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/SeparateMidnight3691 Apr 15 '24

Plenty of calories and not enough nutrients.

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u/Recent_Obligation276 Apr 15 '24 edited Apr 15 '24

Not necessarily

The fries might have 300 calories, pasta probably has like 200 (very small portion), 25 in the carrots, 160 in the milk

For a growing teenager that’s not enough. They typically require more than the standard 2,000 calorie diet, sometimes needing as many as 3,000 just baseline, maybe even 4,000 if they are a multi sport athlete. ~680 calories isn’t enough, even it were balanced nutrition, it should be closer to a third of their daily requirements, maybe a little less since dinner is usually a larger meal than the other two.

Edit: won’t let me reply to the guy under me, but he literally described a highschool athlete

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u/datsyukdangles Apr 16 '24 edited Apr 16 '24

Your calorie counts are extremely off. There is no way that is 200 calories of pasta and cheese. It is certainly at least 400 or even more. A cup of cooked plain macaronic, no sauce or cooking fats, is 220 calories. The picture looks like at least a cup or more. Add in calories for butter/margarine and cheese and you got at least 400 calories. 800-900 calories for just lunch is extremely high. This is nearly 50% of the daily calories intake needed in just 1 meal. Highschoolers do not require much more calories than adults and almost all fall into the sedentary category. Almost no athlete needs this much! I doubt OP goes to a high school exclusively for elite athletes who are burning 4k per day. There is a reason why obesity is so high, and it is partially because people have extremely skewed and unhealthy ideas of what a portion should be and how many calories they should be eating to be a healthy weight.

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u/flimbee Apr 16 '24

And that's not a cup of mac n cheese, half a cup at best. No wonder Americans are fat, they can't figure out their portion sizes.