9 Pics That Show What Kids Get For School Lunches In Different Countries
Debates and initiatives over school lunches in the United States have remained in the public dialogue over the years, and for a good reason. The National School Lunch Program (NPL), which provides low-cost or free kids meals, serves upwards of 31 million students at 92 percent of U.S. public and private schools.
This means the dietary restrictions and provisions of NPL should be of concern to most U.S. parents. Well, Sweetgreen, a chain of salad restaurants, that runs the Sweetgreen in Schools program meant to educate kids about healthy foods, fitness, and sustainability, created interesting photo series to show what kids around the world eat for lunch in school cafeterias – and compared to the U.S these schools are serving up gourmet healthy meals. Scroll down below to compare plates!
Italy
Local fish on a bed of arugula, pasta with tomato sauce, caprese salad, baguette and some grapes
Finland
Pea soup, beet salad, carrot salad, bread and pannakkau (dessert pancake) with fresh berries
France
Steak, carrots, green beans, cheese and fresh fruit
Brazil
Pork with mixed veggies, black beans and rice, salad, bread and baked plantains
South Korea
Fish soup, tofu over rice, kimchi and fresh veggies
Greece
Baked chicken over orzo, stuffed grape leaves, tomato and cucumber salad, fresh oranges, and greek yogurt with pomegranate seeds
Ukraine
Mashed potatoes with sausage, borscht, cabbage and syrniki (a dessert pancake)
Spain
Sautéed shrimp over brown rice and vegetables, gazpacho, fresh peppers, bread and an orange
USA
Fried ‘popcorn’ chicken, mashed potatoes, peas, fruit cup and a chocolate chip cookie
374Kviews
Share on FacebookWhat do they look like? (I'm curious!) to me all these look like local dishes, served on a "school lunch tray" - but far from truth.
Load More Replies...I live in Spain. Where the heck did this person even get the idea that schools would be serving sautéed SHRIMP at lunch???
Ahahah I thought the same thing xD that's just so unreal XD come on!!!
Load More Replies...Also, replace "popcorn chicken" with freezer burned chicken nuggets ; P
Load More Replies...That does not look like American school lunches. I mean, it has been a long time since I was in school and maybe its changed, but I doubt it. This is probably just an example that was cooked by a chef with nice ingredients or something lol. I remember the food always being burned, stale, dry, sloppy, and plain gross....also, very few options.
I hear ya, ZombieGirl. I remember having a small rectangle of a 'pizza' for lunch in HS from time to time. Consisted of a dry crust with what looked like spray-painted on tomato sauce and a few sparse sprinklings of cheese. The whole thing was usually overcooked.
Load More Replies...I cannot speak for the other countries but the italian one is super fake, the dishes while plausibles are never served together and don't look remotely like that, also the caprese salad is not properly a salad nor a side dish.
The one comment "They're your kids, you feed them"... For real? We pay taxes for public school, even when you don't have kids enrolled.
I suppose *her* kids have never gone hungry. She sounds like a snob.
Load More Replies...You made this same post about four years ago Bored Panda. It wasn't accurate the first time either, except for the US.
lol whut. I live in Germany and let me tell you, I really don't believe that school food would look like this ^^; Maybe private schools, but not public ones... Not even the food in our canteen at work looked like any of these photos, so I really doubt they would put that much effort into school lunches.
The USA lunch is much smaller and unhealthier than that. Tater tots, a square of Styrofoam pizza, and a cup of corn syrup with 3 chunks of fruit in it.
In Spain, and I think it's in al European Union at least, menus are made by dietists so they are always healthy and balanced. And of course they aren't able to choose anything. They must eat only what's on their plates and they can be "force-feeding" in order they eat everything, including couliflower and ugly bad-smelling vegetables.
Load More Replies...That looks way too nice to be true! In England you get slop with a side burnt or under-cooked chips
We always remembers like the childs we were. i had the same meals in France than the homeless i serve today as an adult, and i think this is nice and i hated it when i was a child. I think that this is like education. You hate it when you are a child, but you make the same thing with your children because, yes, they were right.
Load More Replies...Quite funny, finnish food doesn't look anything like it does in real. Seems like that the person just read the menu and made own version of all. And its Pannukakku, not Pannakakkau.
I live in France, And I can guarantee you, that we don't eat that, at school at all. It's really bad actually. Industrial food with no tastes, and form. (Sorry for my English.)
I cannot tell you about the other countries but I can tell you about the U.S one. I have taught in many schools in the U.S. and I can tell you that the lunch shown is served in the richest areas (about 1% of the population). Everywhere else it makes you sick to your stomach.
Our school dinners in the late 60's and 70's were incredibly healthy for their time.' Made off-site but brought in hot and freshly cooked .meat/fish and 2 veg - hot and on a real plate. with a pudding to finish. Once we got to the senior school - from age 12 - it was a cafeteria style - with choices - but all the choices were healthy. This was before the age of pizza - the most unhealthy thing on offer was chips. everything else was meat/fish/veg/protein/salads. - yoghurt as a choice for dessert. and you could go back for "seconds" if you were really hungry. Congratulations to my schools - all the dinner ladies and kitchen staff right the way through were pupils parents - so they made sure it was good food
Load More Replies...and this is what you get in Czech Republic 2212000_ji...2ed3d9.jpg
Amazing they are served on the same dish in each country. I'd bet someone read up on what is served, got a chef to prepare the foreign meals and just slapped some leftover walmart food on the US plate to make a political point.
If I had to guess I would say someone looked up what dishes are typically served in school cafeterias around the world and threw together these plates. Someone already said the Italian one would never be combined that way. Greece is a neighboring country to mine, so there are similarities in the cuisine and I find it hard to imagine that someone would combine these dishes the way they are presented here.
Nobody would take that trouble to present a meal so well for a 12 year old
Load More Replies...Spaniyard here... please tell me wich school serves sauteed shirmp, so that I can take my kids there
There's a trial in Sweden where school kids can choose one of several lunches through an app, and pick it up at lunch. It's promising because they not only save money but have increased the number of kids actually eating lunch. And it's free, paid through taxes, to ensure that all children can eat.
In Québec schools provide breakfast for kids whose parents can't afford to feed them, but I don't know if all schools have a cafeteria.
Hahaha!!! That´s b******t!!! Kids are starving in Brazil They don´t have that much for lunch and deputies steal the lunch money from schools!! It´s true!!
I'm a 60s 70s kid. We weren't fat even though we had tater tots and spaghetti in school lunch because we were physically active. Take away the kids video game and send him outside
The Ukrainian lunch has blini (thin pancakes), not syrniki (they`re much thicker and are made of cottage cheese). Plus the borscht on the photo looks like strawberry jam. Borscht is not meant to look like puree, it`s supposed to have visible pieces of veggies and meat.
This is what I remember from my days in HS in the US. I hope, for the sake of the students it has gotten much better than this. h2CFCBA34-...8-jpeg.jpg
Whoah! i will load mines tomorrow.In France this is forbidden to have 2 feculents and no veggies at all. the dessert is sugar, with sugar and sugary dairy, forbidden too, water and just water. Sugar in all forms everywhere! And we hated that french lunch as kids.
Load More Replies...The USA lunch is wrong. There's usually no mashed potatoes and there's NEVER a cookie
Some people will do anything to get fame, even serve lies on a platter
Can people from their home countries confirm or deny that's what lunches actually are?
For Italy the dishes are more or less right but in the wrong combination and they also look weird.
Load More Replies...The U.S. lunch is what happens when a nation cares more about money and pandering to the voters/taxpayers than it does about investing in its kids. (And Australia and New Zealand seem to care less about *their* kids than even *we* do...) P.S. to Ms. Helinski: I *DARE* you to say that to a family with two two-or-three-job working parents that can still barely make it paycheck-to-paycheck. 2a520d0b19...b862ea.jpg
I both studied in Italy (my native land),and in Ukraine, and I never, ever, had such good lunches at school. In Italy I never saw something cooked well, and most of the times, kids had to bring something from home to eat instead of the lunch served at school. In Ukraine the school I visited didn't have such High standards of food either, event tho kids had to eat their lunch for good, most of the pupils chose not to eat and to buy something from a little store close by before coming to school. It's really shocking the fact that I also hear from people that their kids have to eat in 10 minutes and then straight going back to studying. It would be better to give students more time to eat or to relax. (I'm also a student, and we have to 5-10 minutes to eat and go to the bathroom, but the problem is that we don't have a cafeteria at my school but instead we have some coffee and snacks machines that always have long lines).
Man, I wish I had gotten popcorn chicken and a chocolate chip cookie in my elementary school lunch. The best we had in the 90's was mystery meat and gravy with watery corn and a nice roll to trade for a Twinkie from the kid with the bag lunch. Oh, and we had "root beer float" flavored milk and Tampico.
Do people in every country “get” food for lunch at school? Where i’m from (netherlands) everyone brings their own food (often bread, some drink and a cookie) from home to eat. They do sell food in the school’s canteen, but that’s mostly snacks.
In France this is forbiddent to bring "fresh food" from home because of the strict law about meal balance in public places that serves food and temperatures and sanitary rules. If someone is sick because of the food they can't tell if this is because of a school meal or from something homemade. you have to ring a medical certificate if you need any specific diet, or tell if you have a religious/veggie diet then the school or the hospital will provide you an alternative.
Load More Replies...If you look closely you will notice that the school lunches shown are photoshopped.
I'm in high school and we don't get lunches like that. I wish we would. (America)
This post may not be realistic...nothing like the lunches of oatmeal -filled hamburgers and Jello I remember in the US...but it is still an interesting view of different food cultures.
This is surely only private school's where you pay a huge sum to attend? I am from UK and had lots of school dinners over the years and none ever looked anything like this...
Nothing real about these. THIS is what an American school lunch looks like.... pizza-scho...837de9.jpg
Judging by the fact these meals are made by the same person (same table, same tray), they have obviously been prepared based on menu list provided but using premium ingredients, this is not what the actual end product would be like (probably something closer to an airplane meal)
Do you want to see real Spanish school lunches? More examples: 1- https://www.google.es/search?q=comida+comedore+escolar+espa%C3%B1a&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwioiLaxge3dAhUOhRoKHfvEAAwQ_AUIDigB&biw=1536&bih=706#imgrc=VJsZvhOA7MqzbM: 2- https://www.google.es/search?q=comida+comedore+escolar+espa%C3%B1a&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwioiLaxge3dAhUOhRoKHfvEAAwQ_AUIDigB&biw=1536&bih=706#imgrc=zoU6TFkv2AJ05M: 3- https://www.google.es/search?q=comida+comedore+escolar+espa%C3%B1a&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwioiLaxge3dAhUOhRoKHfvEAAwQ_AUIDigB&biw=1536&bih=706#imgrc=DI7sg2YVJ_Cg6M: school-5-5...e72aa8.jpg
lol I remember my elementary school lunches very well! It was two things, an aluminum container containing a hot dish...usually a riblette and a plastic container containing a salad...iceberg lettuce and pieces of carrots...usually some unripe fruit too...this was a US lunch in California in the 90s/00s...don't forget the nasty 1% milk...we loved chocolate milk days because it actually didn't taste like water...I loved the rare occasion we got trail mix or sweet potatoes...
Did anyone else think some of the lunches looked suspiciously alike???
I'm calling BS. US school lunches never looked even remotely that good.
In Germany they get wurst, sauerkraut, pretzel and a pilzner. Seriously
And all I eat is a chapathi ,ruce or curry in my lunch^_^..But everybody's lunch has its own aroma: ) Too many dishes -One lunch box !
But I wonder the countries that are deprived of three times meal ..the countries with scarcity of food...:( What would those children bring.? But anything can fill up an empty stomach in hunger! May god answer their prayers and help them⛤
Load More Replies...Spanish here... I wish my country give this healthy food to children, sadly it's not true.
As an Australian, I have never understood the concept of school lunches. Here our kids bring lunch from home or may order (and pay for) lunch from the canteen if the school has one. How is this kind of lunch ‘done’. Please educate the curious.
In Spain, the youngest children go to school from 9h to 12h and from 15h to 17h, or after from 8h or 9h to 13h, and then from 15h to 17h or 18h. Most of them cannot go home, eat and come back because their parents are working and aren't able to pick their children from school, cook, eat with them and take they back to school. However, some do it, indeed. The other children eat at school. They all eat the same (except alternatives for allergies) at the same time in a big lunch room. They eat a starter, a main course and a desert, the same for everybody. Water and bread is on demand. Menus are made by diestists so they are healthy, but cookers make hundreds of them every day, so they cannot look like in a chic restaurant. Parents pay every month the same quantity for lunches, and there are food allowances. Every child eat the same, there are no options, no differences and each child must eat everything everyday.
Load More Replies...The only schools in Greece that cater for school lunches are very expensive private schools. Public schools have microwave ovens to heat up lunches that parents have sent for their children. So no, definitely unbelievable.
we were 6 - sat at trestle tables - the boy opposite me got a gigantic piece of inedible "braised steak"- he gave up trying to chew it and threw it on the floor under the table - i still remember his name from 50 yrs ago. - i saw that piece of meat on his plate. - It ended up under where I was sitting and the teachers insisted I had to eat this half chewed piece of inedible meat that they thought I had dropped on the floor. I remember to this day screaming my head off and refusing to eat this meat - they kept me there for 3 hours - damm spinster schoolmistresses
Load More Replies...I worked at a grade school a couple years ago. The children only got 20 minutes to eat, and that included the time standing in line. What they didn't finish was thrown away. I was appalled at how much got thrown out. These were children from low income families, but they were not allowed to take leftovers home. They were served a hot main dish, such as a hamburger, pizza, tamales, chicken nuggets. Then they had a salad bar where they made their own selections: Lettuce salad, fresh fruit or fruit cups, veggies (usually canned), baby carrots, string cheese. To drink, they had a choice of milk, water or fruit juice. So there were some healthy food choices. I was amazed to see so many children eating salad and fresh fruit. This was in the U.S.
they probably didnt get the salad and fresh fruit at home so it was a treat
Load More Replies...To me the French one look pretty accurate. We would have fries only once every two weeks and the rest of the time it was vegetables with meat or fish and for the dessert we had to chose between a fruit and a yogurt. We had small bread and cheese to eat with the meal and in my high school the entrees (several salads) were on self-service. We all complained about the vegetables and were only happy when having the chicken-fries but now that I'm at the university I regret so much ^^
In Greece kids aren't offered lunch at school, they bring it from home, they eat it at their filthy desk after their teacher heats it up in the single microwave oven provided and it doesn't often look like that, because not all parents prepare a healthy Mediterranean meal
I used to eat amazing lunches as a kid. I was very lucky that our school cafeteria was run by these amazing cooks who came at 5am every morning and did a lot of the food from scratch. They were amazing, kind and loving women who cared for the kids. My school went all the way to 6th grade. so the teachers would make the older kids help out. I was picked to be one one of them, and we helped them out for an hour. Thinking back on this time, I can remember how much work they put into everything they did and how clean and organized they were. Our reward was getting an extra helping on anything we wanted. The lunches were so amazing that most of the school administrators and teachers would also line up to get one. Once they left, years later the school lunches were never the same, basically the one shown for the USA. I only know because my nephew and niece went to the same school and they would tell me how the food was something never cooked right and how some kids actually threw up.
My senior school - 12 - 18 did pretty good food - all cooked from scratch - even the chips were good, we got the usual vegetables - but they were well cooked and we ate them - even the cabbage.The teachers all ate the same also. The roast taties were lovely
Load More Replies...On Brazillian public schools sometimes the politicians steal their meals. Not joking. When there is a meal, it is pasta and sausages (the worst kind, of course).
Italy speaks! In all my childhood and adolescence I have never seen a dish like that in our canteens. Never! -.-"
Greetings from Finland. Our lunches are good, but thats not even remotely close to reality.
The Dutch grade school i went to only served milk, glasses, cutlery, and plates. I ate sliced bread with butter and jam/pate/peanut butter/sprinkles/cheese.
usually when you have to make that much food and feed that many people it would not turn out like any of the pictures. any of the schools i went to would have a separate area for food that was better quality and it would cost more and or have little Cesar pizza
The USA school lunch shown, is actually way better than USA school lunches. I would know, I'm in school still, and a lot of the lunches look hardly edible. And this isn't just from one school either, my family moved a lot and food was way worse at the 6 different schools
The lunches I got when I was going to school in Ukraine were much better than pictured here. More fruit and vegetables. Ulg, the school lunches in Britain though. Everything with chips! Pizza and chips, chips with baked beans on top. I generally prefer schools where you just bring your own lunch.
I don't think the Ukraine is beating the US by much. Though I want go to to Italy.
American luches are inaccurate, you only get 5 chicken nugget pieces and two other things. You get an old salad, rather than mash pataoe, you get a fruit or a juice, and milk is always force on you. You don’t get cookies you have to buy those and is not always all the time. I never gotten pees, they’re probably there to make you thing they consider vegetables.
It maby looks nice, but it's not accurate. This is like a nice restaurants version of the School Food. And the dessert pancakes name is spelled wrong. It's really spelled Pannukakku. And usually pannukakku is served with jam made of berries, not fresh berries.
Load More Replies...I challenge this version of what school lunches look like around the world. I followed Martha Payne's blog she did about school lunches and saw many of the ones from around the world. The problem with this display is that the portions are inaccurate. Most other countries serve smaller meals..especially in France and Asian countries. Second, the type of food they serve is actually more healthy than what is being displayed here. For more accurate information, check this out. http://neverseconds.blogspot.com/
Lithuanian school lunch mostly looks like vomit, tastes like shoes and is priced like Lamborghini. If pictures are adequate, i'm kinda jealous
The Italian and the French lunches look awesome. I remember getting chips (fries) and cheese followed by a Twix when I was in high school in England in the 90's.
When they tried to improve the lunch menu in the US they threw so much food away they scrapped the program. At least that was what i heard. Is that true?
When i was a little girl in Louisiana we had the best school lunches! We had baked chicken and okra and tomatoes
And we always had fresh fruits available. Great lunches!!
Load More Replies...Hog s**t. Same tray shown at differant angles, with different food. All lies to make American food look bad...which it can be, but still got s**t.
What do they look like? (I'm curious!) to me all these look like local dishes, served on a "school lunch tray" - but far from truth.
Load More Replies...I live in Spain. Where the heck did this person even get the idea that schools would be serving sautéed SHRIMP at lunch???
Ahahah I thought the same thing xD that's just so unreal XD come on!!!
Load More Replies...Also, replace "popcorn chicken" with freezer burned chicken nuggets ; P
Load More Replies...That does not look like American school lunches. I mean, it has been a long time since I was in school and maybe its changed, but I doubt it. This is probably just an example that was cooked by a chef with nice ingredients or something lol. I remember the food always being burned, stale, dry, sloppy, and plain gross....also, very few options.
I hear ya, ZombieGirl. I remember having a small rectangle of a 'pizza' for lunch in HS from time to time. Consisted of a dry crust with what looked like spray-painted on tomato sauce and a few sparse sprinklings of cheese. The whole thing was usually overcooked.
Load More Replies...I cannot speak for the other countries but the italian one is super fake, the dishes while plausibles are never served together and don't look remotely like that, also the caprese salad is not properly a salad nor a side dish.
The one comment "They're your kids, you feed them"... For real? We pay taxes for public school, even when you don't have kids enrolled.
I suppose *her* kids have never gone hungry. She sounds like a snob.
Load More Replies...You made this same post about four years ago Bored Panda. It wasn't accurate the first time either, except for the US.
lol whut. I live in Germany and let me tell you, I really don't believe that school food would look like this ^^; Maybe private schools, but not public ones... Not even the food in our canteen at work looked like any of these photos, so I really doubt they would put that much effort into school lunches.
The USA lunch is much smaller and unhealthier than that. Tater tots, a square of Styrofoam pizza, and a cup of corn syrup with 3 chunks of fruit in it.
In Spain, and I think it's in al European Union at least, menus are made by dietists so they are always healthy and balanced. And of course they aren't able to choose anything. They must eat only what's on their plates and they can be "force-feeding" in order they eat everything, including couliflower and ugly bad-smelling vegetables.
Load More Replies...That looks way too nice to be true! In England you get slop with a side burnt or under-cooked chips
We always remembers like the childs we were. i had the same meals in France than the homeless i serve today as an adult, and i think this is nice and i hated it when i was a child. I think that this is like education. You hate it when you are a child, but you make the same thing with your children because, yes, they were right.
Load More Replies...Quite funny, finnish food doesn't look anything like it does in real. Seems like that the person just read the menu and made own version of all. And its Pannukakku, not Pannakakkau.
I live in France, And I can guarantee you, that we don't eat that, at school at all. It's really bad actually. Industrial food with no tastes, and form. (Sorry for my English.)
I cannot tell you about the other countries but I can tell you about the U.S one. I have taught in many schools in the U.S. and I can tell you that the lunch shown is served in the richest areas (about 1% of the population). Everywhere else it makes you sick to your stomach.
Our school dinners in the late 60's and 70's were incredibly healthy for their time.' Made off-site but brought in hot and freshly cooked .meat/fish and 2 veg - hot and on a real plate. with a pudding to finish. Once we got to the senior school - from age 12 - it was a cafeteria style - with choices - but all the choices were healthy. This was before the age of pizza - the most unhealthy thing on offer was chips. everything else was meat/fish/veg/protein/salads. - yoghurt as a choice for dessert. and you could go back for "seconds" if you were really hungry. Congratulations to my schools - all the dinner ladies and kitchen staff right the way through were pupils parents - so they made sure it was good food
Load More Replies...and this is what you get in Czech Republic 2212000_ji...2ed3d9.jpg
Amazing they are served on the same dish in each country. I'd bet someone read up on what is served, got a chef to prepare the foreign meals and just slapped some leftover walmart food on the US plate to make a political point.
If I had to guess I would say someone looked up what dishes are typically served in school cafeterias around the world and threw together these plates. Someone already said the Italian one would never be combined that way. Greece is a neighboring country to mine, so there are similarities in the cuisine and I find it hard to imagine that someone would combine these dishes the way they are presented here.
Nobody would take that trouble to present a meal so well for a 12 year old
Load More Replies...Spaniyard here... please tell me wich school serves sauteed shirmp, so that I can take my kids there
There's a trial in Sweden where school kids can choose one of several lunches through an app, and pick it up at lunch. It's promising because they not only save money but have increased the number of kids actually eating lunch. And it's free, paid through taxes, to ensure that all children can eat.
In Québec schools provide breakfast for kids whose parents can't afford to feed them, but I don't know if all schools have a cafeteria.
Hahaha!!! That´s b******t!!! Kids are starving in Brazil They don´t have that much for lunch and deputies steal the lunch money from schools!! It´s true!!
I'm a 60s 70s kid. We weren't fat even though we had tater tots and spaghetti in school lunch because we were physically active. Take away the kids video game and send him outside
The Ukrainian lunch has blini (thin pancakes), not syrniki (they`re much thicker and are made of cottage cheese). Plus the borscht on the photo looks like strawberry jam. Borscht is not meant to look like puree, it`s supposed to have visible pieces of veggies and meat.
This is what I remember from my days in HS in the US. I hope, for the sake of the students it has gotten much better than this. h2CFCBA34-...8-jpeg.jpg
Whoah! i will load mines tomorrow.In France this is forbidden to have 2 feculents and no veggies at all. the dessert is sugar, with sugar and sugary dairy, forbidden too, water and just water. Sugar in all forms everywhere! And we hated that french lunch as kids.
Load More Replies...The USA lunch is wrong. There's usually no mashed potatoes and there's NEVER a cookie
Some people will do anything to get fame, even serve lies on a platter
Can people from their home countries confirm or deny that's what lunches actually are?
For Italy the dishes are more or less right but in the wrong combination and they also look weird.
Load More Replies...The U.S. lunch is what happens when a nation cares more about money and pandering to the voters/taxpayers than it does about investing in its kids. (And Australia and New Zealand seem to care less about *their* kids than even *we* do...) P.S. to Ms. Helinski: I *DARE* you to say that to a family with two two-or-three-job working parents that can still barely make it paycheck-to-paycheck. 2a520d0b19...b862ea.jpg
I both studied in Italy (my native land),and in Ukraine, and I never, ever, had such good lunches at school. In Italy I never saw something cooked well, and most of the times, kids had to bring something from home to eat instead of the lunch served at school. In Ukraine the school I visited didn't have such High standards of food either, event tho kids had to eat their lunch for good, most of the pupils chose not to eat and to buy something from a little store close by before coming to school. It's really shocking the fact that I also hear from people that their kids have to eat in 10 minutes and then straight going back to studying. It would be better to give students more time to eat or to relax. (I'm also a student, and we have to 5-10 minutes to eat and go to the bathroom, but the problem is that we don't have a cafeteria at my school but instead we have some coffee and snacks machines that always have long lines).
Man, I wish I had gotten popcorn chicken and a chocolate chip cookie in my elementary school lunch. The best we had in the 90's was mystery meat and gravy with watery corn and a nice roll to trade for a Twinkie from the kid with the bag lunch. Oh, and we had "root beer float" flavored milk and Tampico.
Do people in every country “get” food for lunch at school? Where i’m from (netherlands) everyone brings their own food (often bread, some drink and a cookie) from home to eat. They do sell food in the school’s canteen, but that’s mostly snacks.
In France this is forbiddent to bring "fresh food" from home because of the strict law about meal balance in public places that serves food and temperatures and sanitary rules. If someone is sick because of the food they can't tell if this is because of a school meal or from something homemade. you have to ring a medical certificate if you need any specific diet, or tell if you have a religious/veggie diet then the school or the hospital will provide you an alternative.
Load More Replies...If you look closely you will notice that the school lunches shown are photoshopped.
I'm in high school and we don't get lunches like that. I wish we would. (America)
This post may not be realistic...nothing like the lunches of oatmeal -filled hamburgers and Jello I remember in the US...but it is still an interesting view of different food cultures.
This is surely only private school's where you pay a huge sum to attend? I am from UK and had lots of school dinners over the years and none ever looked anything like this...
Nothing real about these. THIS is what an American school lunch looks like.... pizza-scho...837de9.jpg
Judging by the fact these meals are made by the same person (same table, same tray), they have obviously been prepared based on menu list provided but using premium ingredients, this is not what the actual end product would be like (probably something closer to an airplane meal)
Do you want to see real Spanish school lunches? More examples: 1- https://www.google.es/search?q=comida+comedore+escolar+espa%C3%B1a&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwioiLaxge3dAhUOhRoKHfvEAAwQ_AUIDigB&biw=1536&bih=706#imgrc=VJsZvhOA7MqzbM: 2- https://www.google.es/search?q=comida+comedore+escolar+espa%C3%B1a&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwioiLaxge3dAhUOhRoKHfvEAAwQ_AUIDigB&biw=1536&bih=706#imgrc=zoU6TFkv2AJ05M: 3- https://www.google.es/search?q=comida+comedore+escolar+espa%C3%B1a&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwioiLaxge3dAhUOhRoKHfvEAAwQ_AUIDigB&biw=1536&bih=706#imgrc=DI7sg2YVJ_Cg6M: school-5-5...e72aa8.jpg
lol I remember my elementary school lunches very well! It was two things, an aluminum container containing a hot dish...usually a riblette and a plastic container containing a salad...iceberg lettuce and pieces of carrots...usually some unripe fruit too...this was a US lunch in California in the 90s/00s...don't forget the nasty 1% milk...we loved chocolate milk days because it actually didn't taste like water...I loved the rare occasion we got trail mix or sweet potatoes...
Did anyone else think some of the lunches looked suspiciously alike???
I'm calling BS. US school lunches never looked even remotely that good.
In Germany they get wurst, sauerkraut, pretzel and a pilzner. Seriously
And all I eat is a chapathi ,ruce or curry in my lunch^_^..But everybody's lunch has its own aroma: ) Too many dishes -One lunch box !
But I wonder the countries that are deprived of three times meal ..the countries with scarcity of food...:( What would those children bring.? But anything can fill up an empty stomach in hunger! May god answer their prayers and help them⛤
Load More Replies...Spanish here... I wish my country give this healthy food to children, sadly it's not true.
As an Australian, I have never understood the concept of school lunches. Here our kids bring lunch from home or may order (and pay for) lunch from the canteen if the school has one. How is this kind of lunch ‘done’. Please educate the curious.
In Spain, the youngest children go to school from 9h to 12h and from 15h to 17h, or after from 8h or 9h to 13h, and then from 15h to 17h or 18h. Most of them cannot go home, eat and come back because their parents are working and aren't able to pick their children from school, cook, eat with them and take they back to school. However, some do it, indeed. The other children eat at school. They all eat the same (except alternatives for allergies) at the same time in a big lunch room. They eat a starter, a main course and a desert, the same for everybody. Water and bread is on demand. Menus are made by diestists so they are healthy, but cookers make hundreds of them every day, so they cannot look like in a chic restaurant. Parents pay every month the same quantity for lunches, and there are food allowances. Every child eat the same, there are no options, no differences and each child must eat everything everyday.
Load More Replies...The only schools in Greece that cater for school lunches are very expensive private schools. Public schools have microwave ovens to heat up lunches that parents have sent for their children. So no, definitely unbelievable.
we were 6 - sat at trestle tables - the boy opposite me got a gigantic piece of inedible "braised steak"- he gave up trying to chew it and threw it on the floor under the table - i still remember his name from 50 yrs ago. - i saw that piece of meat on his plate. - It ended up under where I was sitting and the teachers insisted I had to eat this half chewed piece of inedible meat that they thought I had dropped on the floor. I remember to this day screaming my head off and refusing to eat this meat - they kept me there for 3 hours - damm spinster schoolmistresses
Load More Replies...I worked at a grade school a couple years ago. The children only got 20 minutes to eat, and that included the time standing in line. What they didn't finish was thrown away. I was appalled at how much got thrown out. These were children from low income families, but they were not allowed to take leftovers home. They were served a hot main dish, such as a hamburger, pizza, tamales, chicken nuggets. Then they had a salad bar where they made their own selections: Lettuce salad, fresh fruit or fruit cups, veggies (usually canned), baby carrots, string cheese. To drink, they had a choice of milk, water or fruit juice. So there were some healthy food choices. I was amazed to see so many children eating salad and fresh fruit. This was in the U.S.
they probably didnt get the salad and fresh fruit at home so it was a treat
Load More Replies...To me the French one look pretty accurate. We would have fries only once every two weeks and the rest of the time it was vegetables with meat or fish and for the dessert we had to chose between a fruit and a yogurt. We had small bread and cheese to eat with the meal and in my high school the entrees (several salads) were on self-service. We all complained about the vegetables and were only happy when having the chicken-fries but now that I'm at the university I regret so much ^^
In Greece kids aren't offered lunch at school, they bring it from home, they eat it at their filthy desk after their teacher heats it up in the single microwave oven provided and it doesn't often look like that, because not all parents prepare a healthy Mediterranean meal
I used to eat amazing lunches as a kid. I was very lucky that our school cafeteria was run by these amazing cooks who came at 5am every morning and did a lot of the food from scratch. They were amazing, kind and loving women who cared for the kids. My school went all the way to 6th grade. so the teachers would make the older kids help out. I was picked to be one one of them, and we helped them out for an hour. Thinking back on this time, I can remember how much work they put into everything they did and how clean and organized they were. Our reward was getting an extra helping on anything we wanted. The lunches were so amazing that most of the school administrators and teachers would also line up to get one. Once they left, years later the school lunches were never the same, basically the one shown for the USA. I only know because my nephew and niece went to the same school and they would tell me how the food was something never cooked right and how some kids actually threw up.
My senior school - 12 - 18 did pretty good food - all cooked from scratch - even the chips were good, we got the usual vegetables - but they were well cooked and we ate them - even the cabbage.The teachers all ate the same also. The roast taties were lovely
Load More Replies...On Brazillian public schools sometimes the politicians steal their meals. Not joking. When there is a meal, it is pasta and sausages (the worst kind, of course).
Italy speaks! In all my childhood and adolescence I have never seen a dish like that in our canteens. Never! -.-"
Greetings from Finland. Our lunches are good, but thats not even remotely close to reality.
The Dutch grade school i went to only served milk, glasses, cutlery, and plates. I ate sliced bread with butter and jam/pate/peanut butter/sprinkles/cheese.
usually when you have to make that much food and feed that many people it would not turn out like any of the pictures. any of the schools i went to would have a separate area for food that was better quality and it would cost more and or have little Cesar pizza
The USA school lunch shown, is actually way better than USA school lunches. I would know, I'm in school still, and a lot of the lunches look hardly edible. And this isn't just from one school either, my family moved a lot and food was way worse at the 6 different schools
The lunches I got when I was going to school in Ukraine were much better than pictured here. More fruit and vegetables. Ulg, the school lunches in Britain though. Everything with chips! Pizza and chips, chips with baked beans on top. I generally prefer schools where you just bring your own lunch.
I don't think the Ukraine is beating the US by much. Though I want go to to Italy.
American luches are inaccurate, you only get 5 chicken nugget pieces and two other things. You get an old salad, rather than mash pataoe, you get a fruit or a juice, and milk is always force on you. You don’t get cookies you have to buy those and is not always all the time. I never gotten pees, they’re probably there to make you thing they consider vegetables.
It maby looks nice, but it's not accurate. This is like a nice restaurants version of the School Food. And the dessert pancakes name is spelled wrong. It's really spelled Pannukakku. And usually pannukakku is served with jam made of berries, not fresh berries.
Load More Replies...I challenge this version of what school lunches look like around the world. I followed Martha Payne's blog she did about school lunches and saw many of the ones from around the world. The problem with this display is that the portions are inaccurate. Most other countries serve smaller meals..especially in France and Asian countries. Second, the type of food they serve is actually more healthy than what is being displayed here. For more accurate information, check this out. http://neverseconds.blogspot.com/
Lithuanian school lunch mostly looks like vomit, tastes like shoes and is priced like Lamborghini. If pictures are adequate, i'm kinda jealous
The Italian and the French lunches look awesome. I remember getting chips (fries) and cheese followed by a Twix when I was in high school in England in the 90's.
When they tried to improve the lunch menu in the US they threw so much food away they scrapped the program. At least that was what i heard. Is that true?
When i was a little girl in Louisiana we had the best school lunches! We had baked chicken and okra and tomatoes
And we always had fresh fruits available. Great lunches!!
Load More Replies...Hog s**t. Same tray shown at differant angles, with different food. All lies to make American food look bad...which it can be, but still got s**t.
144
227