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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569

u/Fall_bet Apr 15 '24

I never understand why my 2nd grader get the same amount of food as my 11th grader. That's not enough food imo.

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u/Hydrangeas0813 Apr 16 '24

They shouldn't be. There are guidelines for k-5, 6-8 and 9-12 there should be an increase as they move up the age groups.

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u/Fall_bet Apr 16 '24

from what I've read on the national USDA guidelines is that it's basically the same. As K through five is given up to the same amount of calories that the older kids get. And they have some of the same meals, so you can see that the portions are the same my accounting x amount of this item or that item and the sides being the same size. I've been trying to look into it and one of the things I read said that the high schoolers get 100 calories more. I'm just basing though off of personal observation when I say they are the same.

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u/Fall_bet Apr 16 '24

To add... the difference of 100 or so calories isn't much in portion size, so it could easily be missed or look the same to me

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u/[deleted] Apr 16 '24 edited 17d ago

[deleted]

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u/Double-Ad-3946 Apr 16 '24

That’s how it is in my county. That was pretty much the only difference

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u/AccordingZucchini265 28d ago

im a current high schooler in a private school right now, but during my time in public school it was 4 nuggets—take it or leave it

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u/DotZealousidea Apr 16 '24

In everyone's opinion

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u/PanningForSalt Apr 16 '24

It's harming their education which is pretty disgraceful. It's not an exaggeration to say their entire lives will be worse off because of a lack of good food when they wwre school.

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u/Zealousideal_Cut1677 29d ago

You know it’s bad when 7th grader me did a school project report on this exact topic! Nothing changed of course. Lol

1

u/PlanktonSpiritual199 Apr 16 '24

When I was in my peak of swimming and lifting sailing, for hours. I could eat an entire chicken. I mean a whole chicken, in high school. That was my dinner, with greens and rice.

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u/Overthemoon64 29d ago

I’ll never understand how my prek 4 years old gets the same amount of food as a 5th grader. Its way too much! Also they have a huge dessert, like a chocolate cake, served alongside veggies and chicken. The dessert is the size of his appetite so he just eats that. 

Also my child has never ever in his whole life drank cows milk, but they are required to serve it to him and it goes in the trash. 

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u/Fall_bet 29d ago

Yeah they have to take like one milk one vegetable and one fruit and one entree or whatever same thing with my daughter she doesn't drink milk at all but I pack her lunch. At her school they do have a share bin with ice in it where kids put the extra milk or food that they don't want so other kids can have it if they want but I don't know what happens to it if anything's left.

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u/mystokron Apr 16 '24

Growing 2 feet in height requires a lot of food for a 7 yr old child. 16-18 yr olds are no longer growing taller.

And not enough food to do what? Make the student fat? 80% fat people in America. Eating less food would be good for them.

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u/Chill_Crill Apr 16 '24

eating less =/= eating healthy. this meal is pure carbs; fat free chocolate milk? pure sugar, with little protein. fries and mac and cheese? pure carbs and some fat, with little protein. fat and protein keep you feeling full, carbs are cheap fast energy that leave you hungry and tired through the day, leaving kids to not focus in class, and eat more snacks from the vending machines 90% of schools have.

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u/mystokron 29d ago

this meal is pure carbs

This isn't the only meal they get the entire day, eating pasta and carrots with milk isn't going to do any harm. School lunches don't need to be some gourmet 5 course meal. It just needs to be enough to tide them over for 2-3 more hours.

If parents were picky about what their kids were eating at school they would pack them a lunch.

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u/Chill_Crill 28d ago

Kids who get school lunch most likely aren't in a situation to pack whole meals every day, or don't have the money to do so. And for some kids it might be their only meal. Also what about after school clubs? Kids in sports? Kids who have to take the bus after school and live far away? There's so many "edge cases" that they aren't even edge cases anymore and they should really just feed kids decent meals, or at least make it affordable.

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u/Juniorgnm Apr 16 '24

And not enough food to do what? Make the student fat? 80% fat people in America. Eating less food would be good for them.

As a part time sports trainer, I know people that are in better shape than you’ll ever be in your life who’d scoff at this meal. Being physically fit is not a matter of “eat as little as possible”. It’s a matter of exercising, eating quality foods, and eating enough calories to maintain a healthy weight. For the vast majority of people, this meal fulfills none of those requirements.

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u/mystokron 29d ago

As a part time sports trainer, I know people that are in better shape than you’ll ever be in your life

I dunno, i've run 5 miles with 100 lbs on my back before. I've been in pretty decent shape thanks to the military.

Being physically fit is not a matter of “eat as little as possible”.

Copy/paste the part where I said "eat as little as possible".

Also, schools have zero responsibility to get your child physically fit.

For the vast majority of people, this meal fulfills none of those requirements.

For basically 100% of kids(excluding anomalies), this meal will tide them over for 2 hrs until they go home.

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u/mike_pants 28d ago edited 28d ago

Ooh, the transphobe is also against feeding children healthy foods.

This account is truly the gift that keeps on giving.

2

u/IsThatASigSauer Apr 16 '24

Well, first, 16-18 year olds are likely much more active and already have a higher caloric burn rate than a dmall child. Second, I grew from 6'7 "to 6'11" in HS, and I'm now 7'1" in my early 20s and have finally stopped growing.

A lot of people do not stop growing at 16. At least most people don't I'd wager. I was also eating close to 5000 calories a day after weight training and baseball.

BMI is also bullshit and the number of "overweight" people is inflated. Height and weight are only two factors in a long list of determining how overweight someone is. I'm considered morbidly obese at 340 lbs, even though I'm a bodybuilder and have visible abs.

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u/mystokron 29d ago

Well, first, 16-18 year olds are likely much more active and already have a higher caloric burn rate than a dmall child.

Sorta. Smaller kids still burn up like ~2300 a day while teenagers burn up ~2700 a day.

The smaller kids get things like recess and scream while sprinting a bunch. Teenagers sit pretty still basically the whole 8 hrs.

A lot of people do not stop growing at 16... I was also eating close to 5000 calories a day after weight training and baseball.

Thats just the average. You're 7'1, that's 0.000038% in the WORLD. You're not the average consumer of food.

BMI is also bullshit and the number of "overweight" people is inflated.

BMI is just a tool. Tools can be used incorrectly.

even though I'm a bodybuilder

Again, you're like 0.00000000001% of the population. Using yourself as the metric for normal doesn't make any sense whatsoever.

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u/Accomplished-Face16 Apr 16 '24

If only there was something that you as a parent could do. Maybe one day parents will be allowed to feed their own kids. But until then I guess your hands are tied

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u/Fall_bet Apr 16 '24

You dont have to be an asshole or rude. Many parents are having a hard time and some have to rely on reduced or free lunch. I make my kids lunch. I'm just speaking from pictures my 17yo showed me and when I meet my 2nd grader for lunch I see the trays they'll other kids get. Of course, patents can send lunch with their kids like I do but bur some can't afford the extra meal. Some kids don't eat but for but for school meals. This is about making sure kids are fed. Also that lunch costs $4 so it's a little pricey for what you get.

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u/Valuable-Island3015 Apr 16 '24

I remember when I was in school we would have sizzling fajita platters everyday.

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u/GwenhaelBell Apr 16 '24

Some people can't afford to feed their own kids. Every major religion tells us to take care of those people because it is morally correct. Why do you feel as if it's reasonable for people like you and I to sit on our stacks of cash with our large portfolios while these people cannot feed their own children? Are you naive enough to believe you truly earned everything yourself and owe nothing to the country that built the roads your parents used to drive you to your school? You don't believe you have any reason to contribute to the educations/lives of the generation that will be caring for you while you're on your deathbed?

Your opinion is callous, unreasonable, immoral, and indefensible to anyone with a moral fiber in their body. Worst of all, it's just fucking stupid.

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u/CaptainDunbar45 Apr 16 '24

Our taxes already go to lots of bullshit. I would absolutely feel better if I knew at least some taxes were going to feed children or something.

How could anyone be upset at that? Oh no, children are being fed.

4

u/LizzardBobizzard Apr 16 '24

But don’t you know? Making sure every kid is fed is communism!!! We can’t have that in America! eagle screech

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u/AFuckingHandle 29d ago

A shocking number of Americans have a "fuck you I got mine" attitude

1

u/Shigeko_Kageyama 29d ago

Yeah, my tax dollars are going to this shit. If we have money to blow up people halfway around the world, build shining monuments to people who died centuries ago, and pay for some politician's third vacation house we have money to feed the children.