School lunch is an important part of the students’ day. It provides a much-needed break from the classroom and an opportunity to refuel. However, the quality and variety of the menu can vary greatly depending on which part of the globe we look at.
Some schools, for example, have been trying to improve the nutritional value of their lunches by adding more fruits and veggies, reducing the amount of processed foods, and offering options for eaters with dietary restrictions. These efforts can help ensure students get what they need to stay active and focused. On the other hand, some schools still serve meals that are high in fat, sugar, and sodium, which can contribute to obesity and other health problems.
Which Countries Have The Best School Lunches In The World
To see who is on the right track and who is lagging, we at Bored Panda decided to expand on our previous publication on school lunches from around the world and put together a new collection of pictures that vividly illustrate the situation, courtesy of the subreddit r/pics. Enjoy photos of real school lunches around the world, and share a photo of a typical school lunch in your country in the comments below!
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Free School Lunch In Stockholm, Sweden
An Example Of A Swedish (Free) School Lunch. Fried Salmon, Fried Potatoes In Herbs, Honey Roasted Vegetables With Chèvre
Damn that a lot compared the last few I've seen. Why can't American treat kids better it such b******t
Chilbo High School Lunch (Free - South Korea)
My Korean School Lunch! Pork Cutlet, Blood Sausage Soup, And Assorted Banchan
Pics From Some Schools In Korea Known For Having Best School Lunches
Sweden
One of the hottest pictures on this list comes from Stockholm, Sweden. Its author, Redditor Cool_Kalkon, told Bored Panda that their school usually serves different types of stews, complementing it with chicken or beef, but there are vegetarian options, too.
“The quality [of our lunch] is really good considering the budget they have,” Cool_Kalkon explained to us. “The food is always healthy and mostly cooked from raw ingredients in school. They even got a vegetarian alternative every day and a salad bar.”
Cool_Kalkon said they don't know how the lunches could be improved because they’re satisfied with the food. But if they were to come up with something, they would probably “cut down on the number of stews and have a bit more variety in the menu.”
However, the Redditor pointed out that their picture doesn't represent the whole country of Sweden. “There are schools with much worse food and also schools with much better,” they said. “But, all in all, I think it’s fantastic that we are able to get a healthy meal on our plate every day without having to pay.”
$3 School Lunch: North Georgia
My Korean School Lunch!! Free For All Students
School Lunch In California (Free)
I like how NYC and California have very different takes on children nutrition
School Lunch In South Korea
School Lunch Oregon ~free
Japan
On the other side of the globe, we have another Redditor, Sjbfujcfjm, representing the city of Takatsuki in Osaka Prefecture, Japan.
Their picture reveals what the country’s younger kids (2-6 years old) are having. A staff member at White Rose Kindergarten, Sjbfujcfjm told Bored Panda that “Daily lunches usually consist of a portion of meat (fish being a popular option), a vegetable, rice, soup and something sweet like an apple or orange slice or fruit jelly.”
“The quality is quite good,” the Redditor added. “All of the teachers have the option to eat the school lunch, and we do each day. We have a chef and his crew of 4-5 come in daily to prepare the meals. A few times a month, they prepare a special lunch featuring foods from a specific region of Japan.”
However, they would like to see more meals featuring food from other countries. “We sometimes have dishes or sides from China or Korea. But I’d like to see a wider variety,” Sjbfujcfjm said.
Looks Like School Lunches Are Making The Rounds Here Again: United States, Public Middle School
Typical School Lunch In South Korea
New York City School Lunch
I think this is the best school lunch from the US I've seen in this list so far
School Lunch From My Country. Where Am I? What Do Kids Eat Where You Are?
School Lunch In Thailand, 25 Baht. About .75 USD
School Lunch At A Kindergarten In Japan (Bonus Bentos)
School Lunch For Elementary Kids In Korea
My Korean School Lunch (That Students Get For Free)! Beef Noodle Soup And Various Banchan!
School Lunch In Japan. The Christmas Edition
International school food puts US food to shame by such a large amount its not even funny
I See Your School Lunch And I Raise You A Dinner On A Us Navy Ship
This one looks pitiful! Especially since it's being served to adults who are serving our country!
Now we know why some restaurants give military discounts. To make up for this.
I call Bravo Sierra (bullshït) on this. You stand in line with your tray and select what you want put on it. Some ships might not have a great selection, but there is always a protein, starch, and vegetables, and usually a salad bar, plus dessert. I was on a carrier and our aft galley had the healthier options, salad bar, taco bar, and sandwich bar. Our forward galley had more of the junk food, burgers, hot dogs, pizza. Also had a salad bar and a pasta bar. Both had bread, peanut butter and jelly, and dessert. I too could have this put on my tray, take a pic, and say we weren't getting fed.
Lol that's what I was thinking. Then again, maybe they p*ssed someone off? I'm siding with you though. Where are the veggies? They don't just toss you a bit of Salisbury steak and call it a day.
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Working at a military base, this is accurate. The military will cheap out one some of the more expensive food items
Billions of dollars for advanced weaponry but not enough for decent food 🙄
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I ate extremely well on my ship. It had huge buffets and lines where you could pick what you want. Also had Starbucks.
The best meal I had while in the US Navy was at a US marine galley on Marine hill in Guantanamo Bay.
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Throw on some fries or wallpaper paste instant mashed potatoes and a tiny, expired carton of milk that sticky from spills during shipping and that's pretty much what my school lunches looked like right down to the jailhouse food tray.
I see that the navy has included the plastic compartmented trays as well
We had those same trays where I went to school, only in pastel colors.
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This is not the norm. Rationing or just chose not to get what else was avail.
This is a blatantly false representation of the daily meals privided to all members serving on US Navy Ships.
Agreed. That’s more typical of midrats, which can be pretty sub-par because the navy rotates a few cooks to serve the overnight watch but they still have to work the rest of the meal schedules too.
Load More Replies... Absolute bullsh.it! Again, they can afford new aircraft carriers that go unused cuz they weren't needed in the first place but the actual people are fed something akin to dog food.
omg! i remember the tales of the food on the ship from my dad and ex hubby. this looks like a poor example. from what they told me, most of the times it was okay. their collective complaints were (and this is not meant to be racist in any way) is that it was their experience that most of the cooks were south east asian/filipino which meant that rice was served at every meal. and, when there was "steak" night they didn't know that it didn't need to be cooked so well done that it was a hockey puck. however, their consensus was that they put out the best baked goods
Nothing like this in the Danish Navy. My nephew is a cook on a ship with about 100 people. They are one baker and 3 chefs. For example when they have spaghetti bolognese it better be good if 2 chefs have had 8 hours to make it :D
My son serves in the Navy. He tells me all the time they have good food served to them. As much as they want. This is not a good representation. This person chose only to have those two items to eat...Who ever posted this should not be bad mouthing our military. They feed our men and women good!!!!...🥓🥩🍗🍖🍔🌭🥪🥨🍕🌮🥙🧆🥘🍤🍧🥮🍪☕🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
I doubt it. This looks very very VERY staged or for a very specific purpose - like jail or something or the photographer decided to take a dump on the ship board chefs. Even Naval bootcamp serves better and more food than this.
I honestly can't believe most of you actually believe this is all our Navy gets!!! They don't get the most gourmet food, but there is always all food groups included. This is a total BS picture that someone decided to post for gullible people to fall for. It's irritating that it's actually working.
Someone send this to Gordon Ramsay on twitter! He's gotta roast this!!!! 🤣
Before the pandemic, whenever I'd visit, Mum and I would have at least one lunch or dinner at the local (Trenton, Ontario, Canada) army base. Cheap and delicious! It included an extensive salad bar, steaks, fish, pizza, pasta, all kinds of stuff. I miss those meals (civilians aren't allowed back on base, AFAIK).
Sorry, there were chef's on my son's ships.. this looks like Army food.
I'd rather eat this then the heart burn enducing slop they call food at high school
Yeah not buying this bs. I served in the Army for a decade and even our field meals are better than this. Hell, even MRE's have more options. I've never been to a military Dinning Facility that would only serve this as an option.
I don't know what rustbucket you're on, but while I was in the Navy, we ate good.
I did my military service in the French Navy (not onboard). There is a tradition that the food there is among the best you can get in the military. In previous centuries, bad food was a main concern on ships as it might cause rebellion among the crew. My father had spent 12 months on an aicraft carrier back in the 60's and confirmed this to me (that is where he ate lobsters for the first time). I myself used to run, swim or lift weight for about an hour every day during that time and eventually put on 15 (healthy) pounds in 12 months.
Looks like he/she didn't want any sides (vegetables/salad/potato/rice/pasta)
On a NAVY SHIP?! … I thought those guys really needed to eat good food, considering the job they do. Shows what I know, I guess.
This is BS I served in the US Navy and we received excellent food and plenty of it.
What is it...the men and women risk their lives and all we can feed them is mystery meat with gravy smh
I had great food in the US Army. Made to order breakfast. Burgers or hot lunches. Not to mention hot lunches in the field too. Like lasagna. This was in the 90s btw
ABSOLUTELY insulting for the people that put their lives on the line for the US!
To be absolutely fair.....I'll take that meal over ANY McNasty, er, McDonald's ANY day!
Now I know why they call it SOS "Sh#t on a Shingle". That gravy would make anything look unappetizing!
People seem to be forgetting that it's a handfull of service members who have to push out all the food. What is it like to be a cook in the US army (92G)? - Quora https://www.quora.com/What-is-it-like-to-be-a-cook-in-the-US-army-92G
And if you are wondering why they do fast and easy after reading that Why are scrambled eggs served to Marines on the base so frequently? https://www.quora.com/Why-are-scrambled-eggs-served-to-Marines-on-the-base-so-frequently
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Where's the hot dogs and rice right before a vertical replenishment? I want answers on how yall got gravy
I'm actually appalled that that's what we feed the men that serve our country .. We should be ashamed of ourselves 😳 My dog even eats better than that smh. How do we change this?!
Uh, your cooks, not chefs, need to learn how to lunches South Korean style!
Cut congress’ salary (they live almost like royalty off of taxpayer’s money anyway) and use the money to feed our service men and women decent and nutritious meals! And pay them a decent salary to go with it.
I call BS. I lived on US aircraft carriers for most of 9 years. There was usually quite a bit to choose from. On a carrier we even had two enlisted food messes. Aft was 'normal' meals and forward was fast food stuff. While I don't doubt the food pictured was served, they likely had more choices. And some sort of lame meals were often made up by better looking meals.
Picture is bs. This is what the person CHOSE to eat - there is always more on the menu. C'mon now !
Shows how the military values people who are willing to sacrifice everything for their conutry this is just disgusting and wrong
What Food Should Best School Lunches Include?
To contextualize these pictures, we can take a look at the 2021 study by the Global Child Nutrition Foundation that looked into the “food basket” — a fundamental element of any school meal program — of 139 countries.
Grains/cereals were the most common food category (served in 87% of programs), followed by oil (78%) and legumes (75%). Fruits and vegetables (63-65%) were less common, and animal-source foods were served least often—though there was a high degree of variation across income groups. Poultry, for example, was served in 69% of programs in high-income settings but just 5% of programs in low-income settings.
The gap was even larger for fruits, which were served in 97% and 22.5% of programs in high and low-income settings, respectively—a difference of 74.5 percentage points.
In high-income settings, children received an average of 8.3 different food categories, while this value dropped to 7.1, 6.5, and 5.2 in upper middle-income, lower middle-income, and low-income settings, respectively. Across regions, this value was the greatest in South Asia/East Asia/Pacific and the lowest in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Free School Lunch UK
It's been 40 yrs since I had a school lunch but I'm tickled to see the sponge cake and custard hasn't changed 😀
Chinese Elementary/Primary School Lunches
School Lunch In Okayama Prefecture, Japan
Australian School Lunch
My Korean School Lunch! Handmade Duck Steaks, Beef And Radish Soup, And Assorted Banchan
What is Banchan? (I'm stupid, must be the school lunch my school serves)
So This Is What An Average School Lunch Looks Like For High Schoolers In Germany
What A Week Of (Free) School Lunches Look Like In Thailand [oc]
It is certainly artfully displayed and photographed.
I See Your Finnish School Lunch And Raise You My South Korean School Lunch
Typical School Lunch In South Korea
Looks like South Korea really does have the best school lunches on this list. Good work South Korea!
What Affects School Lunches Around the World?
Across all regions and income groups, market purchases were the most common method through which school meal programs procured food.
These purchases primarily occurred in domestic markets, though 38% of programs purchased at least some food from foreign countries. In-kind contributions from foreign and domestic settings were much less common at 23% and 21%, respectively, and were primarily reported by programs operating in low-income and lower-middle-income countries.
Because of this, after inflation popped in 2022 to a level unseen in decades, many schools are now forced to spend way more to feed their students. In the US, for example, the price of a meal at elementary and secondary schools spiked by a whopping 305%.
School Lunch In America Since We’re Posting School Lunches
Have Seen A Few Of These Today, Here Is My American School Lunch
There is a significant lack of colour. Vegetables and fruit provide colour. This is a deep fried mess with some even messier mash and some corn for good measure.
Vermont School Lunch
Elementary School Lunch Japan
School Lunch: Pork Roll Egg N Cheese, Potataos, Lima Beans, Mozzarella Salad, Zeppoles. All For $3
Lunch + Breakfast At My School. (Seasia-- Seriously, Wtf Is Going Wrong With American School Lunch)
Now, If You Had This For School Lunch, It Was A Peak Lunch Day
Elementary School Lunch In South Korea
Our School Lunch Today
This Is A Local School Lunch That A School In The Us Served
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine created an energy supply shock, contributing to higher transport costs to deliver food from farm to table. That, combined with other factors such as higher labor costs, underpin fast-rising prices throughout the food complex.
The industry is really interdependent, too. For instance, global shocks in major markets for vegetable oil — a key ingredient in margarine — drove margarine prices up by 43.8% in 2022. Prices for commodities such as soybean, palm, sunflower, and rapeseed (also known as canola) oil tend to move together, meaning a supply disruption for one tends to affect the whole group.
Hopefully, everything will get better in the near future, and school lunches around the world will rise to a new standard!
NYC Middle School Lunch
A Single Cauliflower In A Single Use Plastic Wrap From A School Lunch
I See Your Korean Private School Lunches And Give You Maryland Public School Lunch
American High School Lunch (Oc)
Saw Someone Post Their School Lunch So I Thought I’d Share Mine… Nc United States
Are We Still Doing School Lunches?
School Lunches Today. Middle School & High School-Frisco, Texas
School Lunch, Free In California (Not Pictured, A Red Apple)
What is that?? Ick! Oh, wait. I see ketchup, so at least a "vegetable" was included. 🙄
My School Lunch [oc]
School Lunch At My Middle School (It Was Bad)
Note: this post originally had 97 images. It’s been shortened to the top 50 images based on user votes.
that's why they have a lower obesity rate as well
Load More Replies... The U.S ones are nightmarish tbh, I feel for the kids. Do the parents have an actual say on the menus ? And is it more common for kids to bring their own lunch there ?
Kids can bring their own lunch in the US. I have a middle schooler who eats school "hot" lunch everyday ($2.75usd) and a elementary student who brings lunch from home everyday. A big problem both kids complain about is a short time to eat lunch. My youngest only gets 20 minutes.
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Time to beat up a Korean kid and take their lunch..... Lol.....
Dear ma'am most of the pictures in these photos are Korean schools but you have to pay to go to a school like this but you gotta admit what a nice lunch
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Most kids in Australia bring a packed lunch from home. The school canteen was more of a “treat” that kids would get like once a week.
In belgium elementary school there wasn't provided a lunch. You had to bring your own
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I live in the US (California) And I am in middle school. Here is a rundown of my school lunch: A mandatory fruit or vegetable. (Apples, pears, letuce, carrots, out in the open, people with their bare hands, and they are out in the open, not even refrigerated. not even sure if washed or not.) A cartoon of milk. Sometimes this milk is expired. And a main course, ussally a burrito, quesidilla, pizza, sandwich or rice and chicken. There are vegetarian options, but they have zero effort compared to the non-vegitarian. This lunch is free, and sometimes the things are expired or going bad. People have been trying to petition this for a while, but they have given up. I bring my own lunch, but sometimes I don't get enough, and I go to get a hot lunch, but I am quite disapontied honestly.
This list first make me hungry, with pictures of amazing Korean and Swedish lunches, but as I scrolled down, it got sadder and sadder.
Yeah, the Korean ones were awesome. But I also ended up feeling a bit sad - and severely pìssed off on behalf of American school kids and their parents. What the hell? Feed the goddamned kids, come on; most of our civilization agrees that it’s one of the higher priorities.
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Some kids have gotten food poisoning from the lunch at my school 😭😭😭 And to think I could have gone to a school with catered lunches had we not moved.
FOOD POISONING?? from school lunch??? Suing time.
Load More Replies... Related School Lunch Flashback: Back in the late '60s-early '70s, I went to school in Thailand for a while (parents' band played a gig at a fancy-schmancy hotel in Bangkok). We stayed on the local US Army base, buying our groceries at the PX (Post Exchange). Mum would make me a bologna sandwich every day, VERY exotic to the locals at the time, that I would then "auction" off to the kid with the most interesting looking lunch at school. All I recall now is lots of banana leaves, rice, and deliciously seasoned veggies. One day I came home with an adorable kitten, but that's another Tale on the Riverbank, lol! Good times.
For a list with school lunches all around the world, the US seems to be more in the list than other countries
Well, the US is very visible on Bored Panda - perhaps due to a high percentage of American members, if I was to take a guess. That’s pretty reasonable, as a rule people are most comfortable talking about their own reality - it’s the only one you can refer to with much accuracy. Makes sense to me.
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South africa: mostly stew and rice or similar. Feeding-Sc...eme-ED.jpg 
In hungary I usually get a chicken broth soup with carrots and sometimes small noodles. Along with that I get pasta, potatoes, or rice with pörkölt on top (traditional stew). It often varies, but that is the most common meal.
India also has free school lunches, and while it isn't the best looking or the most nutritious, it's a hundred percent better than US school lunches. In South India, it's usually rice+ some roasted seasoned veggies+ lentil soup with veggies. :) Or you might get roti (wheat bread) with some kind of vegetable gravy/curry added to the meal.
I see those nice lunches from other countries and I'm reminded of the lady who claimed providing food for kids at school is communism.
America really needs to take notes from South Korea. I took screenshots of the Korean school lunches so me and my sister can make it at home (or try at least)
Some of these look amazing (mostly the free ones, which you wouldn't expect) and some (all from the US as far as I can tell) look nightmarish
i remember when the lunch ladies actually cooked meals. this was back in the 70s-80s. when they started offering breakfast it was quick things like cold cereal, juice, milk and the occasional hot cereal. but, they would arrive very early to make the lunch meal with 'real' food. now, most of it is prepped at a central kitchen and just warmed up at the school and it looks like frozen type meals. for all i know it is frozen meals that are just purchased for the school.
I live in the us (maryland) and the food is so bad. its one of the best counties and im gonna be in one of the best high schools in the country next year. we get served barely edible stuff. and the worst part? ITS NOT EVEN FREE! they make us pay for that s**t.
my friend got a corn dog and bit into it and it was rubber and greyish pink. (virginia)
I'm just genuinely curious, at the schools where they serve all the lovely veggies, do the kids actually eat it? I'm pretty sure mine wouldn't. And also, my kid wasn't a picky eater until they started going to school and saw all the other kids being picky about their food, so I know it's not just mine. Especially the young kids.
Honestly…most countries serve good food except for good ol ‘murica
Visual representation of how much your government hates you. coming from the country that needed a premier league footballer to tell it's Tory dictators to feed starving kids through covid.
I feel the need to apologize to my country's children for the absolute trash that's passing for lunch in our schools.
Why is it that we spend more money on politicians then we do our school systems? No wonder the average IQ in the United States is 85
Glad to see nothing has changed with school lunches in the USA since I was in school. Lol geez so pathetic.
Why is it always chocolate milk in the states?! Am I really that different to not like it and prefer actual milk????
Probably because whoever took the picture chose it. You can choose plain, too.
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As is often said, there is no such thing as a free lunch. The same is true here. Someone paid for that lunch (ie - taxpayer).
Please add a typical Midwest school lunch: chili, cinnamon roll, carrot sticks, and milk.
My niece in law is the "lunch lady" at a grade school in Walla Walla, WA. She petitioned to get a student tended vegetable garden, which they approved. She takes feeding her "littles" very seriously and experiments with all kinds of different dishes, in her off hours and on her own dime.
In the late 70s, early 80s, our high school cafeteria had soggy French fries cooked in old, dirty grease(fries always dark brown), and hamburgers that made McDonald's look gourmet, and none of it was free...
Can wholely confirm how bad the U.S. lunches are. In fact, the examples here were gourmet compared to what I got in school. One school I went to used the same company that some prisons use to feed inmates.
When I was in first grade my family lived a wealthy neighborhood because of my Dad’s job. I live in the USA BTW. Anyway, the from what I remember there were a lot of lunch choices everyday. There were different stations with different foods and you could go and to the one with the food you wanted and get it. When I moved to second grade I also moved schools. This school only had two lunch choices everyday. Everyone stood in a single line to get their lunch. I think I adapted quickly, but in hindsight I think it is interesting how different they were. These were both public schools.
If the US would spend more money on schools, education of our children and teachers, and what the kids are being fed, we would be much better off! So, would the kids!
yes the us can learn ALOT from these other countries. I remember my school lunches were chicken, pizza, cheese fries just fried or greasy stuff and maybe an apple. That is not a lunch young adults need especially lunch. This will leave your kid sluggish, no energy and tired. you wonder why they can't focus in school after eating that? need more healthier stuff on those plates. Obesity and depression can start young, please feed them kids healthier
Lunch in the US is very different dependent on state and district. I have to assume other whole countries have the same discrepancies. In CA we have to provide choices on entrees and drinks as well as a salad bar with fruits and vegetables. We also provide free meals to all students.
I will add for the U.S. that the country is much bigger and it's harder to get fresh foods like they do in Korea or Japan. But there is definitely a lack of fruits and veggies in American lunches.
All I'm suddenly realising is how school lunches seem to be a normal thing, even a complained about thing, in many countries, yet here in South Africa we haven't heard of the concept of a school lunch. Either your parent pack in lunch for you, like a sandwich, or you just go without eating (like I did).
one time in like 3rd grade i ate school lunch that had a piece of plastic in it but I took it out and ate it anyways bc it was my only food. Got so sick I threw up twice&had to miss my camping trip. yes i live in america
Since I never have time to make myself lunch in the morning I usually dont eat cause school lunch is disgusting. I've been trying to get out of this habit cause my band is 5th period and it's hard to play on an empty stomach
Some of the US lunches actually looked better than what we're actually given lol
These kids today have it good. Back when I was in high school, we had choices of baked beans, s*** on a shingle, if we got pizza it was a weird square pizza and it was actually halfway decent, hamburgers were at least half soybean and most of the stuff was just slop. Of course this was 1984 to 1988. If you were lucky enough to drive, you could sneak out on your lunch hour and go get McDonald's or Burger King as long as you were back before the bell ring. Of course for us, depending on where your locker was, you might have an entire five full minutes to eat your lunch. Yeah they weren't very organized and TBH, I still don't think they're very organized even now.
I dont see Canada on here...no free lunches to be had I'm thinking. I've personally never heard of it.
They saved the worst for last. Criminal meals. These American "meals" are bad because they're free? Glad I packed my lunch (which was also poor quality -sandwich, chips, cookie, fruit). For a while it was being stolen out of my locker as I couldn't afford to rent a school lock. I would save my money for pizza day or the large, fluffy roll (5¢!) you could smell baking in the morning!
People used to find plasters and things in my school's lunches , some got food poisoning , but the cooks had to go on a training course for a week so now it just looks and tastes bad instead of being dangerous
Indiana: kids are offered three different lunches for free all year. This post looks like these kids only took what they liked from line and left the rest. Totally biased.
At my school you just bring your own food, buy some at the canteen or go to the supermarket that's nearby. Food in the canteen changes everyday (sometimes pizza, sometimes sausage roll) but you can always buy instant noodles!
...if you have money. American kids are often marginalized by politicians, even denying food stamps for $10 over-limit income. Food pantries struggle to provide food.
Load More Replies... I am not convinced by many of these and how come they manage in most cases to all be shot in the same way?
Notice how Korea uses stainless steel trays. USA: “our kids will turn them into weapons”
"According to the latest estimates, as many as 9 million children in the United States live in "food insecure" homes. That phrase may sound mild, but it means that those households don't have enough food for every family member to lead a healthy life." https://www.nokidhungry.org/who-we-are/hunger-facts#:~:text=According%20to%20the%20latest%20estimates,to%20lead%20a%20healthy%20life.
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that's why they have a lower obesity rate as well
Load More Replies... The U.S ones are nightmarish tbh, I feel for the kids. Do the parents have an actual say on the menus ? And is it more common for kids to bring their own lunch there ?
Kids can bring their own lunch in the US. I have a middle schooler who eats school "hot" lunch everyday ($2.75usd) and a elementary student who brings lunch from home everyday. A big problem both kids complain about is a short time to eat lunch. My youngest only gets 20 minutes.
Load More Replies... Time to beat up a Korean kid and take their lunch..... Lol.....
Dear ma'am most of the pictures in these photos are Korean schools but you have to pay to go to a school like this but you gotta admit what a nice lunch
Load More Replies... Most kids in Australia bring a packed lunch from home. The school canteen was more of a “treat” that kids would get like once a week.
In belgium elementary school there wasn't provided a lunch. You had to bring your own
Load More Replies... I live in the US (California) And I am in middle school. Here is a rundown of my school lunch: A mandatory fruit or vegetable. (Apples, pears, letuce, carrots, out in the open, people with their bare hands, and they are out in the open, not even refrigerated. not even sure if washed or not.) A cartoon of milk. Sometimes this milk is expired. And a main course, ussally a burrito, quesidilla, pizza, sandwich or rice and chicken. There are vegetarian options, but they have zero effort compared to the non-vegitarian. This lunch is free, and sometimes the things are expired or going bad. People have been trying to petition this for a while, but they have given up. I bring my own lunch, but sometimes I don't get enough, and I go to get a hot lunch, but I am quite disapontied honestly.
This list first make me hungry, with pictures of amazing Korean and Swedish lunches, but as I scrolled down, it got sadder and sadder.
Yeah, the Korean ones were awesome. But I also ended up feeling a bit sad - and severely pìssed off on behalf of American school kids and their parents. What the hell? Feed the goddamned kids, come on; most of our civilization agrees that it’s one of the higher priorities.
Load More Replies... Some kids have gotten food poisoning from the lunch at my school 😭😭😭 And to think I could have gone to a school with catered lunches had we not moved.
FOOD POISONING?? from school lunch??? Suing time.
Load More Replies... Related School Lunch Flashback: Back in the late '60s-early '70s, I went to school in Thailand for a while (parents' band played a gig at a fancy-schmancy hotel in Bangkok). We stayed on the local US Army base, buying our groceries at the PX (Post Exchange). Mum would make me a bologna sandwich every day, VERY exotic to the locals at the time, that I would then "auction" off to the kid with the most interesting looking lunch at school. All I recall now is lots of banana leaves, rice, and deliciously seasoned veggies. One day I came home with an adorable kitten, but that's another Tale on the Riverbank, lol! Good times.
For a list with school lunches all around the world, the US seems to be more in the list than other countries
Well, the US is very visible on Bored Panda - perhaps due to a high percentage of American members, if I was to take a guess. That’s pretty reasonable, as a rule people are most comfortable talking about their own reality - it’s the only one you can refer to with much accuracy. Makes sense to me.
Load More Replies... South africa: mostly stew and rice or similar. Feeding-Sc...eme-ED.jpg
In hungary I usually get a chicken broth soup with carrots and sometimes small noodles. Along with that I get pasta, potatoes, or rice with pörkölt on top (traditional stew). It often varies, but that is the most common meal.
India also has free school lunches, and while it isn't the best looking or the most nutritious, it's a hundred percent better than US school lunches. In South India, it's usually rice+ some roasted seasoned veggies+ lentil soup with veggies. :) Or you might get roti (wheat bread) with some kind of vegetable gravy/curry added to the meal.
I see those nice lunches from other countries and I'm reminded of the lady who claimed providing food for kids at school is communism.
America really needs to take notes from South Korea. I took screenshots of the Korean school lunches so me and my sister can make it at home (or try at least)
Some of these look amazing (mostly the free ones, which you wouldn't expect) and some (all from the US as far as I can tell) look nightmarish
i remember when the lunch ladies actually cooked meals. this was back in the 70s-80s. when they started offering breakfast it was quick things like cold cereal, juice, milk and the occasional hot cereal. but, they would arrive very early to make the lunch meal with 'real' food. now, most of it is prepped at a central kitchen and just warmed up at the school and it looks like frozen type meals. for all i know it is frozen meals that are just purchased for the school.
I live in the us (maryland) and the food is so bad. its one of the best counties and im gonna be in one of the best high schools in the country next year. we get served barely edible stuff. and the worst part? ITS NOT EVEN FREE! they make us pay for that s**t.
my friend got a corn dog and bit into it and it was rubber and greyish pink. (virginia)
I'm just genuinely curious, at the schools where they serve all the lovely veggies, do the kids actually eat it? I'm pretty sure mine wouldn't. And also, my kid wasn't a picky eater until they started going to school and saw all the other kids being picky about their food, so I know it's not just mine. Especially the young kids.
Honestly…most countries serve good food except for good ol ‘murica
Visual representation of how much your government hates you. coming from the country that needed a premier league footballer to tell it's Tory dictators to feed starving kids through covid.
I feel the need to apologize to my country's children for the absolute trash that's passing for lunch in our schools.
Why is it that we spend more money on politicians then we do our school systems? No wonder the average IQ in the United States is 85
Glad to see nothing has changed with school lunches in the USA since I was in school. Lol geez so pathetic.
Why is it always chocolate milk in the states?! Am I really that different to not like it and prefer actual milk????
Probably because whoever took the picture chose it. You can choose plain, too.
Load More Replies... As is often said, there is no such thing as a free lunch. The same is true here. Someone paid for that lunch (ie - taxpayer).
Please add a typical Midwest school lunch: chili, cinnamon roll, carrot sticks, and milk.
My niece in law is the "lunch lady" at a grade school in Walla Walla, WA. She petitioned to get a student tended vegetable garden, which they approved. She takes feeding her "littles" very seriously and experiments with all kinds of different dishes, in her off hours and on her own dime.
In the late 70s, early 80s, our high school cafeteria had soggy French fries cooked in old, dirty grease(fries always dark brown), and hamburgers that made McDonald's look gourmet, and none of it was free...
Can wholely confirm how bad the U.S. lunches are. In fact, the examples here were gourmet compared to what I got in school. One school I went to used the same company that some prisons use to feed inmates.
When I was in first grade my family lived a wealthy neighborhood because of my Dad’s job. I live in the USA BTW. Anyway, the from what I remember there were a lot of lunch choices everyday. There were different stations with different foods and you could go and to the one with the food you wanted and get it. When I moved to second grade I also moved schools. This school only had two lunch choices everyday. Everyone stood in a single line to get their lunch. I think I adapted quickly, but in hindsight I think it is interesting how different they were. These were both public schools.
If the US would spend more money on schools, education of our children and teachers, and what the kids are being fed, we would be much better off! So, would the kids!
yes the us can learn ALOT from these other countries. I remember my school lunches were chicken, pizza, cheese fries just fried or greasy stuff and maybe an apple. That is not a lunch young adults need especially lunch. This will leave your kid sluggish, no energy and tired. you wonder why they can't focus in school after eating that? need more healthier stuff on those plates. Obesity and depression can start young, please feed them kids healthier
Lunch in the US is very different dependent on state and district. I have to assume other whole countries have the same discrepancies. In CA we have to provide choices on entrees and drinks as well as a salad bar with fruits and vegetables. We also provide free meals to all students.
I will add for the U.S. that the country is much bigger and it's harder to get fresh foods like they do in Korea or Japan. But there is definitely a lack of fruits and veggies in American lunches.
All I'm suddenly realising is how school lunches seem to be a normal thing, even a complained about thing, in many countries, yet here in South Africa we haven't heard of the concept of a school lunch. Either your parent pack in lunch for you, like a sandwich, or you just go without eating (like I did).
one time in like 3rd grade i ate school lunch that had a piece of plastic in it but I took it out and ate it anyways bc it was my only food. Got so sick I threw up twice&had to miss my camping trip. yes i live in america
Since I never have time to make myself lunch in the morning I usually dont eat cause school lunch is disgusting. I've been trying to get out of this habit cause my band is 5th period and it's hard to play on an empty stomach
Some of the US lunches actually looked better than what we're actually given lol
These kids today have it good. Back when I was in high school, we had choices of baked beans, s*** on a shingle, if we got pizza it was a weird square pizza and it was actually halfway decent, hamburgers were at least half soybean and most of the stuff was just slop. Of course this was 1984 to 1988. If you were lucky enough to drive, you could sneak out on your lunch hour and go get McDonald's or Burger King as long as you were back before the bell ring. Of course for us, depending on where your locker was, you might have an entire five full minutes to eat your lunch. Yeah they weren't very organized and TBH, I still don't think they're very organized even now.
I dont see Canada on here...no free lunches to be had I'm thinking. I've personally never heard of it.
They saved the worst for last. Criminal meals. These American "meals" are bad because they're free? Glad I packed my lunch (which was also poor quality -sandwich, chips, cookie, fruit). For a while it was being stolen out of my locker as I couldn't afford to rent a school lock. I would save my money for pizza day or the large, fluffy roll (5¢!) you could smell baking in the morning!
People used to find plasters and things in my school's lunches , some got food poisoning , but the cooks had to go on a training course for a week so now it just looks and tastes bad instead of being dangerous
Indiana: kids are offered three different lunches for free all year. This post looks like these kids only took what they liked from line and left the rest. Totally biased.
At my school you just bring your own food, buy some at the canteen or go to the supermarket that's nearby. Food in the canteen changes everyday (sometimes pizza, sometimes sausage roll) but you can always buy instant noodles!
...if you have money. American kids are often marginalized by politicians, even denying food stamps for $10 over-limit income. Food pantries struggle to provide food.
Load More Replies... I am not convinced by many of these and how come they manage in most cases to all be shot in the same way?
Notice how Korea uses stainless steel trays. USA: “our kids will turn them into weapons”
"According to the latest estimates, as many as 9 million children in the United States live in "food insecure" homes. That phrase may sound mild, but it means that those households don't have enough food for every family member to lead a healthy life." https://www.nokidhungry.org/who-we-are/hunger-facts#:~:text=According%20to%20the%20latest%20estimates,to%20lead%20a%20healthy%20life.
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