The Devil which is school food

I am posting this on the evony forums as well as yahoo answers, as I want to know what a variety of people think.


Ok, US school cafeteria food is disgusting. I thought the food would get slightly better in high school, but boy I was wrong.

First of all, there's the diversity problem. When I was in elementary and middle school, I lived in an affluent city, Pleasanton, California. We were served known brand foods, as well as a variety of salads and such. So pretty good, right?

When I was in 7th grade, I moved to a bigger city in NC.

Needless to say, the food there was horrible. Maybe it's the bigger city or the fact the median salary is less. I don't know.

But thing was, I was served 5 chicken nuggets or one slice of pizza per lunch pretty much everyday (that ration was pretty much same for 5th-8th grade). The cheese was disgusting (like rubber tires), and some turkey thing they made once in a while seemed like it was partly rotten.

So how are growing teens supposed to get their nutrition?

In high school now, we are more underfed, and for the first time, I am packing my lunch more then buying.

At least I will have better choices and a bit more taste in my drink.

So community, what's your thoughts?

Any experiences yourself?

i actually like high school lunches

I mean the rich cities provide decent lunches. The big cities just get it from sodexo.

its free lunch get over it. what did you expect food to be like in school? everyone deals with it. Not really a big deal. Besides better for the money to go into the educational equipment then into better food.

Eh, I go to a school of 2k kids, our lunches are pretty good. But I have to agree with Prodigy, if the lunch is free, well, beggars cant be choosers. Right?

It's not free. $2.40 for lunch. or 3 dollars.

i don't know if you saw the program in the USA but jamie oliver did a whole series on the school lunch program
it really all has to do with the local government and school board
as long as the tomato sauce on the pizza is considered a vegetable i think you'll have a problem
more info

I went to a public school in NYC (so yea biggest city you can get ;) ) and our school lunches were decent, yea they weren't 5 star restaurant quality, but they didn't make me want to vomit everyday. As far as pizza, that was probably the worst I hated school pizza, chicken fingers were decent, french fries was the bomb diggity! Ravioli was my all time favorite. cheeseburgers were meh. I never really ate beef patties or sloppy joe's, they just didn't look too appetizing, although I regret not eating beef patties now because they are pretty damn awesome! (by beef patties I mean the Jamaican beef patties).

If there was absolutely nothing on the menu I wanted, I just went with the standard everyday thing they serve which was peanut butter and jelly.

We dont even have peanut butter and jelly.

Just Nachos, Pizza, pretty much.

I mean, there were okay days (when food was acceptable)

and bad days (when I felt like going home).

guess it depends on the region and stuff.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Balaam

i don't know if you saw the program in the USA but jamie oliver did a whole series on the school lunch program
it really all has to do with the local government and school board
as long as the tomato sauce on the pizza is considered a vegetable i think you'll have a problem
more info

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K thanks.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by gottibabe1

I went to a public school in NYC (so yea biggest city you can get ;) ) and our school lunches were decent, yea they weren't 5 star restaurant quality, but they didn't make me want to vomit everyday. As far as pizza, that was probably the worst I hated school pizza, chicken fingers were decent, french fries was the bomb diggity! Ravioli was my all time favorite. cheeseburgers were meh. I never really ate beef patties or sloppy joe's, they just didn't look too appetizing, although I regret not eating beef patties now because they are pretty damn awesome! (by beef patties I mean the Jamaican beef patties).

If there was absolutely nothing on the menu I wanted, I just went with the standard everyday thing they serve which was peanut butter and jelly.

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Where in NY?

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Originally Posted by MrHyde

K thanks.



Where in NY?

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Queens, NY

Also, try not to double post, you have an edit button.

Lol sorry (just learned how to multiquote)

Queens is the nice part of NY, never been to Queen tho.

Only manhattan.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Prodigy the 5

its free lunch get over it. what did you expect food to be like in school? everyone deals with it. Not really a big deal. Besides better for the money to go into the educational equipment then into better food.

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Free lunch is normally only offered to children who apply, requiring their parents to fill out applications.
That's how it is in Georgia and Alabama, I assume other states as well. Otherwise, you have to pay for the disproportionate mediocre flan.

But like Gotti said, some meals are very good, even things you can look forward too. But not every school has it good.
Like hyde said it varies with the state and area.
But the usda just passed a mandate/bill or whatever requiring schools to reduce entree portion sizes and provide more fruit/vegetable choices. Entree sizes are already small.

Yep, there was so much difference between the rich community in Cal and a big city in North Carolina.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SickbyDefinition

Free lunch is normally only offered to children who apply, requiring their parents to fill out applications.
That's how it is in Georgia and Alabama, I assume other states as well. Otherwise, you have to pay for the disproportionate mediocre flan.

But like Gotti said, some meals are very good, even things you can look forward too. But not every school has it good.
Like hyde said it varies with the state and area.
But the usda just passed a mandate/bill or whatever requiring schools to reduce entree portion sizes and provide more fruit/vegetable choices. Entree sizes are already small.

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yea forgot that you paid for lunch lol. graduated a while ago lol.

but yea if you have to pay then you still have a choise. buy school lunch or buy somewhere else. Many schools let you leave to buy lunch at a near buy spot. Others dont. But if you cant then you can bring your own or buy on your way to school.

gotti i live in queens :)

edit: and yes, it really is a good thing to cut food portions. damn many people in america are over weight.

Might not be. If you are the average kid, think you need more proportions in 8th grade then 5 chicken nuggets, or in 12th grade, about 8-10 chicken nuggets.

Seriously, I come home hungry every day I come back lol.

And they dont let us get food from somewhere else.

I went to a rural high school where my lunch options were, cafeteria food made by other students, or pizza from a pizza place 3 km's down the road. So I packed my lunch which I made sure was at least somewhat healthy 3 times a week, and ate pizza the other two days.

there is an alternative you may not have considered
http://walyou.com/wp-content/uploads...mi-Hendrix.jpg

EDIT: i see lucas beat me too it, but i so love the jimi lunchbox i won't delete the post

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Prodigy the 5

edit: and yes, it really is a good thing to cut food portions. damn many people in america are over weight.

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Cutting portions that are already questionably small is not the answer. I used to get so hungry because I didn't eat enough food at school, and I would actually go home and practically binge on food as far as eating is concerned. Many people are like this, with eating, drinking, drugs, exercise, etc. It's a pattern. Smaller portions isn't the answer, efficiently making food that is healthy, and reasonable filling, is the answer.


Some children don't have the opportunity to bring lunch, necessarily, so don't expect that all kids have a choice.

And for the kids who do qualify for free lunch, there is a reason they need free lunch, so it's safe to presume in many cases that there may not be enough food at home, at least not sufficient enough to bring to school. These kids don't even have the choice to purchase second helpings or extra sides, or even a drink, like other kids with money and/or home brought lunches. I used to bring parts of a lunch and eat parts of the school lunch as well. For health reasons as well as trying to keep my appetite satisfied. I'm not overweight at all.

Exactly.

One fact: Fat people lose more weight if they eat a lot (A lot) of healthy food (all has to do with nutrition and rate of metabolism).

So more healthy, bigger portions

I always liked eating lunch at school. Too bad for the other guys...

I think it's funny cause this was also posted on MyFitnessPal

The lunch food at my school is delicious, but its DAMN well overpriced...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Prodigy the 5

yea forgot that you paid for lunch lol. graduated a while ago lol.

but yea if you have to pay then you still have a choise. buy school lunch or buy somewhere else. Many schools let you leave to buy lunch at a near buy spot. Others dont. But if you cant then you can bring your own or buy on your way to school.

gotti i live in queens :)

edit: and yes, it really is a good thing to cut food portions. damn many people in america are over weight.

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Cool!

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Originally Posted by MrHyde

Might not be. If you are the average kid, think you need more proportions in 8th grade then 5 chicken nuggets, or in 12th grade, about 8-10 chicken nuggets.

Seriously, I come home hungry every day I come back lol.

And they dont let us get food from somewhere else.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by SickbyDefinition

Cutting portions that are already questionably small is not the answer. I used to get so hungry because I didn't eat enough food at school, and I would actually go home and practically binge on food as far as eating is concerned. Many people are like this, with eating, drinking, drugs, exercise, etc. It's a pattern. Smaller portions isn't the answer, efficiently making food that is healthy, and reasonable filling, is the answer.


Some children don't have the opportunity to bring lunch, necessarily, so don't expect that all kids have a choice.

And for the kids who do qualify for free lunch, there is a reason they need free lunch, so it's safe to presume in many cases that there may not be enough food at home, at least not sufficient enough to bring to school. These kids don't even have the choice to purchase second helpings or extra sides, or even a drink, like other kids with money and/or home brought lunches. I used to bring parts of a lunch and eat parts of the school lunch as well. For health reasons as well as trying to keep my appetite satisfied. I'm not overweight at all.

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I think it's ok to make the portions smaller, but they need to allow kids to take as much fruits and veggies as they want. I think this is where the whole law passing might have stemmed from. If you're eating the small entree and filling yourself up with either salad or fruits then you shouldn't have a problem with being hungry.

But, the main problem is, most kids don't eat the fruit and veggies that come with their lunch. So it's kind of a lose/lose situation.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by gottibabe1

But, the main problem is, most kids don't eat the fruit and veggies that come with their lunch. So it's kind of a lose/lose situation.

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I don't know about other schools, but half the time the fruit and veggies that are served with the school lunch down here are usually bad or simply taste/look funny.

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Originally Posted by acer5200

I don't know about other schools, but half the time the fruit and veggies that are served with the school lunch down here are usually bad or simply taste/look funny.

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Yea Veggies usually look pretty weird lol

Fruit is fruit so you can't really mess up fruit. My school used to hand out packets of apple slice.. THEY WERE SO DARN GOOD!

My school has a salad/fruit bar, all pretty much fresh fruit. Looking at this thread makes me thankful for my lunch at my highschool cause we get ALOT of chocies: Tacos, Pizza, Nachos, Chicken patties, Chicken nuggets. etc. and its all for only 2 bucks and the food is actually good, though sometimes you get hard tater tots but nothing a little BBQ sauce cant fix. :p

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Balaam

i don't know if you saw the program in the USA but jamie oliver did a whole series on the school lunch program
it really all has to do with the local government and school board
as long as the tomato sauce on the pizza is considered a vegetable i think you'll have a problem
more info

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I didn't know if I should laugh or weep when I read that the US Congress was debating whether pizza was a vegetable. Is it just me or is that insanity personified?

I saw the Jamie Olliver series on school lunches and that highlighted the basic apathy on the parts of governments, schools, parents and canteen staff on this subject.
Jamie also showed how tasty and nutritious food can be prepared for less cost than the processed gunk they were serving up and that the children would eat it quite happily.

I would go even further. I would like to see schools grow (organically) a large portion of the food they serve for themselves, with student participation at all levels including preparing the meals. We learn many things in school and many of the things we learn are not part of the curriculum. If you teach children poor eating habits when they are in school then is it any wonder they will continue to eat the same rubbish in later life?

[EDIT] Children who are involved in growing fruit and vegetables tend to lose the resistance they may have had to eating these foods because they are invested in the produce and proud of what they have achieved.[/EDIT]

School salad is suspicious.

I mean, Ive been in 2 different regions.

One was a rich city with the average earning of 150k dollars. School food was very good and some were famous brands.

Then there was Durham-Raleigh-Chapel Hill Region, where people made considerably less then that rich city. School food was sodexo based and not very good.

And gotti, Queens is a very rich part of NY. Let's not forget that.

PS. I can pack my lunch, just lazy lol.

PPS. Looked through the Jamie Oliver thing, very informative

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MrHyde

School salad is suspicious.

I mean, Ive been in 2 different regions.

One was a rich city with the average earning of 150k dollars. School food was very good and some were famous brands.

Then there was Durham-Raleigh-Chapel Hill Region, where people made considerably less then that rich city. School food was sodexo based and not very good.

And gotti, Queens is a very rich part of NY. Let's not forget that.

PS. I can pack my lunch, just lazy lol.

PPS. Looked through the Jamie Oliver thing, very informative

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That's a joke right?

There is maybe a few neighborhoods that are considerably above average. Everything else is below average... Jackson heights? Jamaica? Corona? ... more than I can name...

I've lived in different parts of queens and they all serve pretty much the same food. The department of education doesn't give queens a higher budget in food than other borough's.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MrHyde

I am posting this on the evony forums as well as yahoo answers, as I want to know what a variety of people think.


Ok, US school cafeteria food is disgusting. I thought the food would get slightly better in high school, but boy I was wrong.

First of all, there's the diversity problem. When I was in elementary and middle school, I lived in an affluent city, Pleasanton, California. We were served known brand foods, as well as a variety of salads and such. So pretty good, right?

When I was in 7th grade, I moved to a bigger city in NC.

Needless to say, the food there was horrible. Maybe it's the bigger city or the fact the median salary is less. I don't know.

But thing was, I was served 5 chicken nuggets or one slice of pizza per lunch pretty much everyday (that ration was pretty much same for 5th-8th grade). The cheese was disgusting (like rubber tires), and some turkey thing they made once in a while seemed like it was partly rotten.

So how are growing teens supposed to get their nutrition?

In high school now, we are more underfed, and for the first time, I am packing my lunch more then buying.

At least I will have better choices and a bit more taste in my drink.

So community, what's your thoughts?

Any experiences yourself?

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I live in North carolina. I never really ate school lunch. Too many foods I am allergic to. The food I did it was not the best. It wasn't the worst neither. The school I go to now has a snack line. The food in the snack is good. So I eat there and I get full.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MrHyde

And gotti, Queens is a very rich part of NY. Let's not forget that.

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I'll be back when I stop laughing.... and that might be never.

Where in NC?

and Acer it is true lol

Hyde... I actually live in queens...

I think I would know if we were the richest part of NY lol

We aren't, we have some neighborhoods that are decently rich but I would not consider them rich, more just above average salaries.

I don't know what public schools are like because I was private schooled my whole life.

No, it's not true bro. Queens is poor as hell

Looked at stats and said Queens is the richest out of the 4.

Might not be right.

Also, private school kiddos.

psh.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MrHyde

Looked at stats and said Queens is the richest out of the 4.

Might not be right.

Also, private school kiddos.

psh.

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We have 5 boroughs...

Pizza, nachos, cheeseburgers, chicken nuggets, sloppy joes...

Does the term junk food mean anything to you Americans? [I say Americans because that's where all the respondants have been from, nothing personal.]

It's almost as if these schools are trying to teach students poor eating habits, especially if, as you say, the salads and vegetables were highly suspect or just plain bad. Don't get me wrong, I will eat most things but pizza every day? I think it would kill me in pretty short order.

It sort of reminds me of the Simpsons episode where Homer decides he can get rich by selling used cooking fat and the school canteen was the mother load.

There will be those who will tell me that they ate this stuff every day at school and never got fat but that's because you are/were young and a young person's metabolism burns a lot more calories than someone nearing 30 or older. Obesity is becoming the largest health issue in most western nations these days, being linked to heart disease and diabetes, and just generally makes life harder for those with this problem. It can also become a cause of the other major health issue in the west - depression.

Not only that, processed foods such as these can contain all sorts of nasty little extras such as trans-fats, corn syrup, excess salt or sugar and various preservatives, chemicals and additives that have no nutritional value whatsoever but may cause other health issues besides obesity. :soapbox:

Personally, I would rather have, say, a ham and salad roll (wholemeal or multigrain bread roll) for lunch than most of the stuff mentioned so far but that might be because that is the sort of thing that my mother would pack for me as a young'un. I still prefer fresh foods over processed foods now (many, many, many years later) and I put that down to the lessons my mother (and father) taught me about food when I was young.

On my 50th birthday I had a physical exam from the doctor and although I could lose a few pounds, (not enough exercise) my general health and fitness are pretty :modedit: good (for an old man). I hope all of you can say the same when that time comes.

wellllll... my kids don't ever get to eat from the tuck shop
we pack their lunch every day
their school only offers junk food in the canteen

not to say i don't give them a sausage roll or pizza in their lunch from time to time, but at least i know what's in the lunch they carry

This thread makes me glad I was schooled in England lol.

The high school I attended had a wide range of freshly cooked meals, such as lasagna, chilli, stew etc. But also had a salad bar and a sandwich bar so whatever you wanted was available (since they blocked leaving the site at lunchtimes when someone got hit by a guy delivering pizza). It wasn't too expensive, about £3 for a meal and pudding while free school meals were entitled to a meal, pudding and drink of their choice. Though personally I stuck to packed lunches because I'm not a fan of waiting in queues for my lunch for 20 minutes.

My college provides a variety of meals as well for a reasonable £2-£5 price because they're policy is to ensure students are having a healthy 3 meals a day instead of starving or eating junk so they keep prices low. Meals usually consider of pasta, sandwiches or some random meal of the day. Although pizza, hot dogs, curries, wraps and things are available. Alternatively we're given the choice of freshly made pizza, fry up or sandwiches from the college next door or students are allowed to eat at the trainee chef's restaurant for £10 a head but it includes a 3 course meal :p

I think it's mainly up to the children though, if they want to eat healthily then the choices are there but from my experience most prefer to buy a small sandwich and load up on sweets than a proper meal.