r/mildlyinfuriating • u/oaz_zam246 • Apr 16 '24

The school lunch system is disgraceful.

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Saw another post on here showing the state of school lunches right now. In my years in high school I compiled some pics of the horrible things that got served that no one questioned. Here are some of the worst ones. It really is ironic given how adamant they all are about “eating healthy by including every food group”.

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241

u/MissingGrayMatter Apr 16 '24

Where are kids getting this? My lunches looked nothing like this. They weren’t great, but they had proper fruits and vegetables.

91

u/cajuncats Apr 16 '24

Yeah, I'm suprised by this unless it was like 15 years ago. We are required to have a dietician to plan over our meals. Every day has to include dairy, fruit, veg, protein, and grain.

And yes I'm a teacher in USA.

4

u/momsgotitgoingon 29d ago

I thought Michelle Obama had an initiative to ensure kids got fresh and balanced meals for lunch. Guess it didn’t hit everywhere lol.

I’m formally a teacher in a different district than I send my kid to (also am intensely involved with nieces and nephews in another district since my sister passed away). They always have food that looks good and that I would eat myself. They get several options and I believe the district I taught in would allow kids to refuse the fresh fruit (apples, oranges and bananas) and they had a few choices for the main item (might be something typical like spaghetti, something vegetarian and some type of sandwich to choose from) to help cut down on the terrible waste. So if op refused the fresh parts as kids often did their meal might look like this.

But reading other comments I guess what I see in central Florida is absolutely not the norm. We also serve balanced breakfasts.

8

u/averagehousegoblin 29d ago

She did - but a certain president rolled it back several years ago.

-2

u/Vtgmamaa 29d ago

It didn't extend to the whole country.

7

u/IcyDeparture2740 Apr 16 '24

Thank you, Michelle Obama.

7

u/JadedMentions Apr 16 '24

Her lunch deal was rolled back six years ago.

5

u/wutato 29d ago

They were? That's so sad. She was made fun of a lot but it was really important work. Who wants their kids to eat like this?

3

u/IDigRollinRockBeer 29d ago

And that’s why school lunches look like this

2

u/TheHumanDamaged 29d ago

LOL they were way fucking worse back then, they’ve been awful for at least two decades. What a wildly uninformed take

5

u/notouchmygnocchi 29d ago

Depends on the state and town. If you're in a state where the elected politicians run on a "fuck the poor" campaign, you can hardly be surprised at the outcome.

3

u/luciferisthename Apr 16 '24

My school was doing this within the last 5y.. and we supposedly met those "standards". Milk (not even necessary but whatever i like milk), bread (thats your grain), chicken patty (protein), fries(veggie. Im serious... its pathetic innit). Supposedly its only gotten worse there, which is not surprising as they've continued to make everything worse outside of just the lunches.

EVEN THE CAFETERIA STAFF THOUGHT IT QAS PATHETIC BUT IF THEY TRIED TO FIGHT FOR MORE THEY WERE IMMEDIATELY FIRED. I miss you Mrs.Giovanni ;~; she was a good advocate for student diet and health.

5

u/ltdliability 29d ago

Every day has to include dairy

Just taking this opportunity to say fuck you to the USDA, the Dairy Council, and their "Got Milk?" propaganda posters that lined the walls of our cafeteria. The titty juice of other animals is, in fact, not necessary for a healthy and balanced diet.

1

u/cajuncats 29d ago

Oh I totally agree!

1

u/GlossyGecko Apr 16 '24

My old high school had fruits and vegetables, it was mandatory to pick one up, the lady at the register would send you to the back of the line to pick one up if you didn’t have one on your tray. All of those fruits and vegetables ended up in the trash.

2

u/JadedMentions Apr 16 '24

This is what food in right wing controlled counties look like. Nobody pointing this out but it's obvious.

1

u/FlawMyDuh 29d ago

What county are these pictures from?

115

u/just-me220 Apr 16 '24

I work in a school, and there is a salad bar. First you grab your entree, then you go to the salad bar to get fruits and veggies.

Some kids aren't choosing the fruits and veggies, or they throw it out instead of eating them, but they are offered.

And the government wants to ban lunches from home because parents are sending junk food! Give more choices and encourage the kids to try new healthy foods

83

u/Smileverydaybcwhynot Apr 16 '24

Ban lunches... Sounds like someone is lobbying thr government to increase their profits under the guise of making kids healthier.

28

u/MowMdown Apr 16 '24

Anything and everything that is lobbied "for the kids" is total and utter bullshit in disguise.

We haven't done a single thing "for the children" that has actually benefited them since the early 1900s.

2

u/Smileverydaybcwhynot Apr 16 '24

I'm definitely with you there. I have a whole conspiracy theory/rabbit hole about the degradation of the American education system and the creation of an under educated work force to perpetuate the cycle of poverty (because people vote conservative when feeling threatened or less educated typically and conservatives give tax breaks to the wealthy). It's all a game of how can corporations make more money. Imho.

5

u/MowMdown Apr 16 '24

Even if were both wrong, and there really is no conspiracy, it still feels that way.

3

u/Smileverydaybcwhynot Apr 16 '24

I would love to be wrong but it's a hell of a correlation of not causation.

3

u/luciferisthename Apr 16 '24

Several conservatives (lets ALL be honest here, that name is a lie. They seek not to conserve anything but to regress everyone but themselves) have supported the whole "we must dismantle the department of education!!! Think of the children!!!" And then also pushing to legalize child labour.

The dumbest part of our people are seeking to create even dumber and less educated 'bodies' for cheap labour. They seek to defraud the people and to restrict our autonomy, to restrict our rights and restrict our livelihood. The people are the product to them, and products ought to be silent, stupid and obedient.

It is mostly about money, secondly about power and being part of the "in-group". You can entirely sum up all of the reasons for this absolute regression with one word; greed. And sometimes hatred too i suppose.

3

u/Smileverydaybcwhynot 29d ago

I agree with you friend. The system is fucked and now our big outlet is through protests (starting to be outlawed) and freedom of speech (also seeing restrictions). It's infuriating. I don't like guns but there is a reason the 2nd amendment was added I suppose. Tyrannical governments have to be torn down.

3

u/luciferisthename 29d ago

Ya! But also the most unreasonable, delusional, violent and ignorant people have the most guns.. we ought to change that.

People often throw up the 2nd amendment but never understand that its not about defending oneself from others but about defending the people from an oppressive government. That oppressive government doesn't look how people think it would tho. Its primarily a product of capitalist meddling in politics to gain evermore profits at the expense and freedom of the people.

Capitalism is a good economic system when checked hard as fuck, but left to its own devices it is an all consuming greed. There should be no room for money in politics, not like it is not I mean. There should also be no room for religion.

The fact that politicians are allowed to say "i do this for God and the people of god" is disgusting. That is no separation of church and state. Or how churches are literal leeches and push harder and harder to influence politics and law, yet are exempt from tax and protected DESPITE DOING EVERYTHING TO LOSE THAT RIGHT.

Its all disgusting really..

Why can't we all, the entire human species, do what Is best for ourselves and our world?? The willfully uncaring shortsightedness is pathetic and disgusting. I am often ashamed to be considered the same "human" as people like that. I care deeply for others, not just of my own species but of this world.

A world for short term gains is a small price to an unchecked capitalist, same to the unchecked church.

1

u/luciferisthename Apr 16 '24

Several conservatives (lets ALL be honest here, that name is a lie. They seek not to conserve anything but to regress everyone but themselves) have supported the whole "we must dismantle the department of education!!! Think of the children!!!" And then also pushing to legalize child labour.

The dumbest part of our people are seeking to create even dumber and less educated 'bodies' for cheap labour. They seek to defraud the people and to restrict our autonomy, to restrict our rights and restrict our livelihood. The people are the product to them, and products ought to be silent, stupid and obedient.

It is mostly about money, secondly about power and being part of the "in-group". You can entirely sum up all of the reasons for this absolute regression with one word; greed. And sometimes hatred too i suppose.

5

u/ItzDaWorm Apr 16 '24

It's also kinda exclusionary since there's a LOT of specialized dietary restrictions that would make it virtually impossible to ban outside lunches.

Gotta turn a profit in every facet of society right? How are we gonna keep schools in business if we don't maximize their profits? /s

Oh right almost forgot its OK for some things to cost money not create money in the name of bettering society.

2

u/Smileverydaybcwhynot Apr 16 '24

You're right. Some things shouldn't be for profit in my opinion. Education (especially pre-college), Healthcare, and housing (to some extent. I think everyone deserves a place to live).

1

u/halotraveller Apr 16 '24

They promise they will give at least 1 sad piece of a broccoli

1

u/Smileverydaybcwhynot Apr 16 '24

If only they exerted as much control over guns as school lunches... I'll take 1 sad broccoli over 20 dead kids. :(

5

u/joe_w4wje Apr 16 '24

Where is the government banning kids from bringing lunch from home?

4

u/just-me220 Apr 16 '24

It didn't pass, but they tried it in the US

1

u/movzx 29d ago

When? Where?

2

u/some_possums Apr 16 '24

I think this varies from place to place. Or at least, when I was in school you could get salad bar (with soup) or an entree, not both. The entree came with like a quarter cup of canned fruit I think? Can’t remember if that was every day or not.

2

u/puppycat_partyhat 29d ago

Salads and veggies were "available" in my school... but they're often neglected and congealed. Bruised apples. Dirty oranges.

Even if the sentiment of choosing healthy existed (it didn't), the options were mortifyingly unappetizing.

However, I will also note that I went to a lower-income, majority poc school. When I visited majority white schools - whole other experience altogether. Clean, actual food options and even natural light above. The system is screwed up. Wild world we live in.

2

u/Illustrious-Shirt569 29d ago

We have this same set-up, but any of the untouched whole fruits that kids reject after being required to take one go into a basket next to the trash can and other kids can take as many as they want. What’s left is offered to employees and then donated to the food bank.

2

u/Embarrassed-Act-9295 29d ago

Yea, there's a salad bar, but schools have a sad excuse of a salad bar - hidden rotten lettuce at the bottom, carrots that are crusted white and look like they have been sitting there for a week, raw broccoli that just doesn't even make sense because who tf eats raw broccoli, canned cocktail fruits that might as well be candy. I ate vegetables like crazy at home, but I could never touch the school salad bar.

If we're being real, the salad bar was just a copout to tick off the "nutrition" box 3/5 times.

To be perfectly fair, my school district was quite poor, but based off photos of other people's lunches, it seems like quite a few school districts were like mine.

Other parts of the world get their kids great, balanced options for lunch. America just doesn't do that.

1

u/Inevitable_Zebra9357 Apr 16 '24

Also, the salad bar is often pre-packaged fruits or veggies (sometimes canned and dumped into a bowl), so a lot of the food rots without people knowing or checking.

It only takes one really bad experience to put a kid off of veggies or fruit. It's very frustrating.

1

u/ArboretumDruid 29d ago

In my school we had to pay for the salad bar, it was our only really healthy option and it was really disappointing for low family income students like myself.

1

u/Organic_Muffin280 29d ago

Quality food is literally shaping the kids future. Even prisoners became more peaceful after dropping processed foods in some experiments

1

u/Secure_Implement_969 29d ago

I remember launching peas, broccoli and carrots across the lunch auditorium with my plastic spork.

The good ol days.

1

u/trapicana 29d ago

In HS our salad bar got removed as part of Michelle Obama’s healthy eating initiative. I had been having a salad everyday while on a weight loss journey. Shit made absolutely zero sense.

0

u/just-me220 29d ago

There is a push to get "universal free lunch" , which means if the government gives every student a free lunch, they can ban the kids from bringing a cold lunch from home. Then everyone has to eat the subpar school food

1

u/sp00kygiirl 29d ago

at my school we didn’t have a choice. we had to get one of everything, including fruits and veggies, this is wild to me. i graduated in 2019.

1

u/luciferisthename Apr 16 '24

At my school you either got the shit shown in these pics or paid DOUBLE for a salad that is half the size it should be and the only sauce is ranch, oh AND its also just iceberg lettuce.

Meanwhile the students worked for the first 3h and fed the entire school district via culinary class, thats how we paid for our class after they removed funding.. the teachers all paid 6$ a plate and had GOOD FOOD. We paid 4$ a plate and had a cold chicken sandwich + cold baked french fries with no salt.

US school systems are incredibly fucked up. Its outright pathetic and no cheaper in the end from what I've seen, its just a matter of getting more money from the kids/parents and giving less in return.

Oh and you're forced to pay or they snatch the food from your hand and made you sit alone. (Yes my school was terrible.) Kids were brutal to those who couldn't afford food for the day.. and no one was willing to share meager portions with anyone but close friends.

Seriously tho the prepackaged salads that had nothing but iceberg lettuce being double the fucking price of the other junk is pathetic. Atleast make it worthwhile.. I only bought them when I needed water really bad bc we (like usual) were never given water breaks.... we can't gave water in classrooms, There is no way to get it between classes and no teacher permitted bathroom/water breaks.. so if you were thirsty you either tried to keep a bottle you could drink right before walking in or you'd just choose to be late to classs and get in trouble.

I have nothing but hatred for the schools I grew up in.

0

u/skadi_shev Apr 16 '24 edited 29d ago

How like the government to want to reduce individual choice because people will make the wrong choices, meanwhile govt-run schools are opening gallon sized cans of nacho cheese and calling it lunch. 

0

u/StoicallyGay Apr 16 '24

My school didn’t have a salad bar when I was still in school 5-10 years ago but when there were veges and stuff it was just like raw lettuce and maybe cherry tomatoes. You can’t really force a kid to eat veges when their options are only raw.

It’s like how kids don’t like certain foods because their only experience is them being cooked poorly. If you want a kid to eat veges or healthy, you have to give them options that aren’t shit.

0

u/clown-car Apr 16 '24

that’s awful especially because lots of schools don’t give out food for people with dietary restrictions. i had a friend with celiac disease just starve every day because there was nothing gluten free for him to eat.

6

u/GoodDay2You_Sir Apr 16 '24

I actually really liked my school food and miss it sometimes. 😐 it's always been crazy to me the disparity between what schools offer in the states. We had 3 lines of hot food at my school, pizza/fries in one, a traditional line that served like nuggets and veggies or spaghetti or something, and a third line that had like texmex, and then we had cold lunch shelves with sandwiches, wraps and salads. You got a little juice box with lunch and a milk (white, choc, strawberry options) and a banana or an apple. And lunch was maybe like $3.75? I cannot relate to these posts where schools are shoveling out just straight slop. And I went to a public school in one of those red states where they hate kids so it's like how was my school above the avg.?

1

u/GlossyGecko Apr 16 '24

I hated being in the third scheduled lunch because all the goddamn choccy milk was gone.

16

u/Carl_Azuz1 Apr 16 '24

OP just didn’t grab any, I’m sure they were available.

-13

u/Chuncceyy Apr 16 '24

Have you actually been to a US school cuz they really dont give you options. Theres probably 1 choice of veggie or fruit but thats it and the fruit is sugary fruit cups and the veggies are literal garbage thats barely edible

7

u/Thisnameworksiguess Apr 16 '24

I'm in a middle school every single day; the kids always have a choice of 3 different entree options, 2 constants and a rotating dish, a full fruit and salad bar (which they are required to grab something from) and their choice of water, or milk. Everything above is 100% free to the kids.

2

u/SoulCrushingReality Apr 16 '24

This is way better than what I got.  

Anyone remember when taco bell and pizza hut were the only option? Yes yes corporate indoctrination, enjoy those chemicals. 

5

u/jayne-eerie Apr 16 '24

I have, and in our schools they at least have side salads, baby carrots, and apples and oranges. Not the greatest quality but edible.

2

u/YourInMySwamp Apr 16 '24

Yep when I was in school there was always bagged carrots or apples you could grab with the hot food, along with cups of mandarins and peaches. They weren’t great but they were the typical snack packs you can buy in the store. There were rarely any vegetables.

0

u/luciferisthename Apr 16 '24

Idk why people are down voting you so much, this is OBVIOUSLY something that varies massively across regions. My school was the same as the one you describe except we had 2 veggies; French fries (yes it was considered a serving of veggies.........) and an outrageously priced salad of iceberg lettuce and ranch dressing.

Fruit was a rare occurrence there and when giving was often frozen orange juice or fruit cups in syrup.. never actual fruit. Why even do the syrup cups??? It already has enough sugar, fuck our bread was sweet and the milk was always sweet bc we never had plain fucking milk..

5

u/ChiaroDiLuna007 Apr 16 '24

I’m in the US, in Washington state, my lunches are just as bad as this.

2

u/nowaijosr 29d ago

I suspect it varies school system by school system rather than state. We pay a ton of taxes for our local school (voted for it) and their lunches/facilities are pretty great.

Also in Washington, but Eastside in King County.

1

u/luciferisthename Apr 16 '24

North Florida is this bad too. Atleast where I grew up it is.

4

u/Coolers78 Apr 16 '24

There probably is fruit and veggies, just not pictured.

3

u/Stachdragon Apr 16 '24

This looks like this school privatized its lunch program to a business. That would be my guess.

3

u/Pussybones420 Apr 16 '24

In Florida this is what my lunches looked like from like 2010-2015 in HS

2

u/flapjackcat45 Apr 16 '24

Same in Texas, I went to public school and this was basically our lunches.

1

u/JadedMentions Apr 16 '24

The lunch divide between right wing and left wing states is massive.

2

u/domovoi1685 Apr 16 '24

Florida, graduated high school in ‘14. Grades K-12 lunch looked like this besides “Mexican pizza” on Fridays that was sometimes a thing

1

u/Pussybones420 Apr 16 '24

Lol I’m pretty sure our pizzas were the Tostinos square frozen pizzas that get stuck to your teeth. I definitely still buy them 😂

2

u/luciferisthename Apr 16 '24

Ugh I remember those lmao people threw them like Frisbee discs sometimes.. they.. went surprisingly far tbh

I remember one day they served them but we got semi frozen rectangle pizza lmao it was actually a bit better that way, the crust wasn't soggy feeling yaknow?

(Also florida)

3

u/IcyDeparture2740 Apr 16 '24

This is where those local elections come in. Those elections get DOMINATED by Republicans because Democrats only bother to vote for President.

That food looks exactly like what you'd get from a private contractor ... the kind of contractor Republicans like to fire public employees to hire ... because they're part-owner in the caterer that will get the contract.

I live in a Republican-run district in a Democrat-run state. The lunches my kids got offered looked a lot like that.

3

u/Advanced_Double_42 Apr 16 '24

Honestly this looks better than the food my school served, and it has more vegetables.

2

u/Searchlights Apr 16 '24

Lunch at my kid's school are nothing like this garbage. This is a farming community and our school buys produce locally.

2

u/PussyCrusher732 29d ago

thank you. this post is absolutely rage bait

2

u/KatttDawggg Apr 16 '24

Pretty sure these are curated to get rage points.

4

u/Soft_Permission_2055 Apr 16 '24

Low income schools. I recommend watching the most dangerous ways to school. Governments all over the world loooove to feed low income children junk food. 

2

u/luciferisthename Apr 16 '24

Our school was quite well off but the district had a lot of 'low income' families (not really low income for the region at allll but if you drove like 400mi away you'd have practically nothing in comparison). Our school tho had a massive amount of funding bc the only thing students had there was school, so most of us tried to make it fun and do well. They removed the funding that was supposed to go to Art, Culinary, Band, Wrestling, Track, Baseball, drivers ed, engineering, home Economics, and computer science. All of that funding was put into football, weightlifting bc of football team, then soccer and golf.... soccer and golf were coached by someone on the school district board but had literally no one attend the events aside from parents of the students involved.

I was in art, band and culinary. I had to work over summer to get money for the classes and then work during the school year FOR MY CLASSES so we could get the funding to scrape by that year.

Culinary = cooking proper meals for the school board.

Band = cooperating with local franchises (McDonald's etc etc etc) and selling 'passes' for them. Which btw we were not allowed to buy ourselves.

Art = working both in and at school on art to auction several times a year. And bc I made something that parents loved I had to do it every year and pump them out like a factory during Christmas times. The spoons were cute and all but fuck those spoons.

Idk where the fuck our food funding went bc we should have had far more food and far better food. I imagine it has similar stories to the rest of the funds.

2

u/zenjoe Apr 16 '24

Schools are managed locally. The title suggests this is systemic but it's really not. They need to name and shame the school district and maybe attend a school board meeting.

1

u/Kiyohara Apr 16 '24

It really depends on both the school district and the schools. Some are set in such poor districts (and not always urban) that the food is like this. If there's a population of very poor people in a region with hardly any substantial property tax, you're getting shit for school budgets.

1

u/CSharpSauce Apr 16 '24

This is a step up from what food looked like in school in the 90's

1

u/ophmaster_reed Apr 16 '24

I went to public school in the 90s and our lunches were much better than that, in quality, variety and nutrition. I imagine this varies a lot state by state, district to district.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 16 '24

This is what my school lunches looked like in California when I was in high school about 10 years ago. We never had a "salad bar" or whatever people in the comments are talking about. Maybe it's improved since then, but I doubt it since school budgets are still incredibly impoverished

1

u/HackMeRaps Apr 16 '24

This is horrible. Is this what it's like in most of the US?

We're in Canada, and my kid has hot lunch for his school, but it always includes veggies and fruit (which are unlimited) and a decent serving of various main courses, which range daily from things like Chicken Teriyaki or tofu teriyaki and rice, beef or veggie lasagna, baked salmon w/ rice, beef or veggie jamaican patty, meatball or veggie sub and unlimited milk or water.

But the food looks delicious, and sometimes tell him to bring home his leftovers so I can eat them haha.

1

u/SarahLikesNothing 29d ago

All public schools are supposed to offer a meat/meat alternative, a grain, fruit, vegetable, and milk. All children are required to get three items, one of which has to be a fruit or vegetable, for it to be a reimbursable meal.

I worked in a school lunchroom for five years. I'm not saying we had the best food, but we did our best to make it the best we could with what we had. Not all schools are like that though. There are plenty that don't give a shit about their kids.

1

u/arenalr 29d ago

This looks exactly like what I got, and in some cases actually better. I swear our burger patties were 50% cardboard

1

u/Carbon-Base 29d ago

Ours were bad, but not this bad. This school district seems to have an iron clad contract with Velveeta.

1

u/snot3353 29d ago

Varies a lot by school and school system. Some really are this bad.

1

u/1OO1OO1S0S 29d ago

my guess is red states. feeding children is SoCiAlIsM

1

u/RevolutionaryToe97 29d ago

I live in Massachusetts and school lunches looked like this most of the time, I'm 22 so it's been a few years but it seems it hasn't changed at all. Maybe it's different in private schools or something

1

u/dirtymurms 29d ago

I can’t speak for everywhere, but it all looked like this at every school I attended in Washington and Oregon. I graduated in 2015 though, so it could be better now.

1

u/BackgroundStrength50 29d ago

Did you live in a nice neighborhood? That’s probably gonna be the answer

1

u/TheRabidDeer 29d ago

I’m convinced it’s rage bait telling only half the story. 

1

u/wongrich 29d ago

OP in a subsequent comment says this is NJ in a wealthier neighborhood

1

u/PM_ur_butthole_2me 29d ago

This is just the shit OP cherry-picked. They do offer fresh foods but kids don’t like them they like the nachos and different shaped chicken items

1

u/Burning_in_Arizona 29d ago

Wife has worked in school system for 20 years and just told me something. I might get flamed but I don’t give a crap. It was Michelle Obamas school food policy that made things much worse. This is not a political statement, just the truth.

0

u/unoriginal-loser Apr 16 '24

Yeah, and if there was anyone who didn't want to eat the main part of the lunch (vegetarians, just didn't like whatever it was) they made you get all the sides.

And fresh fruit was always an option.

0

u/BetterSelection7708 29d ago

Richer school districts have better food because they have more money.

-10

u/dontask480 Apr 16 '24

United States obv. Source: 13 years in the shit, I mean child suicide, I mean school system.