re: Photo Series Documents School Lunches Around the World

I wish I'd taken pics of my school lunches. This was in the not so distant era of actual cooking in LA public schools. Lasagna, homemade rolls every damn day (w/little cups of honey & peanut butter for the picky eaters), red beans & rice on Mondays, gumbo on Fridays (avoid the okra floaters), with actual homemade desserts. Apple crisp, cornmeal cookies, those no-bake chocolate/peanutbutter/oatmeal turd blobs (ugly but delicious). I think french fries, nuggets, and browning iceberg lettuce have replaced any semblance of real food in today's public schools.

I wish someone would deliver the Greek school lunch to my desk right now.

I want to see in what school cafeteria are the workers able to put together lunches with that much precision


I went to school where 300-400 kids would go to lunch at the same time. Classes are of course on a time schedule.

Our lunches were not healthy at all, 15-20 years ago. But I hear they are making strides, at least offering other options outside of pizza, some type of fatty sandwich(fried chicken patty, hamburger), and some hot lunch. served with a fruity dessert and a sugar filled drink(chocolate milk or OJ)

quote:

---

Anyway, I loved the hell out of my school lunch growing up and I was never fat. It's all the twinkies and cookies that kids eat after school while watching tv or playing video games that make them fat.

---

Yeah, the kids bringing their own lunches probably had worse shite because they didn't have access to microwaves or anything.. so it was Spaghetti O's in a thermos, a sandwich, or those horribly unhealthy Lunchables.

Yep, my school lunches got worse as I got older. Elementary days were awesome.

Elementary school.. it was spaghetti, rice and gravy with turkey, gumbo, etc.
On "junk" days, we had huge slices of pizza, those cheese-stuffed breadsticks, nacho days, rib niblets or chicken nuggets.
And we had a hugely stocked salad bar that you had free access to as many times as you want.
And Redemptorist had McDonalds type fries in a huge section every day. You could get as many as you want.
We also had a cash concession stand selling everything they sell at football games.

In Opelousas we had 2 lines in the cafeteria.. "momma's kitchen' and the other one, forgot what it was called. "momma's kitchen" always served things like spaghetti, rice and gravy, shrimp or sausage creole, fried catfish, friend chicken, baked chicken, etc etc.. home cooked food, usually with sides of some vegetables and fruit, and a bagged milk. The other line was the same garbage day in and out: dried out burgers, sometimes hot dogs, Tony's individual pizzas, french fries, and milk.

I, of course, went to Momma's Kitchen 90% of the time. Sometimes the food was actually pretty tasty. Except the fried catfish Tasted like mud

In any case, U.S. public school lunches have always been unhealthy. This isn't surprising to me, although some of those dishes look like they were prepared by professional chefs..

quote:

---

I doubt these foreign school kids would even know what to do with bagged milk.

---

Do they still have bagged milk?

Yeah our High School was similar. I loved most of the shite and at times would get a super lunch which included an extra entree. This was a must on turkey and gravy day.

quote:

---

super lunch which included an extra entree.

---

nah we couldn't do that. Once in a while if there was extra the cafeteria ladies would bring the extras out on a cart, first come first serve.

quote:

---

I love the plates used for this ridiculous photo shoot, of course, but I don't believe that article for a second.

---

You do love you some compartmentalized plates.

But yeah, I don't think French kids get steak regularly for lunch. Unless it's a poor cut.