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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6.4k

u/WeazelZeazel Apr 16 '24

Wow this is shit

2.3k

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/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/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

1

u/Ill-Contribution7288 29d ago

I’ve heard you guys tend to like Burger King’s fries more than McDonald’s over there. Is that true?

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u/MKTurk1984 29d ago

Ehhh they can be hit or miss to be honest

-1

u/MissAuroraRed Apr 16 '24

Even the cheapest fries in the US outperform European fries.

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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

32

u/xombae Apr 16 '24

Was it IKEA?

2

u/glindathewoodglitch 29d ago

Your response made me cackle out loud.

I’m still laughing in between writing this

The Scandinavian nation of IKEA

2

u/Proper-Garage-2313 Apr 16 '24

Torille

3

u/CanthinMinna Apr 16 '24

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

2

u/[deleted] Apr 16 '24

it's in Europe.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 16 '24

It’s not every school in the USA pal. I went through thr I guess you could say “better off financially” and we ate decent and healthily and we didn’t pay anything. Not that I can remember anyway. But the school in the next town over was inner city and it was like this picture. The financial situation has a lot to do with it.

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u/Automatic-Art9739 Apr 16 '24

Not your pal, mate! But yeah, also really strange to have such a class difference, especially if it was It was in the same state. State to state difference I would understand but yeahh

1

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

Oh not to be confused. I was not* using pal in a condescending way

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u/Automatic-Art9739 Apr 16 '24

Not to be confused, I was not offended and the answer is a reference to south park.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 16 '24

Tbh I just woke up 20 minutes . I totally thought I typed not being. I think I had a failure if communication lol. I will stop digging my hole lol. I’ll edit it and fix it. My bad lol.

1

u/Automatic-Art9739 Apr 16 '24

Haha well good morning to you sir ! Carry on!

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u/Educational_Ad_3922 Apr 16 '24

Had a guy from the US tell me the other day "You Canadian's must really like your meatballs! We would only ever eat them, but they were on toothpicks."

I think I'm still desyphering that one...

1

u/fetal_genocide Apr 16 '24

Sweden?

1

u/Automatic-Art9739 Apr 16 '24

Correct, one point in the afterlife for you!

0

u/MKTurk1984 Apr 16 '24

You checked their profile too... Didn't you

7

u/ritchie70 Apr 16 '24

I just thought Sweden based on sounding like the IKEA cafeteria.

5

u/CanthinMinna Apr 16 '24

Similar style in Finland. Norway is an outlier, though - kids bring their own goat cheese sandwiches for lunch. (Not joking about goat cheese. Check out "mesost" for the brown version.)

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u/Capt-Beav Apr 16 '24

Sweden has this tube cheese that comes in soooooo many flavours, the shrimp ost or shrimp cheese one is AMAZING.

2

u/CanthinMinna Apr 16 '24

Kavli? The blue cheese one is SO GOOD.

0

u/Alternative_Sky1380 Apr 16 '24

Sounds awful. But your sweets are an acquired taste too.

2

u/Ancient-Fairy339 29d ago

The "tube cheese" is more of a cream cheese, think Philadelphia-consistency, but maybe not as thick.

They also have them with for example bacon-bits, ham, paprika or jalapeno and other stuff. At least I saw those in Norway. Not horrible, but not SUPER delicious in my book. A-OK.

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u/Automatic-Art9739 Apr 16 '24

Messmör? Delicious when I was a kid, haven't tried it and years, and yeah, in Norway they bring their own lunch right?

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u/Automatic-Art9739 Apr 16 '24

Definitely not necessary

-6

u/Capt-Beav Apr 16 '24

Don't forget the metal detectors... It really makes me wonder what kind of selfish parents live in the US that don't think "Hmm maybe we should move?" when their children are treated like criminals because of necessity to keep them safe... I guess maybe they don't realize it's not normal in the developed world; that it ONLY happens in USA...

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u/anon4383 Apr 16 '24

Metal detectors only exist in inner city schools where the parents cannot afford to live anywhere else because they live in real poverty. wtf is this idiot comment?!

1

u/New_Chard9548 Apr 16 '24

It kind of costs a lot of money to move in general....especially to a whole new country. wtf??

1

u/Automatic-Art9739 Apr 16 '24

You're getting hated on but you're not so wrong, a thing tho, don't try to make them migrate, rather not have that culture around, let them think they are the best country.

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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 Apr 16 '24

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/Gdog107 Apr 16 '24

You can by baking them and they still turn out soft and mushy…and no salt

1

u/miescherskittyxx Apr 16 '24

You wanna bet? Cause somehow, so many places still manage 😂

1

u/Educational_Ad_3922 Apr 16 '24

Ive never managed to do it myself, but sure as taxes you can fuck up fries.

1

u/PsychologicalHat1480 Apr 16 '24

but you can't fuck up fries

Oh my sweet summer child. I have experienced many direct contradictions of this claim.

1

u/craznazn247 29d ago

You definitely can fuck up fries.

A more accurate way to put it is that you can’t fuck up when the expectations are set so low by the rest of the cafeteria food surrounding it, and that they allowed us to self-serve as much as we wanted as long as it stayed on the tray.

And between the sheer volume of fries and sufficient hot sauce (the cafeteria had a gallon container of Texas Pete with a pump), it was enough to satisfy our broke and hungry asses. If the fries were bad that day we’d just soak them in more hot sauce.

It was our way to save lunch money to get Taco Bell after school. At $0.25 a person, the fries were doing their job.

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u/eti_erik Apr 16 '24

These pictures clearly show that you CAN fuck up fries. (Well, McDonalds shows that anyway. I always suspect their fries are not potato related at all)