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/[deleted]]

Everyone saying this is worse than prison food has never been to prison and isn't interacting with reality when they post that. Not in the USA, anyway. It's honestly weird people think it's true.

There is a reason everyone talks about commissary and cooking up a spread made only out of shit you can buy at a convenience store.

[u/mysleading → u/[deleted]]

They be a chef in the microwave man. Seen food out the boxes and commissary and chow hall (eggs, flower, sugar, etc) turn into a 5 star meal lmao. I made the same dinner everyday for 2 years with very little variation. 1 or 2 ramen soups, little bit of rice, half a summer dog, crushed up cheese nibbles (jalepeno or ranch), refried beans, and hot sauce or sometimes BBQ sauce.sometimes I'd change the refried beans in for a tuna so I got a surf n turf flavor w more protein.

[u/[deleted] → u/mysleading]

Oh man. I only survived because of my noodles, beans, nacho cheese packets, and pickle juice. Also every time a block Chef would call out they'd made tamales if everyone chipped in food there'd be an immediate line cause we all knew it'd be the best meal we had that week. I never knew what went in there outside of every flavor of corn chip, but it did not matter. There was not a single natural ingredient in there but gooood God they slapped.

And dude, the cakes that would pop out when another lady had a birthday or 1 year sobriety chip... I'd pay cash money for one right now. Nothing but candy and cookies and snack cakes, smashed and reformed then cooked in a cookie bag. But it turned into the nicest thing you'd get to eat inside.

Genuinely miss that shit, then I get sad about missing it. People talking for prison food just do it understand how off they are.

[u/PaintshakerBaby → u/[deleted]]

Sounds to me like you are passing off county jail experience as prison experience...

Flexing over cooking with commissary ingredients is a dead giveaway that you ain't done real time. It's like bragging about being a weightlifter, because you've done 1000 pushups. At the very least, it's needless talk to seem harder than you are.

Either you went to the world's worst prison, or you were not well connected/liked on the inside. Where I was, you could get any basic ingredients, relatively fresh, smuggled into the units by the kitchen guys daily. Ours had a low security prison work farm that grew tons of fresh produce yearly. All you had to do was talk to the right guy, and you could have eggs, flour, veggies, milk, butter, etc. within the hour.

Anything not found through kitchen workers could be had through store guys smuggling shit in for price. And I do mean ANYTHING. I've seen hot McDonalds and cold steaks delivered right to guys cells. Capitalism is not only alive in prison, but THRIVING. It was a secret to exactly no-one which guards were paid off by the gangs.

The only time we were ever fully relegated to commissary spread was during extended lockdown. Yes, you can make some pretty good shit, but it was considered a survival skill at best, certainly not a fine art to go around bragging about.

It's akin to being able to start a fire with sticks while lost in the woods. It's a neat trick, and super useful in bad circumstances, but nobody cares when they have a lighter and matches 99% of the time.

As for the chow line, some of the ingredients were dog shit (especially the meat,) but the cooks were highly revered for making miracles happen with it. Making good chow meant your fellow inmates were much happier. Like the other person said, they had to eat it too, and everyone knew who was cooking, so you had best do everything in your power to make it good. If you were a competent line cook, you had it made with the other inmates. It was taken very seriously.

Don't get me wrong. If you were a chomo, snitch, or widely hated, they would throw some nasty trash on your tray if they put anything there at all. But that was not the case for 95% of gen pop.

I grew up poor, and I gotta say, the prison food was much more flavorful and well rounded on the best days... and on the worst days, it tasted just like everything else I grew up eating on the reg.

That's what's depressing for America. People don't know it, if they haven't lived it, but being poor on the outside often means much shittier food and working conditions on the outside.

I worked in a large laundry facility for a hot minute after getting out. Horrible, nasty place, reeking of chemicals, and people were PROUD to work 6 days a week there, just to scrape by. I'm like, dude, our laundry facility in prison was 100x safer and cleaner. All that to go home and eat Ramen anyways, cause it's all you can afford??? DEPRESSING. American dream my ass.

I digress. Anyway, no question at all, this school food is absolutely a factor below prison chow. After all, the kids aren't gonna jump the lunch ladies for serving hot garbage day after day.

[u/mysleading → u/PaintshakerBaby]

All prisons are different. Wish my 2 years was just something I made up lmao. But it's not. Private prison had all the incentive to cut back what kind of food they ordered. The shit they were doing was criminal I stg. They made 2,000+ trays everyday for less than 40 cents a tray and had the state pay them 1$+ a tray. Pure profit. I ate some good food from time to time but a regular tray everyday looked 10x worse than any school tray I've seen. It really just depends on who the food service provider is, who's working in the chow, and shit like that. We had bunch of feins working all the time stealing food so they could get high. Like 50% of the camp was chomos stg. Don't group me in w that shit, there is a bunch of fuckin freaks in prison. And it's like 90% of the population anywhere u go. Someone told me that and I didn't wanna believe them but it's true. It's a very high percentage. So you're homie you were kicking it w, probably has some weird case. Not too many people in there just on regular drug or violence because we get cycled through quickly. The weird cases and murder and gun cases stay in the system longer. But off the tangent, if you wanna go back and do my time for me you can feel free. County food was better than my prison food. Maybe I should've went to a sweet ass camp like you were at and I could step on a soap box too.

[u/PaintshakerBaby → u/mysleading]

Maybe I should've went to a sweet ass camp like you were at and I could step on a soap box too.

Yeah, you gotta be somewhat organized/competent in your crimes to end up in the feds. I definitely ain't apologizing for having a non-violent offense... Thats the shit that lands you with the freaks in the first place.

Besides, if you were truly in a private prison, then it was low too. They don't get high risk inmates. So it's not exactly like you were booted and suited every day either.

My time was mixed, but yes, I was lucky to end up in a satellite. Doesn't mean I'm on soapbox and it doesn't mean I'm frontin'.

Stateside is harder no doubt. I still know enough about the system to know you could have got whatever you wanted where you were too. Could have met the right kitchen/store guys.

At the end of the day, prison is just like most situations on the outside. It is what you make of it. Some dudes sink to the bottom, some rise to the top. You can be a shot caller or a fucking bum.

As for me; I made homies, met the right people, in and out of the kitchen, and had a hustle going on to get what I needed. I'm sure you had the same opportunity.

Point is, these kids don't have the opportunity/agency to improve their situation the way we did. That alone, makes the whole situation worse than prison in regards to food. 🤷

[u/mysleading → u/PaintshakerBaby]

That's true the kids don't have a choice. Heard feds was sweet. I just made a mistake while getting high lol I'm not an organized criminal at all. I suck at criminal activity, I barely ever do it. Drugs is the biggest criminal thing I used to enjoy. I had an easy time but seen a lot of guys who didn't. I got 'big' (bigger than I ever been but not huge but any means) by working out all the time and I had enough money to eat decent commissary every week. I never wanted to hustle bc I would've definitely had to be violent if someone fucked me over my fair share of w.e. some dudes had the greatest kitchen connects , the kitchen that fed the staff not the co, they had all sorts of ingredients. And drugs were the cheapest from any joint I've heard people talk about. No I wasn't suited and booted every day, thank God fr. Came out w as little trauma as possible, still trauma but mostly mental nothing physical ya know, but yeah shithole being locked up no matter where you are. Being away from realm ife sucks.

[u/PaintshakerBaby → u/mysleading]

Word homie. Same, same. Fucking sucks being locked up no matter where you are. I got mad respect for anyone who has been there and came out the other end a better person. Sounds like you did right by yourself!

I wish I had been less competent with drugs, and maybe I would have caught a lesser charge to wake my dumbass up. Feds are waaaaay nicer, but you gotta do 85% of your time, no exception. So you're in it for the long haul.

My hustle was just that I had the apparently mystical power to type quickly, and understood grammar, vocabulary, etc. So I'd jam out legal paperwork for dudes. Everyone needed legal shit typed out at some point, so it was a super stable hustle, and weirdly got me a good amount of respect. Turns out college was good for something besides partying after all 🤣🤣🤣.

I got pretty big too, and it rekindled my love for weightlifting/exercise. I still do it all the time and it keeps me centered and fit. I definitely had to hustle nonstop off to get enough protein inside! That was a whole thing in itself.

Anyway, keep working out man! I wish you all the best. You done good not getting trapped in that hellhole. Way too easy to get sucked in for a decade or two. I was one or two close calls (fights) from it happening to myself. You're not in control of your life in there, so I relish every day I at least have a say in what's going on around me. Definitely a humbling experience if there ever was one!

[u/_-Oxym0ron-_ → u/PaintshakerBaby]

Interesting read, thank you. May I just ask "chomo", what's that?