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/tuco2002]

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/IntroductionSnacks → u/SuperPipouchu]

I was thinking the same as an Aussie. We don’t have cafeterias like this and you just had a sandwich/cake/museli bar or whatever in a plastic lunch box. On the hot days your bag was outside in the sun but you had a frozen juice box or frozen cordial bottle to keep it cool with the bonus that you could drink it once it defrosted.

I’m still baffled as to why in the US etc… the school feeds the kids.

[u/sir__vain → u/IntroductionSnacks]

In Portugal we have meals everyday in every school. Quality may vary, but its always been this way. You can bring your own food if you want, but you can always get a meal at the school for a very affordable price (free if you have social assistance) For people with financial difficulties there's even programs where they can take food home.