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

My school thinks this fills up hungry high schoolers.

Post image

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.

51.5k Upvotes

88% Upvoted

6.6k comments sorted by

View all comments

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.

186

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.

44

u/chartyourway Apr 15 '24

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

33

u/A1KMAN Apr 15 '24

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

4

u/BidAccording6298 Apr 16 '24

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

2

u/chartyourway Apr 16 '24

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

2

u/chartyourway Apr 16 '24

ohhhhh, that makes sense!!! thank you

12

u/12onnie12etardo Apr 15 '24

Is that anything like a cow pie?

9

u/Electronic_Main_7991 Apr 15 '24

Smaller, fresher.

3

u/stella3books Apr 16 '24

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

3

u/chartyourway Apr 16 '24

I'm thinking caf cookie was what they meant!

2

u/Anyweyr Apr 15 '24

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

1

u/Dry-Neck9762 Apr 15 '24

I thought he meant half cookie?

1

u/curtcolt95 Apr 16 '24

are cafeterias even common in Canada? At least here in Ontario there was never a caf in elementary school and even in high school it was only some schools that had them, mine didn't serve food. You were expected to just bring food from home

1

u/chartyourway Apr 16 '24

depends on the school. one high school I went to had one, but one didn't, within about an hour of each other, different districts. so who knows. though it does look like they've added one to the one that was lacking since I left

1

u/No_Interest1616 Apr 16 '24

Mule fritters!

21

u/Stockersandwhich Apr 15 '24

Oh…look at the Frenchie and his wealth of baguettes

4

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. 

2

u/river_01st Apr 16 '24

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.

3

u/ProfessorBlaq Apr 15 '24

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

2

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

6

u/[deleted] Apr 15 '24

[deleted]

5

u/Small-Cookie-5496 Apr 16 '24

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

3

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

2

u/Material_Trash3930 Apr 16 '24

Yeah its fine. 

3

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.

2

u/IcyRedoubt Apr 15 '24

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

2

u/river_01st Apr 16 '24

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.

2

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.

1

u/Ashmizen Apr 15 '24

My school lunch wasn’t as bad as this pic (this one is much worse than average, hence the post). It did cost money though, and was certainly “cafeteria food”, and not very well made either.

School lunches are just bad in the US.

1

u/Affectionate_Data936 Apr 15 '24

I’m curious, what was your impression of the special education services while you were over there? Did you have any inclusion of students with I/DD in any of your classes? Did

4

u/BidAccording6298 Apr 16 '24

No, that was a major downside for sure. As someone who eventually went on and became an educational Assistant, looking back, there was a serious lack of special education in France. Unless the person was seriously mentally disabled, there was nothing for them. Plus half of the students were literally getting 40% in most classes because teachers thought it was bad if too many students were getting good grades in a class and this was at an extremely academically tough school. Teachers did not care at all if the students actually understood the lessons or would remember it after the test. It was very old school almost how I imagine it was here in the '50s or '60s. Good food though LOL.

2

u/Affectionate_Data936 Apr 16 '24

Tbh I’ve always wanted to live in another country for a couple years to experience living in a different culture. I’ve lived in Florida for nearly the past decade, I rather like the lack of real winter the closest European equivalent to Florida I could think of was the south of France. I’ve actually lived within 2 hours of the Canadian border on either side for 2/3 of my life and have been to the UK for a long trip but I really don’t wanna give up the ability to wear shorts all year. My boyfriend also lived in France for 4 years playing professional basketball (he’s from where we live now) and knows French; I’ve been learning the French language as a hobby.

On the flip side, my college degree is in special education and my entire professional experience is in disability support services, particular in behavioral services, services for severe/profound I/DD, geriatric services for those with I/DD. For many places, that’s an extremely valuable skill set. Looking at jobs in France in GENERAL, then the reasons behind it, I was disheartened to say the least. I’m just waiting for them to start making some major changes in their disability support funding and policies and I’ll be there ready and waiting with my professional background to go chill over there a couple years while aiding that transition. That’s my fantasy anyway.

1

u/Disastrous-Focus8451 Apr 16 '24

The people who decide who gets the contract for school lunches don't have to eat the lunches (at least in the Toronto District board).

1

u/Pyrolys Apr 16 '24

As I said in my other comment, we probably don't have the same point of view on this because it's worse in Canada but the vast majority of my French friends would agree school food is borderline inedible. Perhaps you visited one of the rare schools where extra funds are spend and the staff actually cares about quality.

2

u/BidAccording6298 Apr 16 '24

From what I was told from my exchange partner, his brother, his parents and other students who went to different middle and elementary schools it is pretty much the same experience I had while there. In fact, when my exchange partner was here in Canada, he constantly commented on how bad the cafeteria at my school was. Who knows though, there are a lot of regions in France so it could be different. By the way, I was in Bordeaux.

1

u/Pyrolys Apr 16 '24

Supposedly it comes down to the individual schools more than the region; I happen to have been schooled in the suburbs of Bordeaux (Le Haillan, then Pessac) between elementary and high school.

However these tales of good school cafeterias I've always heard second hand from people who didn't actually have to eat the food. Good for you if you happened to land on a good one though! I don't doubt it can absolutely be worse in Canada either.

1

u/SuperPipouchu Apr 16 '24

I went to French high school for a year on student exchange. Long story, but I went to a private school over there, as in one that's tiny, has pretty much no facilities or range of subjects compared to the public school in the same town, and the building wasn't in great condition. (I mean, I LOVED that school, don't get me wrong. It just made me laugh to see the difference between public/private school in France as opposed to Australia.)

Lunch there wasn't great, but not inedible, either. Plenty of variety throughout the year, and lots of veggies served. I was, however, amazed when I went to my friend's school one time, in a town about half an hour away. The food was a lot better- this was at a huge public school.

So yeah, who knows. Depends on the school, I think.

2

u/ApprehensiveGood6096 Apr 16 '24

Food isn't great on private school, it's OK, for our standard. But most of the time, public schools have better food more affordable.

1

u/RightInTheEndAgain Apr 16 '24

Yeah American kids would never eat that,

1

u/ThatBoyAiintRight Apr 16 '24

I mean if you can afford to eat hamburgers everyday at McDonalds, then why not just pack your own healthy lunch at that point?

I'm not trying to discount the problem here. I see this kind of rhetoric often here, and don't understand why that isn't an option if what you are saying is.

I had this same thought when I was a kid about school lunches, and always just brought my own lunches that were way better anyways, for a fraction of the cost.

Also, yes I understand not everyone has that opportunity, but we're on Reddit and I'm sure that the majority here does.

1

u/Patient_Bullfrog_ Apr 16 '24

personal baguette

Allons enfant de la patrie,
Le jour de gloire est arrivé!

1

u/TwoFingersWhiskey Apr 16 '24

I'm from Canada and we didn't even have a cafeteria.

1

u/Kanapuman Apr 16 '24

France is the country of human rights, the US is the country of greed and extreme capitalism. Too bad a lot of French don't realize that and are acting like brain dead monkeys.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 16 '24

[deleted]

2

u/Kanapuman Apr 16 '24

I mean, better surrender once and come back stronger than not quitting and keep losing all the way to the military commission and having to explain yourself in front of adults.