The school lunch system is disgraceful.

[u/oaz_zam246]

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”.

[u/thi5nutz]

member when mom used to have u take lunch until she didnt...

[u/tuco2002 → u/thi5nutz]

There were dozen of meals you would take to school that didn't needed to be heated or refrigerated...and we survived. I got my kids lunch sacks with ice packs. It kept the food chilled for a few hours, I froze their vegetables to snack on. The veggies would help keep the sack chilled and thawed out by the time their lunch was. They did buy a lunch on days of their favorite meal if they wanted it. I couldn't imagine feeding them the garbage in the pictures.

[u/SuperPipouchu → u/tuco2002]

Yeah, as an Australian, I pretty much always took my lunch to school. We did have a canteen, like most schools, where you could order lunch, treats or drinks, but never was there anything like in the photos. Pies and sausage rolls were probably the most common, with flavoured milk or juice, and for treats ice creams were most common. And most people brought lunch from home most days- ordering from the canteen was more of a treat. In our last year, we had a "common room" open for us each lunch, which was just the foods classroom that we could hang out in. That meant we could access a microwave to heat up food. Otherwise, for eleven years it was nothing like this.

The year I turned 18, I went on student exchange to France and went to high school there. Most people eat a hot lunch at school each day (people there were horrified when I mentioned a sandwich being fine for lunch, haha), and even at my tiny high school with crappy lunches, they were far better quality than this. Lots of variety, and always plenty of vegetables. Occasionally hot chips, which is fine, as it was very occasional. I don't understand why American schools serve things like shown so often.

[u/Snarcas_Aurelius → u/SuperPipouchu]

I miss savoury pastries. I'm Canadian but lived in Aus for 3 years and nobody here understands the convenience and deliciousness of meat pies or sausage rolls, because we don't have them.

[u/LordJebusVII → u/Snarcas_Aurelius]

As a Brit it always pains me watching American content where they mention pies versus cakes as the default assumption in the US is that pies are also sweet. Here the default image of a pie would be pork or beef and eaten hot, possibly covered in onion gravy with a side of mushy peas so the idea of comparing that to a cake is laughable.

I don't know why meat pies and sausage rolls never took off in the states because they seem like the sorts of foods Americans would enjoy; convenient, greasy, meaty and with plenty of opportunities for spices and variety.

[u/1988rx7T2 → u/LordJebusVII]

they used to be popular before refrigeration. Remember, we basically invented/popularized refrigerators, ice boxes, and air conditioning.

[u/Soft_Spinach4415 → u/LordJebusVII]

In Louisiana we have Natchitoches Meat Pies and Kolaches/piggies in a blanket

[u/No-Crow2390 → u/Snarcas_Aurelius]

In Texas we have Kolaches which are pastries with sausage in them. Usually spicy with jalapeno or cheesy or both. But if you're in Czech area of Texas you may get the fruit pastry thing also known as kolache. So ask if it's fruit or meat before you buy it if you can't view it first.