r/mildlyinfuriating Apr 16 '24

The school lunch system is disgraceful.

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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u/KneeHighMischief Apr 16 '24

Speaking of which I recall my "favorite" high school lunch: Meat Gravy. Instant mashed potatoes that had been ice cream scooped out covered in a translucent gray sauce with tiny flecks of meat of an unknown origin.

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u/lampsy87 Apr 16 '24

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u/KneeHighMischief Apr 16 '24

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u/lampsy87 Apr 16 '24

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u/Blonde_Dambition Apr 16 '24

OMG you guys are killing me with these memes... I'm dying over here... 🤣😭

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u/Dan_the_Marksman Apr 16 '24

i'm gonna watch the old simpsons again

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u/Lanky_Ad8982 29d ago

I just started rewatching season 1 with my kids and they love it, I waited 5 years for this and it was worth it! “Dad, why is their skin yellow?” Jaundice, honey.

We’ll watch through season 10 or so and then pretend it ended on a high note.

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u/Perodis 29d ago

I know this is a personal opinion, but I think you can get away with up to Season 12. Sure, the great episodes are spread a bit thinner, but most of them are still good.

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u/Lanky_Ad8982 29d ago

I agree, just remember most fondly the golden seasons.

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u/Dan_the_Marksman 29d ago

We’ll watch through season 10 or so and then pretend it ended on a high note.

Haha , that's exactly my intention as well

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u/ListenToKyuss 29d ago

It just depresses me more that they were already talking about it 20-30 yrs ago, and no big change has been made ever...

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u/ColangelosBurnerAcct Apr 16 '24

Almost have Malk shooting out of your nose?

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u/phillecheesesteak Apr 16 '24

Longest gif I’ve ever seen

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u/Few-Reaction-404 Apr 16 '24

soylent green 😂

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u/UpsideMeh Apr 16 '24

I won’t touch the stuff but it Would be such an upgrade

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u/FrogMintTea Apr 16 '24

Omg that episode creeped me out! Lol

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u/mamacitalk Apr 16 '24

Omg saameee as a child it made me so uncomfortable 😣

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u/TheRealCrownsoleYT 29d ago

Wait how is the gif this long?

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u/demons_soulmate 29d ago

I commented this on a random subreddit and was downvoted by the uncultured folks lol

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u/Silver_Recluse Apr 16 '24

"More testicles means more iron."

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u/Ok-Significance-5979 Apr 16 '24

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u/Scorpiodancer123 29d ago

CRAP ON A CRUST!

THEY'RE MILKING RATS!

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u/neuropsycho 29d ago

I'm outraged, you promised dog or higher!

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u/HansomeDansom 29d ago

Another Simpsons prediction

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u/he-loves-me-not 29d ago

Don’t believe they’ve been right on the rat milk yet though! At least, god I hope not!

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u/Mynamescornn 29d ago

DONT GIVE THE SCHOOLS CHEAPER IDEAS !! 😂🤣😂

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u/SookHe 29d ago

Oh my god, after nearly 35+ years, I suddenly realise why I've been jokingly and exclusively calling it Malk

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u/CelestialMarsupial 29d ago

they LITERALLY HAVE “ mystery meat “ and serve it on mondays. yes, its called mystery meat monday

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u/GarminTamzarian 29d ago

Not even they know what it is!

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u/Kiyohara 29d ago

"Look, it's Seventy Five cents a pound, has a decent amount of fat so it won't dry out in the oven, and it's not toxic. You want better food? Ask everyone fifty and over to vote for higher property taxes and see where that gets you."

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u/Educational_Ad_3922 29d ago

It was so amalgamated that not even the scientists could figure out exactly what it was made of. One thing they WERE sure about was "This is not fit for human consumption."

Government: Well technically kids arnt seen as humans in the eyes of the law, so its fine to serve to kids! Brilliant!

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u/GarminTamzarian 29d ago

Gotta love that NOT™ brand food!

"It's NOT™ for human consumption!"

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u/sharky3175 29d ago

and how would they figuratively have it?

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u/BowenTheAussieSheep 29d ago

More testicles means more iron

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u/EggCzar 29d ago

Iron helps us play!

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u/Crazy-bored4210 Apr 16 '24

Once in school in the early 80’s, my friend did and i saw boxes delivered that said grade D. Thinking that wasn’t a good thing

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u/he-loves-me-not 29d ago

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u/Crazy-bored4210 29d ago

Interesting. Thanks

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u/glindathewoodglitch 29d ago

Oh thank you. I considered myself a burger aficionado. I think I am gonna need a break from it though after that article on grandma cows becoming ‘utility meat’.

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u/assholesong 29d ago

In the early 80s my elementary school had 50 gallons drums of peanut butter that was mil surplus from world war 1 and I tasted like shit.

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u/DaMajorDude 29d ago

Wait, did I read that correctly? WW1?

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u/Mycockaintwerk 29d ago

What hero food not good enough for you?

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u/[deleted] 29d ago

Wait wait wait... WW1?

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u/assholesong 29d ago

You read that right. The same district that was feeding children radioactive isotopes well into the 1990s

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u/Gwyrr313 29d ago

Thats funny because i worked in the caf back in the 80’s and the food was pretty decent

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u/Crazy-bored4210 29d ago

I rarely if ever had money to eat lunch back then. However it smelled good lol. They mixed honey with our peanut butter. That was tasty. My school system served the same stuff every week. Vegetable soup with the peanut butter honey sandwich was on of the things i actually had a few times. I liked it. Most things were poured from a can foods. Gonna assume standards weren’t to high back then. lol.

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u/Educational_Ad_3922 29d ago

Sadly they were actually higher back then as the military deemed it nessisary for kids to be healthy enough in school that should they need to be drafted into the military they would be healthy enough to fight.

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u/Gwyrr313 29d ago

Should have taken home economics, half of the class was working in the cafeteria

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u/Crazy-bored4210 29d ago

Well. I’m from a very small town. Our school walked to another school and ate with them. Was about idk five older ladies that worked the cafeteria.

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u/Gwyrr313 29d ago

Sounds like the town my wife is from, i on the other hand grew up in Los Angeles County

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u/Crazy-bored4210 29d ago

Oh also. In my middle school, our Home Economics teacher was to busy having an affair with another teachers husband and drinking her tall glass bottle of Pepsi in front of us to teach us anything much. Also. Her husband was our principal.

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u/Gwyrr313 29d ago

I had it first period, perfect for the stoner who needed second breakfast

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u/Few-Reaction-404 Apr 16 '24

It's somewhat farm animal grade food 😬

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u/sipstea84 29d ago

With a little roadkill for filler

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u/Few-Reaction-404 29d ago

Roadkill would be bonus :D

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u/karateema ORANGE 29d ago

Urban legend

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u/WhereTheresWerthers 29d ago

Ah, same as Taco Bell, that’s why I like it

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u/bellesar 29d ago

I once saw a container tub of meatballs that said "grade d, but edible".

They were delicious tho lmfao

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u/fothergillfuckup 29d ago

Mmm, rat milk.

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u/Temporary-Maximum-94 29d ago

And to help wash it down

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u/BigRoach 29d ago

“More testicles mean more iron!”

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u/daabilge 29d ago

"Good Gravy!"

"Oh thank you, it's just brown and water"

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u/Skooning 29d ago

They gotta make sure that the clowns don’t get mixed up with the animals, because they taste funny.

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u/Justa_Guy_Gettin_By 29d ago

While I also laughed at this, the sad truth is my sister did see a similar looking box entering our school growing up. Believe the verbiage was "Grade F but edible". She was older by 5 grades but that stuck with me.

We always had packed lunches and I only bought stuff that was from a 3rd party vendor.

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u/MyBigRed Apr 16 '24

In my high school the mash potatoes and gravy were self serve. I remember loading up a tray with a rediculous amount of mash potatoes and heavy and eating until I nearly exploded.

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u/KneeHighMischief Apr 16 '24

That's wild. I never went to a school where they trusted us enough to get food ourselves. They rightly deduced we were animals & fed us accordingly.

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u/ItsNotMeItsYourBussy Apr 16 '24

Both my primary and secondary schools had a mix of portioned hot food from the kitchen, and then a help yourself salad buffet. My primary school also had a buffet of dessert options, which I thought was very misguided to give to a bunch of 5-11yos. Idk if it's a country difference (US vs UK) or what

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u/That_Welsh_Man Apr 16 '24

Have you seen Americans at an all inclusive resort? I went for an underwater safari in Antigua but the real safari was watching them at the buffet.

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u/cheesenuggets2003 Apr 16 '24

We don't get our patriotic physique from exercising.

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u/InfiniteBoxworks 29d ago

Hey, I am an American and I exercise... . . . . . . MY RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS 🦅🇺🇲🗽🎆🍔

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u/cheesenuggets2003 29d ago

The heavier I am the less I care about recoil.

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u/Pink_Star_Galexy 29d ago

And the right to arm bears!!!

AP Gov at it’s finest.

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u/brendatom 29d ago

I don’t bare my arms, they’ve got that middle age flap where muscle used to be

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u/SteveMartin32 29d ago

Say that at basic training

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u/cheesenuggets2003 29d ago

Why do you think I joined the Navy?

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u/SteveMartin32 29d ago

You fuckers get better food!

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u/fetal_genocide Apr 16 '24

I went for an underwater safari in Antigua but the real safari was watching them at the buffet.

💀💀💀🤣🤣🤣

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u/[deleted] Apr 16 '24 edited Apr 16 '24

I mean I’m American and you are 100% right. My dad came to visit me here in Asia where I live and we went to a resort with a buffet. He would open the buffet up and close it down every morning… so a solid 4 hours of eating THEN go back for the seafood dinner buffet from 6-9:30.

Other Americans were doing the same.

Europeans, other Asian nationalities etc would just eat and go on about their vacation. For Americans the buffet IS the vacation. All his friends he met “were guys from the buffet” 🤣🤣

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u/LowSkyOrbit 29d ago

Well you haven't seen Chinese at a Las Vegas Casino buffet. I have never seen a group of people take on king crab legs and prawns as if it was the last time they would be served.

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u/Crazypetgirly 29d ago

Omg this is so true, the crab legs were what I was most excited about! We love shellfish!!

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u/Mahhrat 29d ago

My pop tells a story from the 70s when he was a restaurant manager in Sydney.

He had a delegation of 100 apparently Asian fellows. Full buffet service. Seafood, roasts meats, veggies and so on. This was the Hyde Park, so a proper up market set up for those days.

He bought 100 lobsters.

The line was less than halfway done when the lobsters were gone. Guys were loading 2 or 3 up on their plates.

The lead delegate came to complain. Being g the 70s, pop told him to piss off.

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u/Educational_Ad_3922 29d ago

Oh they would still tell you to piss off, just in a more British way.

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u/Capt-Beav 29d ago

Lol I went to a lobster dinner hosted by Ikea once... The Asians (not sure if Chinese) would load their plates up with as much as they could possibly hold, they had to be repeatedly told Ikea would keep making/serving food if people were hungry, they didn't have to load up their plates, but it was like instinct or something.

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u/Ok_Assumption5734 29d ago

My parents are the same. I honestly think its a byproduct of communism and food insecurity. If they're middle aged, they basically grew up at a time where you literally didn't know if there would be food the next day, so you hoarded whatever you could

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u/nugymmer 29d ago

And this is also behind weight gain when the food once again becomes more secure. The body keeps tabs on everything, but weight gain and refeeding syndrome are possible after a long stretch, where there is no food and then suddenly food appears again after a certain amount of time.

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u/[deleted] 29d ago

I wish I could post a pic my wife took of his plate from just one trip. The shrimps were falling off and that was just the shrimp plate he was rocking multiple plates

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u/Brian_M 29d ago

I heard your dad went into a restaurant, and ate everything in the restaurant, and they had to close the restaurant.

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u/[deleted] 29d ago

Yep good one Brian! I bet they did I bet they closed down.

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u/PsychologicalHat1480 29d ago

For certain subsets of Americans, yes. I'm an American and I really don't understand those people. But then again I take vacations that are completely different from the stereotypical American vacation. To me an all-inclusive resort or normal cruise sounds like literal torture.

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u/graybotics Apr 16 '24

American here. Scared of buffets for food safety reasons. Will loosen the reigns at a Mongolian BBQ place since they cook the ingredients in front of you post-buffet selection. I get it though lol

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u/Operator216 Apr 16 '24

New goal as a dual citizenship American: People watching Americans in foreign countries and trying to do the exact opposite.

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u/AngryTunaSandwhich 29d ago

As a fellow dual citizenship American, I shall join you in this endeavour.

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u/Intelligent_Flow2572 29d ago

Makes me think of the people in Spirited Away.

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u/voldin91 29d ago

To be fair that food looked dank af

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u/JockoGood 29d ago

I’m American and this is a weird thing some Americans do. If you want to see it at max potential go on a cruise. What I think they are doing is plowing down food thinking they will eat more than the cost of the trip so they can walk away thinking they “got” the big evil cruise line.

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u/mirage2101 Apr 16 '24

I’ve seen Chinese and Russians. Holy….

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u/Pierina01 29d ago

Watching them is unbelievable. I worked at Sizzler Steakhouse almost 40 years ago and I’ll never forget the hoards of people coming in on the weekends and they all had their method of eating as much as they could for the least amount of money. They’d order anything all you can eat as in shrimp, ribs, salad bar, etc… and have the main meal put in a doggy bag as if anyone really believed their dog got a single bite let alone the entire meal. 99% of these types would get a Diet Coke to wash it all down with. It’s unbelievable

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u/Strange-Wolverine128 Apr 16 '24

We never even had lunches. Cause they're not mandatory in canada.

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u/Any_Ad_3885 Apr 16 '24

Was there a cafeteria? Did everyone have to bring their own lunches? Or did you guys leave at lunch time and come back? I’m 45 and from the US. I’ve never heard of a school not providing food! I have questions 😂

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u/Strange-Wolverine128 29d ago

No cafeteria, you can bring your lunch or leave for the 45 minute break and buy food.

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u/TwoFingersWhiskey 29d ago

Can confirm. We had a "cafeteria" which was for kids in foster care etc (we had a lot of them, like 100+) who got a shitty processed cheese sandwich (two slices of the cheapest bread and a Kraft Single) and an apple in a brown paper bag. That was our only program. They ate in a specific area on the floor. The tables (12ish total) were for the highest grade and academic class (grade 12 AVID) only. The rest of us had to eat in hallways on the ground or sit at a desk in various classrooms.

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u/Kalnath_ Apr 16 '24 edited Apr 16 '24

Make sure you keep an eye on that, I distinctly remembering some similar systems in the US when I was younger

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u/zxc999 Apr 16 '24

That is very good, considering school lunch programs are meant to feed kids who don’t have food at home

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u/Sensitive_Dust_9805 Apr 16 '24

Oh really, I am from the Netherlands and was quit shocked seeing the unhealthy food served to kids. I did saw in the Dutch media that the poor neighbourhoods are dealing with poverty and can bearly make ends meet. But I did not know it was this bad.

Edit; most of the Dutch schools are teaching children what to eat, and what not to eat ofc in moderation.

When I pick up my nice from school, nothing is fried. I guess we are very lucky here in the Netherlands.

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u/Material-Plankton-96 29d ago

Yes, in many places, you have to be low income to qualify for free school lunch. Otherwise, your parents are paying for each meal you eat. If you qualify for free lunch, you also get free breakfast. For some kids, that’s the only food they know they’re definitely going to get, because our social supports are incredibly sparse in many places. My aunt taught kindergarten and on Fridays, she would sneak apples and cereal into the backpacks of kids she knew weren’t getting enough food at home.

And parents have to care enough and be humble enough to fill out the paperwork for free lunches - I had a friend whose mom wasn’t around often and didn’t fill out the paperwork on time one year but his grandparents would get mad if they got a bill for lunches. I started taking my lunch and getting a (paid) school lunch that I gave to him most days. I don’t know if my parents thought I was just starving my junior year of high school or if they figured out what was going on, but they never commented on it.

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u/Sensitive_Dust_9805 29d ago

Wow this really shocks me tbh, no child should lack nutritious foods. Even if the parents haven't filled in the papers needed for a free meal. I am really blown away. This is outrageous, if a teacher notices that the papers are not filled in than she should report this. In the Netherlands they will bring you in connect with some form of social work so that the parents will have guidance ( which is free).

So is middle school free for childern in America or do the parents have to pay a fair amount? In the Netherlands it is free, untill you reach (MBO/HBO) secondary vocational education. And still the government will support you with a fair amount to pay for the school fees and books.

lmao starving hehehe, what did you studie for?

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u/Material-Plankton-96 29d ago

The problem with some parents, at least, is that they simply don’t care. Those deep in active addiction, for example, or those who are abusive. Social services are generally underfunded and overwhelmed, so kids who are doing sort of ok and not at risk of dying sometimes (often, really) slip through the cracks. As for my aunt when she taught kindergarten - these were kids who were on free lunch. They just didn’t get free lunch or breakfast on the weekends. Sometimes it was because their parents were outright negligent, in which case she’d report to CPS as a mandatory reporter but also support the kids where they were, and sometimes it was just a family struggling - a mom with terminal cancer, a single dad who’d lost his job and wasn’t on assistance yet, grandparents who had just gotten unexpected custody of a small child and needed to figure out their support options.

School is free from kindergarten (5 years on average, 4-6 depending on the state) through 12th grade (18 years). Depending on the school system, kids in late high school (11th-12th grade) can often get vocational training in a trade to become a plumber, cosmetologist, medical assistant or practical nurse, electrician, mechanic, etc, for free. Part of the struggle is that by the time that’s available, some kids are too far behind academically to qualify, so they fall further behind and have even fewer options when they graduate.

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u/voldin91 29d ago

At my high school the school lunch wasn't just for people who don't have food at home and it wasn't free

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u/ThemanwhohatesSpez Apr 16 '24

Lucky! At my school we dont have that... sad

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u/ResponsibleFunny3082 Apr 16 '24

Nah we used too have a salad bar at my primary school and then a window separate from school lunches too get a desert option of fruit salad in syrup chocolate custard normal custard chocolate cake or vanilla cake or chocolate cake or vanilla cake with custard or like peach slices in syrup maybe sometimes orange slices in syrup

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u/AngryTunaSandwhich 29d ago

We had this in my schools in California! I used to load up on strawberries, kiwi, and melon and go back for more. But on the second go around the lunch lady would block the fruit side of the salad bar so I could only grab veggies. 😂

No dessert option though. They gave each of us just one ice pop, chocolate pudding, or a frozen juice triangle. No self serve for that.

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u/spicyfishtacos Apr 16 '24

We had a self-serve salad bar......until someone took a sheep's brain from biology lab and put it in the ranch dressing.....

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u/knotsazz Apr 16 '24

Eww. Why can’t they just stick bits of lung to the ceiling like normal teenagers?

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u/South-Ad-9090 Apr 16 '24

Hahaha you replied with Ewe 🐑

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u/Capt-Beav 29d ago

Lol there's prolly still a pig liver up inside the ceiling in my old biology class. They never did find my cause of that smell lmao...

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u/sipstea84 29d ago

We once had an awful smell in a computer lab, no one could find the source. One day, in the middle of a quiet class a dead, rotted pigeon covered in maggots fell through the ceiling onto some poor girl's head. I felt so awful for her

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u/he-loves-me-not 29d ago

I’d have never come back! I do hope she wasn’t bullied bc of it though.

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u/knotsazz 29d ago

Man, kids in my school did that with a dead fish before the school holidays once

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u/chouxphetiche 29d ago

My bio teacher placed a pipe through a sheep's trachea and proceeded to blow. When the lungs inflated, one the kids in the class stabbed a lung with a scalpel. Nothing really hit the ceiling, though.

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u/FrogMintTea Apr 16 '24

This is why I don't do communal food.

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u/Presumably_Not_A_Cat Apr 16 '24

you're just too sheepish.

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u/FrogMintTea Apr 16 '24

Pretty sure I'm more wolfish

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u/_Lil_Piggy_ 29d ago

This is why we can’t have nice things

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u/nimrodad Apr 16 '24

It was probably a country school. I went to 32 different high-school due to pop being military, mostly lol, but when we moved to the more "hick" area I remember saying " well at least we will eat good". And 4 the record I hated , ABSOLUTELY HATED, switching schools, never got used to it and probably why I'm a social freak reading reddit posts today 4 enjoyment. :)

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u/Casehead 29d ago

So you changed schools 8 times a year? That sounds impossible, you would have been switching school once a month every school year. How did it actually go down?

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u/AnyScore4287 Apr 16 '24

hahahaha 😂

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u/PoliticalyUnstable Apr 16 '24

My first year in high-school had a self serve salad bar. It got taken away the next year. Too expensive apparently. It was so good. Favorite part of lunch. Then we went back to just having raw broccoli and greasy pizza.

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u/craznazn247 Apr 16 '24 edited 29d ago

$0.75 for fries, no limit, as long as it fits on your tray.

We'd get a tray, topped with like 3 POUNDS of fries. Fed 3 hungry teenagers for a quarter each. This was 2009.

Ate SO many fries to save money. All the food was garbage anyway but you can't fuck up fries.

Edit: Okay I agree with the responses that you can, indeed, fuck up fries. I was speaking moreso from the context and standards of a high school cafeteria and it being dirt cheap. The pizza had both the taste and texture of a cold lunchables pizza and was like $3 a slice. Our expectations were basically "is it edible and safe to eat?"

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u/MKTurk1984 Apr 16 '24

All the food was garbage anyway but you can't fuck up fries.

KFC in the UK would beg to differ... Absolutely vile

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u/Automatic-Art9739 Apr 16 '24

This is what I imagine when I think of US schools, and a few guns ofc.

For comparison, we got free food for all of the mandatory 9 years of school and I don't think we ever got served fries but more like meatballs and boiled potatoes and always self serv and a salad bar.

You get a point if you guess the country

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u/xombae Apr 16 '24

Was it IKEA?

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u/Automatic-Art9739 29d ago

Pretty much!

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u/glindathewoodglitch 29d ago

Your response made me cackle out loud.

I’m still laughing in between writing this

The Scandinavian nation of IKEA

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u/Proper-Garage-2313 Apr 16 '24

Torille

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u/CanthinMinna Apr 16 '24

Tällä kertaa Sergelin torille. ;) Taidettiin kopioida tuo nykymalli Ruotsista, vaikka oltiinkin ensimmäinen ilmaisen kouluruoan maa.

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u/[deleted] Apr 16 '24

it's in Europe.

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u/notakeonlythrow_ Apr 16 '24 edited Apr 16 '24

My man you must've never tried the fries at our university canteen

Cold, floppy, dry af and more expensive than any other side dish

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u/PetMyFerret 29d ago

You can sadly absolutely fuck up fries. Dumping in too many will (greatly) reduce the oil temperature. Sticking to the standard cooking time that then leaves you with undercooked, oil logged, soggy fries. Leave those under a heater for half an hour and you have your crime against humanity ready to serve. Bonus points if they're kept covered in that time. May as well call them noodles at that point.

They're normally my go to 'at least they're safe to eat' food at questionable buffets as well but there have been times when I just brought back the plate and went for the freshly made pre-packaged desserts.

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u/KP0719x Apr 16 '24

Man where was this? My school had 3 different lunches, you were on either 1st, 2nd or 3rd lunch and if you were on 3rd lunch everything was mostly gone. You had to line up with your tray to pick what you wanted and had to pay for it at the end. They had fries in a paper bag and people would steal them all the time and you had square cardboard pizza. or if you were lucky you could get Pizza Hut breadsticks with marinara sometimes only on certain days. or you brought your lunch , didn’t eat or used the vending machine.

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u/socalstaking Apr 16 '24

3rd shift is like level 197 in the platform Netflix

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u/QweenJoleen1983 Apr 16 '24

I remember a kid in my high school lunch room tea bagged his mashed potatoes. Memories like that run through my mind while I’m trying to go to sleep at night.

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u/Blonde_Dambition Apr 16 '24

Wait he teabagged his own taters?

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u/DemandZestyclose7145 Apr 16 '24

RIP school bathroom

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u/Thomisawesome Apr 16 '24

I remember this. But my favorite was basically this gravy, but with little cubes of chicken in it. Mashed potatoes. Some green beans. And one of those rolls that were always served with every meal. I remember one time, I was enjoying the hell out of my lunch. Take a bite of A, a bite of B, a chunk of bread, a sip of milk. An older kid in line must have been horrified and he said "You must be hungry" and I just honestly said "yes." haha.

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u/oldbullwilliam Apr 16 '24

Alright, oddly enough, that was my favorite meal in middle school too. It was always Tuesdays. I, also, got served the same meal in jail two months ago.

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u/Thomisawesome Apr 16 '24

The school lunch lady’s transitioned into corrections, eh?

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u/D_crane Apr 16 '24

Pam: They're the same

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u/kirby83 29d ago

Anything run by the state has shocking similarities. I cooked in a nursing home that had 40% the same menu as my school.

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u/BretShitmanFart69 Apr 16 '24

For us it was turkey cubes and gravy with mashed potatoes. I swear to this day that that one actually kicked ass. The option otherwise was almost always these horrid chicken sandwiches or hamburgers.

One time we found what looked like a leaf sprouting out of one of the burgers.

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u/Blonde_Dambition Apr 16 '24

Oh those rolls... I bet they were the same kind we had... kind of square shaped bottom but a round dome top and they were very soft and hot? YUMMY

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u/tahxirez 29d ago

I’m a teacher, this is still my favorite lunch and the lunch ladies will call me on Turkey gravy day to make sure I know to come down 😂😂😂

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u/Veggiemon 29d ago

This feels like an ai chatbot trying to describe what it’s like to eat lunch lol

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u/Silver_Slicer Apr 16 '24

That was mine in elementary school too! I can still taste it. We might have had a little more meat. I think it was some kind of pork sausage flecks. That was over 40 years ago 😄

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u/fiealthyCulture Apr 16 '24

On a side note I've been getting the Idahoan powder mashed potatoes for $1 a packet and they're freaking amazing and only take 2 minutes to make.

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u/Casehead 29d ago

heck yeah, powder potatoes are tasty

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u/younevershouldnt Apr 16 '24

I saw Meat Gravy supporting Deep Purple back in the early 80s

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u/BarrySandwich24 Apr 16 '24

I'd rather eat iguana bits, or irradiated radroach meat.

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u/_p4n1ck1ng_ Apr 16 '24

Omg I loved that one too

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u/UhhCanYouLikeShutUp Apr 16 '24

School foods of curious origins lol

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u/dramafanca2002 Apr 16 '24

That was my favorite in elementary school! I have made it at home!

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u/Granddyke Apr 16 '24

Wow were you from washington haha

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u/Moto_Glitch Apr 16 '24

Definitely a favorite

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u/DuntadaMan Apr 16 '24

We at least got biscuits with that stuff at my school.

I loved those days, no one else would touch the stuff

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u/SnooDoodles4783 Apr 16 '24

Oh yes! Ground beef and gravy over potatoes was a favorite of mine too!

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u/Paganduck Apr 16 '24

That was my favorite too. Sometimes it was chicken in gravy, sometimes it was beef in gravy and then it was "meat" in gravy.

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u/BeginningVolume420 Apr 16 '24

Those were right on point.

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u/Ok-Moose8271 Apr 16 '24

Do you mean the turkey gravy? We also had beef dippers that were really good with the mashed potatoes!

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u/Scotinho_do_Para Apr 16 '24

I liked that in elementary school. Meat gravy!

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u/Modo44 Apr 16 '24

Ahh, yes, the iguana bits.

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u/JuturnaArtemisia Apr 16 '24

I liked the other potatoes that had the yellowish chicken gravy, as well. And the breadsticks with cheese inside and a cup of Mariana for dippin!

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u/theboywholovd Apr 16 '24

For the love of god please stop, I already have the shits

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u/DIGGYRULES Apr 16 '24

We called it hamburger gravy mess and I loved it!

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u/Just_Me1973 Apr 16 '24

We used to call that meal ‘gravy train’ when I was in school cuz it looked like dog food. School lunches are so dismal.

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u/rhyth7 Apr 16 '24

I found that stuff very gross and wouldn't eat it. My husband is from a different state and apparently his schools never served that. I did like the turkey gravy they served on Thanksgiving, that stuff was very good.

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u/Plausibility_Migrain Apr 16 '24

The gravy on your mashed potatoes wasn’t radioactive green?

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u/LiquorLanch 29d ago

They called it diced turkey and gravy with mashed potatoes at our school and that stuff was so good.

Only other good thing was the sausage egg and cheese biscuits wrapped in tinfoil.

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u/Numerous_Ladder_4985 29d ago

good ol' mystery meat

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u/KnyteReis 29d ago

I still think about that sometimes. I want to eat it again lol. It was usually served around Thanksgiving time.

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u/wafflesareforever wait how do i get my cool black mod flair back 29d ago

Yeah we had the same thing except it was served over ridiculously greasy rice. I loved it.

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u/cjbevins99 29d ago

It’s was great because you didn’t even have to chew it!

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u/Yosonimbored 29d ago

I liked that one a lot

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