AMERICAN REACTS To SWEDISH SCHOOL LUNCHES - Sweden cares about it's children

[@Elin05]

Watching this from the swedish perspective of "is that not how all school kitchens look?"

[@Mr-Cane]

Finland agree.🥸

[@prageruwu69]

eller hur

[@moaahlgren5193]

No sadly not. It depends a bit on how the money and infrastruktur of the city is planned out. Sometimes we need to make the food in one of the bigger shools and drive it to the rest for reheating. I am so happy my child had food like this up till Gymnasiet (age 16) at least. Now she is pretty set in her ways of wanting good food and lots of fish and veggies. Investing in good and free food for all children IS a investment in their future. A new project they started at my daughers shool now is that if you come early and go to the library or extra classes they serve breakfast for free there! Perfekt.

[@KimOfDrac]

and most students think the food is bad too😂

[@memoblom2112]

I recently read that there’s only three countries in the world that offer free schoolmeals; Sweden, Finland and one more that I dont remember now.

[@lakritstrollet69]

Food in Swedish schools is free for all children. The school meals are paid for by tax money from the Swedish people

[@ReptilezDzn]

"free" with the amount of tax money that is WASTED by the government in sweden is insane. you the worker are literally paying for the school meals. certainly not free. nothing is free.

[@MollySato]

@@ReptilezDznI have no kids of my own but I proudly pay taxes for the kids.

[@hakandelabiarritz6750]

but the taxmoney goes to the kids and not as profit in a company.

[@debrickashaw9387]

@@ReptilezDzn oh no, my taxpayer money goes to feeding hungry children and not senseless, endless wars in Iraq and Afghanistan....

[@nesta8273]

Grew up in a small town on the countryside but we had fresh homecooked meals everyday with 2 or 3 options to chose from, always 2 different salads too. Milk, water or juice as drinks. The lunchladies were awesome and probably more respected then most of the teachers. This was back in the 90's. No clue what they eat today in swedish schools but i cant imagine much have changed, its possible that bigger cities have food they order from some big kitchen from outside the school (pretty much hospital food) and for those that have this i can only shake my head. You cant have a good learning experience if you sit down in class on a empty stomache to learn.

[@helvete983]

Lived in Sweden 20+ years now, my wife is a teacher and I can confirm I love the food when I visit her at lunch. On another note, is this woman really a chef? There is no frigging way you can taste even a hint of curry in that dish she made, even without the coconut milk.

[@Illadviced]

RIGHT!? I'm also very confused about the rice, I feel like it would taste like olive oil and that just wouldn't go very well together with that "curry"?

[@fridamarias]

I'm Swedish and the first crazy thing to me is that someome points out that it's safe to drink tap water x'D I mean, I know that's not the case everywhere but still odd to hear like a random fact.

[@fredosinsemilla3896]

You should travel more around the world to learn why they say it. I have been sick many times when I by necessity had to drink the tap water. That's not the case in Sweden.

[@johankaewberg8162]

Happened to me in San Francisco.

[@olasjoberg2111]

hey Dar.. don't be afraid of the winter and snow. the thing is, not to sweat as much, ie. there are no bad weather, just bad clothes winter is amazing... it is bright! all the ice chrystalls reflecting light... it is autumn that is dark and depressing.(oct - early december) i rally hope you visit in sweden sometime.. i realize you will be visiting at summertime the first time. but grow with the challenge :)

[@matsv201]

Learn to dress. and i do think there is a lot of people even in Sweden that don´t know how to dress properly. Dress from the skin out. Ad more clothing closest to the skin. I hardly even use my winter jacket.and it have to be -10 before i bother with gloves.

[@martinanordlund9796]

The tap water differs from place to place, most people with their own well have delicious water, some cities have better water than others, but still drinkable. Will never forget when we arrived at LAX and I was thirsty I went to a water-fountain and had a zip... it was worse than have a involuntary gulp of cold water at a public pool. Then I realized why people bought water in bottles.

[@naektergal]

To be fair. During my time im school during 90s.. school lunches was some of the best food Ive had Was always high standards even if simple and flavourful. I still miss some of the recipes used 😢😂 Even if my school swapped from in-house cooking to a big kitchen delivery system which got more common during the Millennium shift to my understanding

[@justprecisja]

This ☝️

[@doop00]

I'm an old man now but I remember the school food always being to a good standard, rarely anything unhealty.

[@matsv201]

There is a few cavias to this. School food is on municipality to municipality level, there may also be some minor variations from one kitchen to a other., and one kitchen may serve several schools. In the video is an example of a very high quality school kitchen, probobly at to 10% end or so. There is typically a head kitchen in every municipality. There is the only place there would be a true chef. (there might be more than one, and some municipality have them spreed out doing a few days each). The Chef not only have to make the recepy but also food list, the ingredient list for the slave kitchen. The slave kitchen have a "kokerska" that apparently lack English translation. Its like a head chef assistant. Then one step down there is serving kitchen that have the food transporterd there from a slave kitchen To make it a bit more complicated a lot of municipality have a mixed serving kitchen that may do the vegetable and side dish local but have the main dish transported in. The serving kitchen typically have steamer and cooker and a few other things, but its typically just one or sometimes if its a larger school two people working there. Now some municipalities have no true kitchen what so ever, using only serving kitchen, having the food bought in from contractors. This is a problem. Because when the slave kitchen do food for a serving kitchen it may only take 10-15 minutes from the food is done until its on the table for the children. When it done by a contractor. All the food have to be ready by about 9AM to be shipped out, then it may take up to a hour to reach the municipality then the truck have to may be of load at 4-5 different schools each. This is where you get the not to great food. For the breakfast, its worth saying that the parents have to pay for that. The cost varries abit bit but with the breakfast and extra time (and there might be some sandwich in the afternoon as well) typically pay 1000sek/month/child. that is about €100. Typically you can get as much as you want of everything but the main course. Typically you get two servings of the main course. At least how it work in my school there was a 5 minute slot for new serving, then a 5 minute slot for seconds serving and a 5 minute slot for new serving. And so on. (and you get a designated time slot for you first serving). Normally you (at least in my school) you could sit 30 minutes before you get thrown out. In that time you could in theory get 3 extra servings, but technically you where not alowed. Its not that the servings are terribly small, but if you are a 15 year old (at least like i was) you could never got to much meat. I do think its nice they filmed it in Avesta and not some larger town or city. Avesta is really like most of Sweden, a small town in the middle of nowhere that most people don´t even know exist. There are just loads and loads and loads of them, and there is really where most people actually live. 26:00 There is several reasons that teachers eat with the kids that is.. well.. sort of not spoken of.. Unspoken reasons. While yes they eat with them to teach them.. but that is sort of the ... the cover lie. There is two far more important reasons. The first reason is the have a food quality stamp. If the teachers refuse to eat with the kid, the food quality is to poor. The second reason is tax. If the teachers eat the food served to them they have to pay tax benefit for the market value of the food. But if they eat with the kids, they can claim the main reason for eating is not to get food, but to teach the children, then they don´t need to pay tax benefits. And its actually quite a lot of money. Its quite obvious to how many teachers there are depending on what kind of food it is. If its tacos, every teacher is there, if its root moss, they are nowhere to be seen,. Also a smaller foot note, the chef and the headmaster is not in the same chain of command. The head chef makes food not only for school but also daycare and in some cases elder care. (yes, the school children and the elderly get exactly the same food). In some municipality also the municipality head cantina get the same food. But they have to pay for there food for legal reasons.

[@Divig]

When I was young we had a special day in the autumn when every class in every school in the municipality went out into the forest and picked lingonberries. Those berries were then used in our school lunches.😊

[@hansmuller1625]

Love that. It's a very practical way to teach kids what goes into making food, both literally and figuratively.

[@donquixote1502]

👍👍

[@Felixolsson3789]

This channel is very underrated! Love what is on this channel!

[@superapina]

I have always laugh when i see the american school lunch... it is so unhealthy so no wonder in the usa have overweight kids... You really should try all nordic country school kitchen's

[@sweetcherry7759]

Ironically many kids also starve, bc the sad excuse for food isn’t free.

[@josefinbjork1086]

I work in a kitchen like that its a smaller one but the ovens is verry simular its really fun they have a few sallads we usally have more. And not all school lunches are exacly like that across the country we use premade meatballs and beefpatties

[@EricaHLjung]

Fun fact, the budget for 1 school lunch is around 8 SEK (1 dollar). Or it was ten years ago when I asked my father.

[@matsv201]

I found a article (from 2021) that claimed that the average price of school food in Sweden was 6500sek/year, that is about 40sek/school day. but the bottom municipality is Partille with 3900sek/year and the top is Berg with 14 700sek/year. So its a huge diffrance. In the article they also interviewed the kitchen chef of Berg that claimed the high cost was that they had true kitchen in every school, and not just serving kitchen. Still 14 700sek is a lot of money. (and the stats in the article was from 2018) Worth saying, this is the full cost of the whole organisation including personnel, rent, dishes and so on. The raw ingredient cost is about 1/4... So.. yea,, that would boil down to about 10sek, still a dollar.

[@tnecniw]

@@matsv201 Worth to also point out, All food gets way cheaper when you mass produce it. They make a lot of food at once, which makes it significantly cheaper.

[@debrickashaw9387]

@@matsv201 The city I went to elementary school in 20 years ago had 1 school with a true kitchen. This school made the food for all the schools in the city. City size about 40k and 8 different schools.

[@piahultin129]

Hi Dar! Im fr Sweden as some others here...nice show btw! - one think to point out is, besides the free meals we have is that children should have the same opportunity to eat regardless social backgrounds, especially the community schools. Not every school has breakfast I think but have goals to have.

[@hannayoung9657]

As Swede, any school with fritids ( daycare for school kids) has to provide breakfast for the early kids and snacks ( sandwich, milk, yogurt, fruit) in the afternoon. Not all food are cooked locally, our comes from a central kitchen and then sent out to the schools, still good quality food and they have fresh salads bar.

[@matsv201]

@@hannayoung9657 "Not all food are cooked locally, our comes from a central kitchen and then sent out to the schools," That is different from municipality to municipality. Here where i live most of it is made in the local kitchen. Still breakfast and afternoon meal is for students where parents pay for Fritids only. The drawback of Fritids is first that you have to pay for it, and secondly that you don´t get a school bus. I have 4 children, and it was just cheaper to work less hours and have the children transported home then picking them up at 3 different schools (even worse, 2025 it will be 4 different schools)

[@SteamboatW]

17% of Sweden is covered in Longonberries.

[@Ravenhails]

My wife's a teacher and while she doesn't eat free, it's only two or three bucks per meal, and like the kids you can take as much or little as you want. A cheap, quality buffet with day-to-day variation. And I still remember the taste of a few of my favorite meals from preschool to high school.

[@justmaria]

Just as remember the food at my school, good and fresh and made at the location.

[@Kramtomat]

I spent one week at an American school back in 1994 and even though I was not a big fan of our Swedish school lunches back then, I missed them like crazy after a couple of days away from them. I never thought the thing I would miss the most when in the US would be those lunches. 😂

[@donquixote1502]

School lunches during the 60s and 70s in Sweden were amazing. I still cook some of the dishes today. I think serving the children food in school is one of the most important things.

[@linnealoev]

If you ask a Swedish kid if they like the food in the school so says the most “ I don’t like the school food. But it can be so because they are useful and without sugar😂

[@katarinastrom4193]

Visst det så 😂 min son slutade precis grundskolan i juni i en Waldorf skola, när jag var med honom i skolan och fick äta med honom var det sååå gott. Men det var vegetarisk mat , mycket syrade grönsaker och bönor , olika röror och allt möjligt gott 🤤 jag tyckte det var jätte gott 😂 min son var inte lika entusiastisk

[@donquixote1502]

To be honest, they wish it was burgers. In a way, they are spoiled (kind of 🤭) When they get older, they will remember the school lunches as something good.

[@tnecniw]

Yeah. I never got that. As a Swedish kid I LOVED the school food.

[@RaXXha]

Man i missed out, I'm swedish and we never got food this fancy in my school. Granted i graduated from high school 16 years ago. xD

[@fortuna7469]

To me it seemed funny how you associated your experience of school food at some point in your school time to president Obama. Here in Finland the president does not have anything to do with school lunches.

[@Humpelstilzchen]

Fresh bread is like a basic human right in europe (not official of corse😉) and all countries argue who have the best (this is a true point 😅)

[@tanja3921]

I live in Sweden and I am so jealous because the bread in Finland is so good in every way. The range is also so incredibly varied. They seem to have flour varieties of better quality as well.

[@froggyringu]

3:50 that's actually very little snow. -A Swedish northerner

[@PencilaPaper]

So good to educate the public

[@matsv201]

28:50 Typically the after noon table is for children with payed extended hours only, same as the breakfast. But it does depend, some municipalities give it to all the children

[@birgittae9046]

Great video and comments! I love chicken curry 😋😋 Both the swedish and indian style. 😍

[@petrakihlstrom8163]

My dad lives in Avesta, Dalarna. It isn't that far up in the north.

[@_IN8INITY_]

I´m sure that most people in school don't even like the food. In primary school my school had a chef (one of the staff that worked there) He used to take finnished food (not everything u eat is made from scratch at the actual school) He wanted to make sure the children would enjoy the food. So he always made the food a bit extra "fancy"/better than it already was. Becase he did that he was fired twice. Because those who hire the kitchen staff for each school didn´t allow what he did so they just fired him. Without him working there no one would eat the food because it wasn´t good anymore.

[@BrandtAnnika]

Hello. nice to see at actually video about the school kitchen. I'm a chef my self. First importent you to remember, and all who watching this and aint Swedish. is that some quality and look can be different. it dempends on the kommun (i guess it would be called a county..) Some are good, better or worst 😂 This is pretty much a standard today in school kitchen. we had some years that it was worst, and specially many many many years ago this thays much school trying to make the most food from scratch. These days much kommune, have the rules that you has to be chef, educated chef. (schooled) I work in preschool and alone, in daycare/preschool in my kommun day have choosen to have many small daycares so they can have ONE chef in every daycare, so the kids get food cooked from the scratch.

[@matsv201]

The literal translation of kommun is commune, but the figurative translation is municipality.

[@matsv201]

6:45 a yea.. fresh food in sweden in january. Came fresh of a truck from neterlands this m8rnimg.

[@Basca112]

I wish my school had lunces like this, i grew up in a "millon project" as they called it, cheap housing for immigrants and poor people, the school lunch were garbage most of the days, rice swimming in water, ground meat shaped as turds bot they were geryish coulour and it seemed like it was growing while you were shewing it. I whent down to the corner muslim shop and bought olives and pepperonies and had that for lunch. or the local pizza place and bought pizza sallad with tomato sause and tabasco on it, yum i still get cravings for it from time to time.

[@WolfHeathen]

The law (Skollag 2010:800) states that "The students must have free access to books and other learning tools needed for an up-to-date education and be offered nutritious school meals." There's no specific definition of "nutritious" given, but The Swedish Food Agency has published national guidelines. It states the following: "The Nordic nutritional recommendations (NNR) are developed by a Nordic expert group and are based on systematic reviews of scientific literature. NNR indicates recommended daily intake of nutrients as well as reference values for energy intake for different age groups. The recommendations aim both to fulfill the body's nutritional needs and to prevent ill health in the long term."

[@cmineur8657]

I can say like this... school lunch like this is usual on like private schools and not schools that are paid by the taxses, even at some school they have started to serve same food every days since kids dont eat

[@YehaaMaria]

Hello from Avesta 😁😁😁👋🏻

[@gmunden1]

You don't need a rice cooker if you prepare and cook the rice correctly.

[@Illadviced]

Well.... I mean... Her way of cooking rice does look kinda wild to me. But ignoring that, a rice cooker is very practical. I have no issues cooking rice without one but I use a rice cooker anyways 😂 Work smart, not hard. It's also a plus that you can cook whole dishes with it, a life saver when you're sick, have a bad day or if you're just tired. Just throw it in there, push a button and wait.

[@sweetcherry7759]

You can tell how much a government cares about their citizens by the quality of the school lunches.

[@Brandunfriendlyman]

That's not the standard, that is an exceptional kitchen, it's not like that in 99% of schools. Regular cost for a school lunch in Sweden is between $2 and $5 a day depending on school.

[@JK-xt7ro]

lol no@@Brandunfriendlyman

[@tnecniw]

@@Brandunfriendlyman Nah. As someone that has been in multiple schools and school kitchens. Sure, not all of them are this good, but they are way above $5. School lunches are 100% free for students, they are (usually) allowed to have as many servings as they want. And they are full meals, not like americans where they are essentially just snacks.

[@herrbonk3635]

13:15 Don't think "touch screens" are general for swedish school kitchens :) Especially not if you go back 50 years or so.

[@Illadviced]

Ofc we didn't have touch screen ovens in school kitchens in the 70's 😂 duh

[@herrbonk3635]

@@Illadviced We had touch control on our Luxor Stereos in 1976 though, among others :)

[@Illadviced]

@@herrbonk3635 it absolutely wasn't something you used for everything like today though, wasn't widely used in the same way. 😅 Like early touch screens are known as a flop, so there not being any in a school in the 70's is kind of obvious.

[@matsv201]

This looks like a head kitchen. Still. Looking at the 3 school kitchen we have in the village of Forssjö where i live (its kind of ridiculously we have 3 school kitchen to be honest), they are all quite modern. Well... the last one was built this year and have everything new, so its very modern. but also the first one, that was built in the 50s, most of the equipment is still fairly new.

[@mariahellerstedt9577]

If you want the dish a little bit sweet you can add a grained apple 😋😋

[@robertseitner8640]

I think one of the main differences may be funding. The Swedes may place a higher value on setting aside more public money for education including feeding the students. It's a shame that we don't provide our students with the same opportunities.

[@eliasspelshow7144]

I’m live in sweden all food in school is healty food 🙁all food is vegetabels in soop and pots sometimes you can get hamburger meatballs and pancakes 😋👍 but you didin’t have to pay for the food!!!

[@itsgabeherekarlsson6341]

2 things.. we were always thought ( in my school) to go up and thank the dinner lady for the food when we were done. 2.. i dont trust anyone that cuts bell pepper like that, dont call yourself a chef when you do that, you only need your thumbs when you take aout the seeds.

[@pedroconcha1715]

you need to try some thai food, coconut milk and chili is the best

[@stefannilsson9061]

So you have never tasted Curry? You should, you have been missing out..how did you manage to avoid it...

[@birgittae9046]

Note that the traditional spice named ”curry” in Sweden not is the same as Indian ”curry” that is made of a mix of very many different spices. Which taste can varies in different food traditions in India.

[@jandmath]

Swedish food in general is really good, especially the ‘comfort food’ - excellent! However, their bread is not really something to write home about…

[@tanja3921]

I agree, you have to go to Finland for some tasty and lovely bread..

[@donquixote1502]

What? We have an enormous variety of bread in Sweden. What are you looking for? American white XXXXXXXXXXX

[@jandmath]

@@donquixote1502 On the contrary - I like the ‘coarser’ types of bread. I of course do not know every type of bread available everywhere in Sweden. But in general the most readily available bread seems to be ‘white’ and sweet. And sorry, but the variety of bread are arguably waaay larger in both Denmark and Norway. Then talking about actual variety in types of bread, not variations in packaging and format, as IMO is the case in Sweden.

[@JK-xt7ro]

Not true.@@jandmath

[@jandmath]

@@JK-xt7ro​​⁠Well, I guess we have to agree to disagree then.

[@antondzajajurca7797]

"tastiest tap water" ?!? ----RUN! :)

[@memoblom2112]

I recently read that there’s only three countries in the world that offer free schoolmeals; Sweden, Finland and one more that I dont remember now..

[@donquixote1502]

India and Estonia. Also some states in America like California.

[@fridamarias]

do it with the curry! trust me, a random Swede on the internet

[@rickardelimaa]

I can vouch this random Swede.

[@mikkohapponen5728]

Was cook in few schools. I was in the breaking point of school cooks to one huge kitchen. Not good turning point at all. We have to go back to school kitchens. People who did their work with passion left to warm up crap. Dumb move finland,really dumb

[@matsv201]

Is the school food Nation controlled in Finland? In Sweden pretty much every municipality do what ever they want. So in some places the food is aufwull in some places its really good.

[@allangoodger969]

No Vegemite? It's not a breakfast without Vegemite on toast.

[@birgittae9046]

Sorry, Vegemite is very rare in Sweden. 😅 Here it is Kalle's Caviar instead, which is always available as a topping on the sandwich. 👍

[@allangoodger969]

@@birgittae9046 My sympathies my dear

[@birgittae9046]

@allangoodger969 🤣🙏🏻

[@tropik5724]

Ok I am Swedish and this is not what I got in School not even anywhere near that lvl of food lol.

[@irenestahl1598]

From scratch and free!❤️❤️

[@MrBern91]

Now... The school lunches hasn't always been good and it is actually only the past 10 - 15 years that it became better, generally speaking... Smaller schools could afford to have higher standard, but bigger schools were horrible. When I went to school, the food was vile and studies showed that there's more nutrition in the cheap brands of store bought cat and dog food than there was in the school foods. Once this was brought to attention and acknowledged, the schools had to step up and increase the standard by using fresh ingredients, no GMUs, no half-fabricates, and much less frozen etc. While it's not top class, it is definitely on the same level as your typical home cooking.

[@catd11ng74]

Compared to many other countries the Swedish school lunches have been like eating on a 5 star restaurant

[@denisethorbjornsen7493]

The truth about u.s. school lunches it's prepared somewhere else and then it's brought to the school to be served up

[@lillanlofgren7424]

(Avesta) Swedish...AAAvEsta 😁

[@TheRevan1337]

They still complain about the food :P Some things stay the same

[@matsv201]

To be fair, in some municipality its quite bad.

[@carro-xb9oz]

sod the coconutmilk...use ordinary milk or cream.not coconut

[@Xerdoz]

05:50 Romanian thieves.

[@andreakalus6277]

food is free in Sweden

[@spacemaker8760]

Well stockholm its for tourists mostley. The prices in stockholm are more expensive then the rest of sweden too. If you want to visit the real Sweden you can go to Avesta instead. Or anny other then the bigger citys.

[@matsv201]

Well its Stockholm, Göteborg (really in both cases, mostly central parts) and south west of Skåne is also freaking expensive. And the rest of the country is normal. I earn like almost half as much as my friends in Lund, i still got more money left after i payed what i need.

[@lolboll2292]

I’m Swedish

[@andreakalus6277]

Scool is free from 1grade to universety you dont pay to go to school

[@matsv201]

Nobody pays to go to school anywhere in the world. A lot of Europeans for some reason believe that people in the US pays to go to school. That have never been the case. University yes, Daycare yes, school no. Its worth saying that collage in the US is manage by the sates. So the state set the fee for collage. Some states have the fee at $0. So you can go to state collage for free in like a handfull of states if you live of campus.

[@SteamboatW]

I would have added some chilis to the raspberry/mango sauce.

[@Templarofsteel88]

Considering that a lot of schools have younger children that would not be the best choice.

[@SteamboatW]

@@Templarofsteel88 Not *that* much! You just use enough to make the raspberries emerge, that's quite common when making a sauce like this.

[@skittleplays6500]

My school serves raw chicken

[@irenestrmnss4496]

No basil in curry maam. And much more curry paste and indian spices. That was not curry. Rice coocker , you need it. I am not a you tube "chef", but I make better dinner that that.

[@Nekotaku_TV]

*its

[@rosameryrojas-delcerro1059]

Good food at a school?? I have no idea where you grew up, but where I grew up there was nothing good about it. Then I taught for only 6 years (until 2005 when I left teaching for good) in a different district in the same state and it was still disgusting. I live in another state now, (my father grew up here, and the cafeteria food was awful when he was a kid) and the food is still wretched, so for at least 65 years, the food in the two states I have lived in has been inedible slop. Obama or not.

[@matsv201]

To be fair. In Sweden its based on the municipality so in some places its really bad, in some places its really good.