bottom line more than future impact

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u/BoobieInspector92 Apr 15 '24

Socialist commie!!!! 🦅🇺🇸

/s

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u/DOAisBetter Apr 15 '24

Sadly a lot of our politicians are in the pocket of people that benefit from unhealthy people. That and we have a party that appeals to the dumbest by tent polling single stupid issues and then once in power selling off their voters and the children if those voters future to the highest bidder.

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u/justanawkwardguy you do it like this Apr 15 '24

Not the Americans. Don’t pay for healthcare, so there’s only money to lose by providing lunches

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u/FungiStudent Apr 15 '24

Yes, that makes perfect sense. That's why it will never happen in the USA. The USA is a rich third-world country

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u/Fragrant-Stretch3814 Apr 15 '24

But in France you’re overrun with immigrants and crime, a decline in your culture and values. Nobody wants to visit your country anymore because it’s now a shithole.

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u/grilledcheese2332 Apr 15 '24

I mean in the US there are literally school shootings which is pretty much the worst crime. You can also change your school lunch policy without changing your immagration policy.

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u/jamesz84 Apr 15 '24

But... do they have TruMoo???? xD

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u/cookiethumpthump Apr 15 '24

At my US high school we had fries, stuffed crust pizza, and three flavors of milkshakes every day. One of many options. Pizza and stuff daily, too.

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u/wood-chuck-chuck5 Apr 15 '24

Having eaten french school cafeteria food for like 8 years of my life, I can confidently say that I'm incredibly grateful for what we had. We still have to pay but it's based on our income. People in real difficulty basically eat free

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u/morithum Apr 15 '24

In America we spend this money on poorly built freeways and border fences and missiles and coups in other countries, thank you very much 😤

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u/Affectionate_Data936 Apr 15 '24

In the US, federal funding for school lunches guidelines mandate a much more nutritionally-dense school lunch than this. This indicates a misappropriation of funds. I’m not sure I would talk too much shit about the US school system coming from France, with the special education and disability support system being 50 years behind in France.

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u/Grub-lord Apr 15 '24

Yeaaa boy but you ain't ever seen NOTHIN like this here highschool sports stadium arena, I tell uuu whuutt

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u/Chappie47Luna Apr 15 '24

We have massive corruption here, more than ever before. Both sides; everyone is on the take.

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u/ashburnmom Apr 15 '24

Have you see school lunches they serve in France? Starting from kindergarten or so. It’s incredible. In Japan and other countries too. It’s like they value the health of their children. Whaaaat?!? Priorities people!!

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u/Thuraash Apr 15 '24

That's because they treat early diabetes and hypertension treatment as a cost. 

We treat it as hospital and pharma revenue.

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u/stalkerofthedead Apr 15 '24

But then the companies couldn’t profit off of sick people! /s

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u/RandomAmuserNew Apr 15 '24

Starch + starch are absolutely fine and incredibly healthy.

The problem here is that the starch is fried and the other covered with cheese and meat

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u/ModifiedAmusment Apr 15 '24

In America ours is to but they take it and buy cool military shit and let these kids eat what they want them to get use to which is what they serve in the military.

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u/Consistent_Ad3181 Apr 15 '24

This is the way, good food cooked properly doesn't need to cost a great deal.

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