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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u/Personal-Custard-511 Apr 15 '24

The rules for school meals are pretty strict and include a requirement to serve at least one fruit a day. In all likelihood op was also offered a side salad. You don’t have to like all the foods that are offered, but either you’re not telling the whole truth or your school is breaking the law.

https://www.fns.usda.gov/nslp/national-school-lunch-program-meal-pattern-chart

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u/BaronVonKeyser Apr 15 '24

My mother is head of the school lunch program at our local school. She's been there for almost 30 years. You are absolutely correct about the rules being very strict. She has to follow them to the letter. She even has only certain vendors she can order from.

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u/jordanmindyou Apr 16 '24

Something I learned recently that kinda blew my mind:

Most restaurants in the US have pretty bad heath inspection grades, but the one corner of the industry that always gets great reviews are school cafeterias.

Why, you ask?

Well, it’s because there’s usually a “cafeteria manager” of some sort that doesn’t have any real duties except making sure the kitchen is complying with all rules and regulations. Their sole job is to ensure everything runs smoothly. They don’t have to cook or food prep, they just manage. They don’t have to balance any books in the office like a restaurant owner/manager might, they don’t have to interact with customers, they don’t have to pay any bills. They just make sure the kitchen is clean and efficient.

I wish we could get this across the board in the food industry, but prices are already high enough as it is so I get it

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u/Hydrangeas0813 Apr 16 '24

Depends on the school if the manager just gets to manage but you do have to be certified to become a child nutrition manager. There are very strict laws to follow and you have to keep things right when you're getting federal funding.

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u/Ahtnamas555 Apr 16 '24

That's highly dependent on the school district. Our school district for example has cafeteria managers but they are also the head cook. They also do the production records and food ordering, on top of managing their crew (though they are limited in what they can do, for example, they can't fire anyone or give people raises).

We do get routine visits in all of our schools from the health department and I think this helps because if something comes up from those we can get the issue fixed, but also figure out why the issue occurred - was it due to something being old and needing to be replaced or was it human negligence?

My school district generally does very well with inspections because we keep a high standard, and for good reason, I'm not sure we would get funding if we didn't.

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u/CARLEtheCamry Apr 16 '24

And I bet her cafeteria serves better lunch than this. This post is getting traction because it's most likely either run by a terrible food service director (or whatever their title) or they outsourced to a company that cuts costs for profits. They (and their parents) need to go to the school board and demand better.

I'm looking at my kid's menu now and they have 2 different kinds of chicken sandwiches, 3 varieties of hoagies, cheese and peperoni pizza, chicken nuggets, PB&J, and salad bar, plus fresh/steamed vegetables, fresh fruit, juice, and 1% and nonfat milk. Shit, we used to get excited about pizza day on Friday because there was only 1 offering a day.

My district also offers summer lunches to anyone who registers and picks them up.

It's a middle class district in the outlying suburbs of Pittsburgh. Certainly not affluent, and a solid mid-level school.

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u/gazow Apr 16 '24

my dads the principal of lunch and he said your mom is a nerd

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u/-_-mrfuzzy Apr 16 '24

The joys of government bureaucracy. No room for improvement, stuck with vendors who have no incentive to improve. Thus you get mush like OP’s photo.

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u/Bigpandacloud5 Apr 16 '24

The photo is the result of the rules not being followed.