Are School Lunches Really That Bad?

Lunch has been given to American school children since the 1940s, but in 2022, pizza, burgers, and ice cream are at the top of the menu. Is this issue more complex than health activists can help?
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My Twitter: / dreamyjellies
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FAQ:
Q: What sound effects do you use?
A: Mostly bits from Animal Crossing GC & NH, and Sims 3
Q: What background music do you use?
A: A lot of stuff from the Sims Bustin' Out, Sims 2, and Urbz GBA OST. Also mixed with Club Penguin, more Animal Crossing, and various DS game OSTs
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Q: Who is that kid in all your thumbnails/why do you use him?
A: Brent Rambo, a kid from a silly meme for my silly channel :3
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0:00 Intro
0:58 School Cafeteria Tropes
2:47 Poor Quality Food
5:30 School Lunch Sugar & Desserts
8:40 Kids' Eating Habits
10:47 Michelle Obama's Effects
13:35 Junk Food in Schools
16:07 Lunch Money Problems
17:25 Outro

[@smashstar020]

Whats the background music?

[@dreamyjellies]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/i6u8layNpdt_htk From my favorite childhood game :)

[@heyli2197]

@@dreamyjellies do you Support schools putting bleach in food to prevent obesetie

[@smashstar020]

@@dreamyjellies omg thanks! It gave me some weird homey nostalgia while listening to the video

[@pennylessz]

@@dreamyjellies I think this was in a different Sims game too. I recognized it, but I def never played any version of this one.

[@pugdad2555]

@@dreamyjellies why did you ignore that fact that Obama wanted to ban all vending machine with junk food or soda but that Conservatives (both Democrats and Republicans) fought against it. The act that was passed was an empty shell because it still allowed school districts to get soda machines and such. Something Obama wanted banned in schools.

[@CornmanC]

Since everyone is telling their favorite cafeteria stories, I'll tell mine, too. One day in 12th grade, the two options for lunch were chicken nuggets and something new that the cafeteria staff were trying out: fish tacos. The tacos were just 2 fish sticks in a tortilla with shredded cheese and some sort of spicy tartar sauce, but I thought they were pretty good. A couple days later, one of the lunch ladies asked me what I thought of the fish taco. I asked why she wanted to know, and she told me that I was the only person in the entire school who actually ordered it.

[@oceanexblve884]

What did you tell her ?

[@CornmanC]

@@oceanexblve884 I said I liked it, but I'm sure it didn't matter much in comparison to the ~100 other students who were too afraid to even try it.

[@vincentdambrosio7511]

That reminds me of the one time in high school they had sushi. I'm pretty sure I'm the only person who ate it... They never had it again.

[@crypticcorvid]

@@vincentdambrosio7511 Well if a school can only serve raw meat, might as well do sushi! lmao

[@haleyb7304]

My school did something really similar with a black bean burger. They added everyone who bought one in an email and sent us a poll to take, only about 20 of us out of 3500 kids...

[@SpringLockKitty]

At the schools I grew up with, they had a lunch option by the name of "Grab 'N Go", which contained pre-packaged food such as yogurt, string cheese, and crackers in a plastic box. Chose it every time, the food they made gave multiple kids food poisoning. Lunch ladies were the sweetest, though.

[@stormofdogz]

my elementary school had something similar except it was in paper bags hidden in the cafeteria somewhere and you had to ask for it as if it was some secret thing nobody was supposed to know about those paper bags always had the good non-expired snacks.

[@aperson0001]

@@stormofdogzThe school I went to doesn't even have a cafeteria lol you gotta bring your own food and snacks

[@TheVeryAngryShrimp]

My elementary school had these back in 2004! Never chose them. We always had pizza and chik-fil-a tuesdays.

[@arandomteto]

My school had that option too and half of the students would take those bags because it was safer than the school food. One time, the school served expired milk with chunks in it and chicken that was bright pink on the inside. I'm really glad I never got school lunch

[@artistanthony1007]

Lucky you, never had that and I'm 23 so my experience is sour.

[@rubymalia9345]

I'll still never understand charging money for school lunches. They'll go as far as sending police to your home if you miss school, but god forbid they give you one meal a day 💀

[@blackqweenmars]

During the pandemic they stopped charging for school lunch. In my old school, you could charge infinity dollars on your account and still get lunch but eventually, you were switched to the nasty cheese sandwich lunch. At the high school I go to now if you don’t have the money they take your lunch. One day I couldn’t eat lunch because I didn’t have money in my account and they took it. I’m pretty sure they threw it away afterwards so they could’ve just let me eat it😢

[@rubymalia9345]

@@blackqweenmars that's fucked up :c

[@judethedude916]

My lunch in elementary was always free

[@roufdrapht]

Some people don't want to pay to feed your 5 children

[@littlesongbird1]

Kind of on the fence with this one as I would never like the idea of a student going hungry (I work as a teacher) and have paid for snacks/lunches for students and campers who needed it when I worked at a summer camp. However, some parents abuse the system. When I was a kid they had what they used to call "humanitarian meals" . If you didn't have a lunch or money they just gave you a pb and j sandwich apple and milk at no charge (this was before the days of using a card or id number for lunch). I think maybe once a school year if that I had to ask for one because I forgot my lunch at home (It happens especially when I was in first grade). Many schools ended these because parents were sending their kid to school without lunch every day and not signing up for the federal lunch program so the school could get some money to cover the cost of the lunches since the parents weren't paying.

[@joechisten7176]

My elementary school anticipated the problem of the whole "mandatory fruit/vegetable" thing by introducing a "food donation box". Students were instructed to place any food they didn't want to eat into the bins rather than the trash

[@kraftylefty6559]

I wish they had that at my school growing up. Money was kinda tight for several years and my parents drilled into me and my siblings the importance of not being wasteful. I hated seeing perfectly good fruit/veggies going into the trash because kids didn't want them but they were mandatory

[@Jacqueline_Oat]

I remember the share boxes

[@thepeasrolledoffthecounter7552]

We had those too. And in middle school there was just a table where you put unwanted food, and my friend almost threw up after taking and eating a string cheese from there.

[@gogo_18]

My high school has this. It’s always filled with apple juices and carrots.

[@user-er1cy2nr6c]

My school had something like this but it was a table and people could take stuff from it. I remember there was like 50 carrots on there.

[@462n]

Just wanted to emphasize on how a lot of students from poor families went to school specifically because they needed to have the free food. I remember hearing a lot of stories about kids that wouldnt get to eat as much if school was out. (Just making this point to emphasize how important having good school lunches really is).

[@Justacapybara9000]

I'm in California and it's so bad here when I was in school about 20-30% of my friends weren't getting enough food at home entirely counting on the free lunch program and begging for fruit to survive

[@ImaginaryAlchemist]

Yep, at my middle school over half the kids (myself included) were on the free/reduced lunch program. My parents also had food stamps, so I ate very poorly back then

[@rlyrosy]

it's me im the student who barely eats when not at school

[@Ghost-lk2fc]

I didn't eat well at home and my mother was too prideful to let me sign up for the free/reduced lunch program. When I was going to school they forced us to go through the lunch line and get a full tray of food whether you could afford it or not. Every day I had to fill up a tray, walk up to the lunch lady, watch the visible annoyance on her face as she let out a deep sigh upon looking at my balance and noticing that I _still_ hadn't brought money, and have her take my tray and throw it away in front of me while she called for a replacement meal to be given to me. Every day, it held up the line and made everyone stare at me. Every day I was given a stale, half frozen, sometimes moldy sandwitch that consisted of discolored bread and a single slice of cheddar cheese. Not only was the food I received barely edible, but was humiliating and even insulting. What was the point of such a ritual? I couldn't even eat those sandwiches half the time without risking getting sick. This is another scenario no one talks about. It might not be as common but it happens, and there are a plethora of issues that could be fixed to make it better that relate to other negative experiences, as well.

[@cameronlopez5313]

Part of the reason I love my home town is because they catered those students. During the summer, they would open the cafeteria for two to three hours a day to ensure students could get lunch if they had a rough home situation. It's a huge deal and those cafeteria workers are horribly underappreciated.

[@morticiax540]

My mom was a lunch lady for my high school, and she made a note of all the kids who were homeless/struggling financially and would make sure they got extra food for free to eat at school or take home. Even if it was just chips or a thing of water.

[@mememologies7363]

Your mom sounds super sweet

[@morticiax540]

@@mememologies7363 She passed away unexpectedly a few years ago but so many of the people she kept an eye on came to say their goodbyes and still thank me for her help to this day.

[@mememologies7363]

@@morticiax540 I’m sorry about your loss. It sounds like she was greatly loved not just by you but by a lot of people

[@SBPau2024]

@@morticiax540 My mom was the same, only the good die young :(

[@jammies1431]

I forgot my lunch money one day and my account was empty, so one of the lunch ladies took me aside quietly and whispered that she would be back. She came back with a cheese sandwich and told me not to tell anyone. I didn't realize it then, but she would have gotten in trouble if they found out she didn't ring it up to charge my account into debt. Any debt on a student's account in high school would literally stop you from graduating if you didn't pay it off. I also had teachers make me food or lend me money so I could eat. Every adult in that school understood how absurd it was to let students go hungry just for being unable to pay. Even when they were focused on feeding their own families, they ALWAYS asked if I had eaten. My favorite teacher made really great home made vegan meals for me to try. I still think about him.

[@kip1815]

In my freshman year of highschool, I was in the nurse's office because I had fainted really bad and was waiting for my mom to pick me up. As I laid on the paper-y bed, I witnessed about four students come in at sporadic times suffering from food poisoning due to the poorly cooked chicken. Two kids came in and had vomited in the private toilets, and two claimed they had already vomited and needed to be sent home. Luckily, I fainted early on in the lunch hour and didn't even get the chicken sandwich that everyone else ordered.

[@heatheralwaysqueen318]

WTF? how did they let that slide through?

[@marylizakowski706]

What did you eat that made you sick?

[@kat.n.paws.]

@@marylizakowski706she didn't eat anything she fainted

[@fettuccinealfredo6499]

Elementary school lunch was wild. I remember at my school, they would give out those little calendars telling what food would be on what days. I would always pack my lunch if it was something gross.

[@Danube-TV]

In my muddle school, sometimes the menu would say something like "Mozzarella Sticks" when half of the time it was literal cheese sandwiches.

[@gogo_18]

I used to do that too.

[@gogo_18]

⁠@@Danube-TV In my elementary, they would call mozzarella sticks “stuffed crusts” and give us a piece of bread that was hallowed out and it had a cheese stick in the middle.

[@Danube-TV]

@@gogo_18 ouch, that gotta hurt

[@spencerpetunia8268]

I REMEMBER THOSE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL LUNCH CALENDARS! Though I wasn't packing my own lunches yet in elementary school-my mom packed my lunches until the COVID shutdowns in March 2020 had me doing college over Zoom.

[@jammies1431]

Nothing made my day more than the "here you go, baby. Make sure you grab a piece of fruit." from the lunch ladies. I never had a bad experience with lunch ladies. They were legitimately happy to talk to kids and they always made sure we picked healthy choices.

[@randomyoutubeuser2424]

Bro fr just the other day my breakfast LL asked me to take a fruit so fucking kindly.....never before had i want to eat a school banana more

[@jammies1431]

@@randomyoutubeuser2424 I swear they're all like surrogate moms. I never understood the trope of them being mean!

[@randomyoutubeuser2424]

@@jammies1431 ong bro

[@fruitlikerw]

once a lunch lady chased a kid to get a piece of fruit and then the kid was mad and threw it in the share bin

[@randomyoutubeuser2424]

@@fruitlikerw oh.....thats new

[@valentinescookies.]

i’m actually so disappointed that my school never had dessert. hearing that plenty of others schools had dessert options is so surprising, because we never had that option. and to add on to it, we never had enough portions to fill us up. i remember going around the cafeteria in high school and asking people i knew if i could have their food if they weren’t eating it. that’s the only way i got full

[@plaguednecro]

yeah fr, seeing that some schools had big ass dessert sections is insane to me. we had prepackaged shit like scooby snacks and a few other things but never any worthwhile desserts or anything compared to the parfaits and cakes shown in the video

[@kwad9145]

just bring a sandwich

[@fourearwolf3315]

My middle school had a desert freezer section but I couldn’t get any because I was in the free lunch program. When you’re in the free lunch program, you can only get the main dish and sides. You couldn’t get chips or deserts. I still feel like I miss out a bit. The only way I could get those stuff is asking people I knew.

[@CordeliaWagner]

Children shouldn't be given sweets daily. Look at all the obese people.

[@its_lucky252]

in elementary school we could spend like 50 extra cents for ice cream or chips, i wish we had that in middle school too

[@isaccsushi8610]

As a kid who grew up in starvation poverty the school free lunch program was all we got alot. The saddest part too was that I got heavily judged for it too by kids and adults due to how conservative the area was. Getting told by grown adults to basically just go hungry because my mom was poor is awful. I sympathize with anyone that had this issue and feel sorry for children in this country going hungry.

[@caiuswalter-smith3385]

😅 12:19

[@bee65]

There’s no excuse for people that think a child doesn’t deserve to eat when there is access to excess food and an issue with excess food waste. That’s genuinely evil.

[@hannahdigioia692]

I never had to go through that, but it always breaks my heart to hear people tell others to suffer like this. I'm sorry to hear that this was told to you. :(

[@kawaiiblossom3117]

At my school you literally be called werid so I just never ate lunch (at my school everyone was toxic)

[@Jacqueline_Oat]

​@@caiuswalter-smith3385what?

[@Doodlebirds1]

French and Japanese school lunches are on another level. There were so many fresh and delicious options on my exchange trip to a French school. Was affordable too 😋

[@matthew_natividad]

Philippines too especially if you go to very upscale private schools with what’s sold in them minus the pricing

[@BsbshdhBahshshshshshsheh]

I sadly have to suffer with the American school lunch

[@SillyCrazi]

​@@BsbshdhBahshshshshshsheh Same, my oranges... THE ORANGES WERE DRY... I ATE IT THINKING IT WAS FRESH💀

[@ImWithIdiot]

@@SillyCraziyou think thats bad, the orange juice cups were brown at my school not orange. and had weird specs floating around and crossed out expiration dates? like is that illegal💀

[@Roblocksgaming]

@@ImWithIdiotone of the reasons I bring my school lunchbox 💀

[@misa7449]

In elementary school I had a lunch lady who memorized just about everyone’s lunch code. At the beginning of each school year it took her a month or so to refresh her memory and get the line moving fast again. I hope she’s doing well. She was nice and a person who can remember a 1000 different codes is respectable

[@zixvirzjghamn737]

teh GOATed lunch lady

[@robnduhcut]

Elementary-middle school was mid then highschool was decent. Now I’m in college n the food regular

[@BsbshdhBahshshshshshsheh]

My lunch people at school didn’t memorize the number or faces so people would go in 4-6 times until she noticed (they used different kids numbers that were absent)

[@joshdeveaux6936]

I’m %99 sure she’s technically not allowed to put the codes in for them, she could probably get fired for that

[@brooklynnoe6492]

there was a lunch lady who ran the snack line (where we got all our junk food at) and I got the same thing almost everyday so when I would go up there she would have my "order" and number memorized. i was so sad when she retired bc she was so sweet

[@bunnyasmo]

when i was in 3rd grade, our entire elementary school contracted food poisoning from the school lunch. it was awful, within an hour of lunch the poor nurse and custodian were swamped with dozens upon dozens of kids vomiting everywhere. my school ended up sending everyone home early and closing for the rest of the week. i remember catching it and being so sick i was bedbound for abt a week. it ended up on our local news and we were told a "huge overhaul" would happen, but i remember very little changing because kids still kept getting sick years after!

[@splitsee2526]

LMAOOOOO

[@autumnlights2003]

Holy s*** that's awful 😰

[@softnoobgirl73]

Wow that's horrible

[@eye1013]

Damn that's rough

[@splitsee2526]

also btw I do feel very bad for you, it was just too funny not to comment how funny the fact it even happened, schools need to get better food and stuff like that

[@Trillyana]

Having to get my parents to refill my account for school lunches always made me feel bad, like I was "getting too much food" or something. Also, it's wild to see that some people were allowed to have soda in schools. For us, only the staff were allowed to have it. Not that we didn't have anything sugary to drink instead (like iced tea)

[@spencerpetunia8268]

I know that my middle and high schools probably allowed soda to be brought from home, but I actually don't remember if my elementary school allowed soda to be brought from home or not-it certainly wasn't served in the cafeteria of any school I went to. It might have been, because I remember thinking it was so cool and fun to bring a can of juice or soda to school as part of your lunch-when I was a kid, my parents NEVER kept soda at home, and even in restaurants and at family gatherings we were only ever allowed to have maximum 12oz, the size of one standard can, of soda per day/evening. By the way, restricting anything like that after your kids have developed a taste for it is how you get kids who go hog wild on it as teens/adults-until like 3 days ago I was drinking like 50+ oz of soda most days because I could afford it and my parents didn't intervene, and doing that made me prediabetic. It has not been fun having to retrain myself to eat/drink much healthier, but my body needs me to do it so...

[@theoddbox]

There was a point where my middle school sold things like mountain dew and regular chips but one school year it switched to all sparkling water and baked chips with matte wrappers.

[@spencercorby4571]

My middle school had a vending machine for soda that only staff/faculty had access to, and guess what? It was right in the cafeteria. Where EVERYONE could see it. Unrelated, but in 4th grade, after recess me and some other people saw the lunch ladies carrying in some Casey's (gas station/convenience store chain here in the Midwest US, their pizza is fantastic) pizza boxes. They won't even eat what they serve!

[@TinyTonyGOD]

10:22 I was just like this kid, a milk gremlin. I would spend my free time wandering around the cafeteria collecting all the milks from kids who didn’t want them.

[@Simipourfangirl]

I used to like our milk when they used to be in pouches in kindergarten. They changed around intermediate school

[@JessicaLahti]

Bones of steel over here 🦴

[@catmousepad7342]

Once in high school, my friend got these "fish nuggets," and she told me that she knew there wasn't any actual fish in them because she's allergic to fish, but she could still eat them without having a reaction. It made me very glad I always brought lunch from home.

[@ProfessionalBugLover]

like subway tuna

[@Minelove423]

@@ProfessionalBugLover Wasn’t subway tuna just made with a cheaper type of fish?

[@Ilovemycomputer2013]

@@Minelove423It also had chicken in it

[@bunwithgun1587]

@@Minelove423 Thought it was a cardboard like substance

[@user-ws1fs8re1u]

I bought Boca burgers "fake meat" and it gave me nastolgia about my school's chicken sandwiches. I think it wasn't real chicken either.

[@tmphost]

i don’t like the “mean lunch lady” stereotype. most of the ones that i’ve met are really sweet!!! i remember last year on halloween they left out little trays with mandarin slices topped with whipped cream and a piece of candy corn for everyone to get at the end of the lunch line! i thought it was rlly sweet :]]

[@waldhexe7484]

I live in Germany, so the cafeterias at school are different, but I adore the two people that work at my school. The lady that works there is super sweet and even gifted me cookies as they had way to much that day and I was always so polite. And the cook is also really sweet. We share a love for renaissance fairs so there is a lot to talk about. And sometimes I get a bit extra XD

[@filiaaut]

I understand where it comes from in my country, because the school lunch system is very different, at least for children aged 3 to 10 years old, approximately. Basically, it is considered that at that age, children are too young to be responsible from their own diet, and that it is the school's duty to provide them with balanced meals, so that they eat well, but learn what a healthy meal look like by example. So for young children, it does not operate as a self service, but every child has their seat that has been assigned at the beginning of the year, goes sit there, and the lunch ladies bring a dish for each table, for the very young children they serve them and cut what needs to be cut, the older kids serve themselves under their supervision, then they eat, the lunch ladies take out the first course and bring dishes for the main course, etc. So there is a single meal for everyone (with variations for the common restrictive diets, as specified by the parents at the beginning of the year, children who don't eat pork will generally have chicken instead for instance, a child that is allergic to strawberries will get another fruit/flavour, etc. for more complicated restrictions such as diabetes or a milk/gluten allergy, or multiple allergies, usually they ask the parents to provide the meals for their kid), the meals are planned for the month by a dietician following strict guidelines, and the lunch ladies are there to make sure that children eat as intended. (It doesn't mean much for the quality of the actual food, which can vary from "reheated industrial crap" to "mostly prepped on site with fresh ingredients" depending on where you live, but no matter where you go, you'll have roughly the same ratio of vegetables to carbs to dairy products) So if you don't like salsifies or beef tongue, they'll make sure you at least taste a couple bits, even if you say you've already tasted three months ago ; if you are being disruptive with a friend, they'll separate you and you'll be eating far from your friend for the rest of the meal (or year, if it happens too much) ; if, on fruit yoghurt day, you are fighting with another kid over who gets the strawberry yoghurt and who gets the apricot one, they're the one who will arbiter the entire situation (and obviously, as a kid, you'll remember more the decisions that weren't in your favour than the ones that were) ; they're also the ones that make sure that the kids with diet restrictions don't switch food with kids that don't, which is obviously the right thing to do, but as a kid who doesn't necessarily understand things, it can get frustrating as well. In the end, the poor lunch ladies just suffer from the fact that they are the responsible ones among children who don't really want to be responsible. And contrary to teachers, they don't have that much time to bond with the children when they're not dealing with a crisis.

[@namesdontmattergaming2756]

Not my experience, most lunch ladies and teachers were just there for the check, and only a few teachers were really cool. Unfortunately I never met a nice lunch lady, just despondent or kinda rude to kids, granted kids suck so I cant fault them.

[@gracekim25]

Mmm yeah lunch people were always nice at my schools😅

[@LeandroFTW]

I graduated high school in Missouri 20 years ago and this was still a problem. I was given $3 a day for lunch and I spent it on soda, Otis spunkmeyer cookies and popcorn.

[@spencercorby4571]

At least you got stuff you wanted to eat! I remember in middle school they didn't care if you ate or not, and my classmates would often just skip the line and sit down. Either that or buy some ala-carte items, (which, if you got free lunch, you couldn't get them, unless you had money in your account. Chips, Rice crispy bars, mini donuts, etc) but, i brought my own lunch. Better than reduced fat Doritos! I got real Doritos!

[@kmerj7423]

The summer I was going into my freshman year, my dad explained that high school lunches were going to be crazy amazing. I was told we could have pasta, pizza, corn, nuggets, beans, etc. depending on the day and I’d have the choice of whatever I wanted OR I could even go out and buy food from somewhere else and bring it back if I wanted to. I was so excited and my freshman year was incredibly disappointing because they had the same exact food from my middle school, it was just a bigger area to get in more kids and slightly bigger portions. The only kids allowed to leave and get their own food we’re seniors with good enough grades to get a special parking ticket. I felt like I was told about Disney land, but then brought to a McDonald’s playground

[@angrynoodletwentyfive6463]

it depends on the high school. at my school anybody was allowed to leave as long as their parents had signed a permission slip and they were accompanied by a senior with a drivers licence or another exception. Side tangent My sister actually tried to get me to ride to school with her because I was disabled (not physically but I had sensory issues) and she found out that if she took me to school she could park in the staff parking lot, hich was wayyy closer and use the staff entrance and have an extra 20 minutes for lunch if we left the school because of my accomodation. but she drove like she was on crack or some shit when she was a teenager so it was a biggg pass for me.

[@justemmalyn7934]

School lunches were actually AWFUL, but I hate the lunch lady slander. Those women were always so sweet. They don't deserve that stereotype. Also, I'm realizing now as a 21-year-old how messed up some of our food messaging was. Yes, there were plenty of food pyramids and healthy eating posters around us, but schools only gave us access to overprocessed, sugary, and even rotten food (my school counted fries as a vegetable, and many chose that over old produce. And like yours, my high school also had Little Caesar's offered daily.) At my house, it was a similar deal - lots of salt, sugar, and fat and not enough fruits and vegetables. And yet I was still blamed for not eating healthy and having weakness and fatigue because of it. It made me feel really guilty until I became an adult and realized my opportunities as a kid weren't my choice. I pick healthy options and less junk food now that I'm in control, but why aren't kids given that ability?

[@StarryEyedReads]

I'm also 21 and I stopped drinking milk after 2nd grade because my school served me 2 week expired milk that was chunky and I got food poisoning from it. Only time I consume milk now is if I know for sure it's not expired and it's being cooked into something

[@RandomAnagram.]

I remember when they were pushing those food pyramids in elementary school so hard we had like a rally every now and then or a little event about it but then have over-processed foods for lunches. I get schools be on a budget but with the money they used for those trinkets/keychains for eveyone that says eat healthy they could have had a day or a few of healthy food in the cafeteria to promote it. Got bad food poisoning from an expired corn dog I bit into and ate that was literally green inside. As an adult I wish I could have done something about it back then cause I wonder how many other kids got double-ended projectile vomit(probably should have gone to the hospital it was nearly that bad dehydration all day cause I kept eating the corn dog not paying attention til like 2/3 eaten and noticed the bad meat) from their food or I was just the only unlucky one.

[@zacharygiles2984]

fat isn't bad for you

[@angelinacamacho8575]

Because kids aren't the ones making the money

[@gotgunpowder]

speak for yourself lmfao, it's not slander.

[@crimsonamogsus7351]

Damn, at least this person got ACTUAL pizza for school lunches and not toxic waste

[@demontorch]

Was like that in elementary school. 6 through 12 lunches were actual bloody food. The pizza actually looked like pizza and didn’t taste like shit, the spicy mayo was the cheese back in Sophomore year, and the chicken sandwiches were decent at best

[@rllycldg_3633]

At my elementary school, "pizza" was a whole grain flat brick with mistery yellow plastic as cheese and mabey garlic, I don't recall it haveing any sauce

[@donaldpaccerelli198]

@@rllycldg_3633 and the milk was always a crap shoot. Either you got milk that you could drink, or you got the perfume flavor. that you had to throw away and either ask for a new carton and hope they don't have you pay for a replacement, or go without milk or pay a 1.50 for either a water, sobe vita water, vita water, powerade or a soda. And that's if they have those in the vending machines.

[@pennylessz]

I remember the pizza growing up was just okay. I looked forward to it because the rest of the food was so bad. Then the Obama Nation attacked, and the pizza became basically inedible to me. I remember throwing it away for the last years of my time at school.

[@rllycldg_3633]

@@donaldpaccerelli198 oh i remember the perfume milk, first time I thought about it in years. I swear I could taste it right now lol

[@splingusbugs]

Was almost written up once because I opted to take two entrees during breakfast. The “entree” in question was one ounce which is equatable to a granola bar and I was a senior in high school. It shifted my opinion of lunch ladies a lot because I can’t imagine being the food police and trying to get an 18 year old in trouble for wanting more than a smidge of food for breakfast.

[@madhatt3r93]

I grew up in Poland and went to an elementary school where I ate dinner in the late 2000s- early 2010s. For a small fee, you got a dinner that consisted of a bowl of soup and a second dish usually consisting of potatoes, meat and a salad. On Fridays we got fish or eggs or crepes (with cream cheese-based filling), because it's a cultural/christian thing to not eat meat on a Friday. There was also hot tea and kompot (a traditional drink made on a base of water and boiled fruits) for free for everyone who wanted it, including kids with no dinner plan. You didn't get to choose what you ate (there was one type of soup and one type of second dish a day). There was also a small store ran by some lady who wasn't affiliated with the school where you could buy pastries, candy, chips, gum etc for the money you brought from home. Some kids were picked up by parents or grandparents right after the classes for the day were done, and some stayed in a school's "daycare" of sorts and waited for their parents to finish work to pick them up, so not all kids needed to have dinner at school, because some just ate it at home right after their classes. I remember that when I watched american cartoons I was like "Whoooah, do they really get to eat pizza at school? And they get to pick what they want? That would be so much cooler than our boring home-like meals!" but now that I'm an adult I can see that this food was often of bad quality, worse than what we ate, and much less nutritious. The concept of eating pizza at school seems so appealing, untill you actually see that this pizza is far from the one your parents order once every few months for a special dinner 😅 I've heard that a lot of schools in Poland just order catering from an outside private company instead of having the food made in a school kitchen... It's kinda sad, but I bet that the food is sometimes much more appealing than it was when I was a kid. Most of the time it was okay, nothing to write home about, but to this day I'm disgusted just thinking about "Broth meat" (bad quality chops of meat that were a base for chicken broth) and "Bitki" (Pork meat that was hammered down with a kitchen hammer into a patty) 😨 at least the kitchen ladies were nice, I can't remember having a bad interaction with them.

[@SleepyGC]

The evil lunch lady stereotypes are horrible. I was in public school for practically my whole academic life (except half of 7th) and had never encountered a lunch lady who was worse than just mildly annoyed or rude a few days out of the year. They were almost always nice women who helped me when I ran out of money or sometimes would memorize my lunch number for me as my autism caused me to forget it more than a few times. Love the lunch ladies and put some respect on their names

[@Anarcho_Ingsoc]

Childhood is when you see the lunch ladies as evil Adulthood is when you become the lunch lady

[@ImaginaryAlchemist]

Some of the lunch ladies at my elementary school were vile, but for the most part they were just overworked and underpaid grandmas.

[@mudkip984]

Half mine were evil Half of them wouldn’t let us play outside or let us go bc we were “talking too loud” (aka 2 gossipers whispering)

[@mudkip984]

@Celestial :) i had that with my school but if we shut up, and they considered whispering screaming at the top of your lungs with a megaphone, im not even exaggerating

[@mudkip984]

@Celestial :) I feel like that was sarcasm But I still think the food one was worse, especially how the food in cafeterias are atrocious

[@beefcake353]

My Canadian public Highschool’s Culinary Arts program basically allows the Culinary arts student to run the cafeteria under the supervision of our school chefs. It allows for restaurant levels of quality while keeping the price of labour to 0, making room to budget for better and healthier ingredients. All whilst giving students incredible education and work experience that they can get credits for and put in their resume. It works REALLY well.

[@goodnightgirl]

Sounds like my canadian (southern AB) public high school's culinary arts program! Right down to supervision from the culinary arts teacher (super nice guy, he played sax for the jazz band once.) Only complaint I had was having to pay for lunch, and having ADHD meant forgetting to bring change. I wouldn't call it restaurant quality, but it was always decent, at worst "not my thing", and I could survive off baked goods or sausage rolls for the day.

[@melz4766]

That sounds amazing 👏 I wish that could be implemented in the us since I think we'd prefer to cook our own food then eat mystery meat 5x a week 😂

[@terezablahova7542]

same in my country in europe, also we be complaining about our food, but damn… this made me realise that we have great system of food lunches and never heard of a kid who couldn’t afford school lunches, it was always the least expensive lunch option

[@savannahb3573]

this is super unrelated but im writing a book about a fictional high school and.... this.

[@raidenslade]

Mine too, on Vancouver Island

[@ella-sw1sd]

Fun fact: one time my friends were having “Korean meatballs “ when one of my friends said that she went into store and saw the same food in the pet food isle and even the principal said he doesn’t believe it’s real meat .😀

[@thepeasrolledoffthecounter7552]

That's scary wtf That principal sounds nice... slightly more empathy than those "lunch monitors" that walk around telling people to put their phones away and when complained to about the food, say "it looks delicious! go on, eat it!"

[@Dumb_Killjoy]

​@@thepeasrolledoffthecounter7552I had an experience with one of the school staff where I mentioned that the milk was likely bad, and they just shrugged it off.

[@doggycatalan]

​@@thepeasrolledoffthecounter7552I've never had them in my school, but that sounds annoying

[@Shilakamea]

Its so weird to hear about kids being able to buy whatever sugary treats they wanted at the lunch line. The only places i ever saw that was in high-school. As someone who ate free or reduced lunches my whole school life I had to stand in a separate line that had low quality options. Versus the paid line that had much nicer food. We did have vending machines in all the high schools I went to as well. So kids with money could get treats and soda from the vending machines at any point during the day. Now I graduated in 2005 but the fact that so many kids talk about being forced to get a fruit or vegetable is so weird because you didnt have a choice about that the entire time I was in school. When I was 12 I went to a school that had cafeteria moniters who would scream if you didnt eat your veggies in the 90s. It was miserable especially for the kids with sensory issues. One of the high-schools i went to didnt even offer free ir reduced lunch at all. You had to bring food or buy for the in school taco fucking bell. In a low income area. The run out of money you get no food thing happened all the time. They would throw the food away in front of you. And you had to go through the line even when you said you didnt have money. So you had to smell the food and give your trays over to be filled only to watch it go into the trash. It was horrible. I know at one high-school i ate chicken patty sandwiches every single day because there was only three meal choices: A very sad, tasteless burger that was just cheese and bread, the same for the chicken patty and this rectangular pizza that didnt taste like the pizza at other schools. It tasted like plastic. So chicken it was. I was just grateful to get lunch honestly.

[@macgyversmacbook1861]

Same, I got reduced lunch in a very poor school so everyone got the same crap

[@shipuku0305]

The elementary school food for some reason was always better than the middle school or highschool food. The older you get, the more depressing the food gets and the less rewarding it feels just being in school

[@thomaswest2583]

It's because they care more about the younger kids. They are considered more valued meaning they get better treatment

[@hexidecimark]

The program's gotten worse over time, too.

[@tunebeat3809]

Back in my old grade school(before moving to the charter grade school), the food tasted pretty good.

[@liz_violet]

not in my district. the elementary school got all the food the high schoolers did, while middle school got a whole nother (better) supplier. even when i had food in middle school, i still coughed up $5 for chicken tenders & grilled cheese.

[@TheVoidedRealm]

Only good food was when you're in preschool

[@angelgore958]

in highschool there was a lunch lady who was a really good artist, every day she would draw on a sticky note and put it on the wall next to her line, it was so fun to see the doodle of the day! she was just really nice overall too

[@Chree1s]

I got a story to tell from my time in school: Twas the year of 2020, I was a junior in high school and was going through the lunch line with my friends. We got our food which was a salisbury steak, and went to go sit at our usual spot inside the cafetería. Once we all sat down and ate our steaks, we were getting ready to drink our chocy milk. We then find out that the milk as a bit frozen due to the temperature and I kid you not, my friends milk was so frozen he ripped it out of the carton and out comes a popsicle. I have since dubbed that milksicle, the Chocolate Cube.

[@jimothybimothy6]

chocolate cube

[@Ottob4hn]

i always noticed that the lunch ladies at my school would always try to make the best possible food with what little they got and i had quite a few meals i absolutely loved

[@tygr3eyz]

My neighbor was a lunch lady, and I’ve actually met with my old high school lunch ladies too. Even if They wanted to do better for the kids, school districts would not let them. I remember right before my neighbor quit, she mentioned all of the meat was disgustingly prepared and she constantly complained that they weren’t allowed to cook food other than basically reheat the frozen stuff the district sent. She tried to get her school into a program that helped schools get fresh ingredients so they could actually cook, but it was never approved. In the case of my high school’s lunch ladies, I always thought the menudo they had on Friday’s was some special treat from the school but apparently they brought it themselves and had to sell it as “school fundraising” which is why we had to pay in cash instead of through the lunch system. Basically, not only are lunch ladies actually really sweet, they are just as desperate as the kids to be giving out good food, but it’s all on the district. (I know some districts are Just neglected and poor, but ours had a lot of embezzlement going on from the district board so I’m just outright blaming them.) For a fun story tho, in high school I was on good terms with the lunch manager and my principal so we actually got to sample of the “new upcoming Healthy menu” at one point and it was a really good whole wheat pasta with some green sauce and a new pizza recipe, which was like a nice flatbread! But guess what we absolutely never got once the actual lunch program launched? At least I got to try what Michelle Obama *wanted* lol

[@Natasha-bf6yk]

thank you for this comment, it's exactly what went through my head when I saw people in the comments blaming the lunch ladies for making kids pay for their meals, not monitoring what the kids ate more, etc. They absolutely have a responsibility to watch after kids to the best of their abilities but they can only do so much bc they're literally working but mainly bc the system is the issue, not the lunch ladies. They have to do their job (that definitely doesn't pay enough) and not get in trouble. Lots of corners are always being cut to save money w American school lunches too, so they really don't have any say in what goes on. also your experience about trying Michelle Obama's food is so funny bc I had a similar experience when Obama actually came to my middle school and talked to us for like 20 min and then left 💀 It was cool for sure, but also like....okay but why?😂

[@rashben3195]

hi just boosting this up

[@bunsenn5064]

In high school, we had a “burrito bar” where you could get a selection of rice, meat, beans, and other toppings in a burrito bowl of sorts. It was good, and I remember it being a choice I especially took advantage of to meet my macros since I was a pretty avid weightlifter. I disagree with the evil lunch lady stereotypes, because I remember the ones at the burrito bar essentially memorizing my face and my order, and they’d just start prepping it for me without even needing to ask what I wanted. They were nice, and it’s a shame how overworked they often were.

[@Natasha-bf6yk]

a burrito bar?? that's actually really cool😅 do you mind me asking what state/city this was in?

[@UseYourBrainPlease.]

@@Natasha-bf6yk We got restaurants for lunch. Panera, McDonald's, etc.

[@UseYourBrainPlease.]

Oh and local pizza places. (This is Chicago after all.)

[@cpeugh123ad]

@@UseYourBrainPlease. WHATTTTTTTTTTTT PANERA FOR SCHOOL LUNCH?!?!??!

[@UseYourBrainPlease.]

@@cpeugh123ad yea, rich School.

[@canonescapist]

My lunch ladies were always fairly nice, but I remember that the obamafication of lunches really ended up hurting one of my friends, who had really bad colitis. Sure, just a little cereal cup and milk isn’t the most well rounded lunch, but when they were suddenly required to buy all this food that they couldn’t eat without exasperating their body, they started to not buy any lunch at all, because it was better then wasting both what little money their mom gave them, and the food that had been forced upon them.

[@bobbyonkazoo3512]

My friend found a plastic shard that was sharp in the school salad, they told the lunch lady who said “there’s no other shards in their, you’re fine”

[@lostwarriorstudios]

Luckily my lunch ladies were sweet. I think it was just towards me cause I always chatted with them when I was in line and during lunch. I was even allowed to go into the kitchen and chat with them (wearing hair net and staying out to the side). It was an unqoue experience and i think people should just be nice to staff. I even became good friends with the office staff cause i get sick really easily and always end up in their office lol. DON'T eat the mystery meat. Me and my friends decided to try it and we all got food poisoning. The school ignored our and our parent's complaints so we just let it go. I even brought it up to the lunch ladies and they checked out the meat and it was expired by a day or two. They threw it out and they apologized to me and my friends. The school didn't give them any books to keep an eye on dates of food so I bought them one.(yes I had a job in middle school) Before I left the school to go to highschool they all gave me a big hug on the last day. I miss those sassy girls 🥺

[@kaziTheReigndeer]

Non-Ratio

[@mikaela3746]

FUCKING W

[@RandomManIncorperated]

You Earned Some Good Karma That Day. Helping The Lunch Ladies

[@Venomzzzz]

W + Ration’t + Unbozo + We care + Someone asked + Madlad + Hope you get a spot in heaven

[@LimeLoaf]

Sounds like a plot to porn

[@ryooli2056]

I was born and grew up in Spain and in my primary school they gave us full on cooked healthy meals and gave us ice cream once a year. It’s kinda shocking seeing how many people ate these really cheap looking food lunches with almost nothing healthy in it. I wish every kid had the same luck as me with their lunch menu.

[@moonmeadow]

Im from Germany and it’s similar here. I also find it strange how there’s not only milk but CHOCOLATE milk in almost every picture here :O

[@towelclipz]

God, you are so damn lucky, the lunch at my highschool is absolutely garbage *and* potentially the leftovers of the other schools in the district! (also, one time one of my friends had a thick, sticky film of God knows what on his food)

[@PeriluneStar]

Dang, that sounds really nice

[@PeriluneStar]

@@moonmeadow Yep, most people love the chocolate milk. Personally, I think it tastes like cold hot chocolate and I don't like cold hot chocolate. I actually don't like plain milk at all haha

[@chocokrispies707]

YOU'RE ARE FROM SPAIN AND YOU GOT FREE HEALTHY LUNCH? bro, i was born and still study in spain and they never gave me lunch and I had to bring it from home and the only things you can buy is when you go to the first year on secondary school to a mini shop to buy chips or pizza, nothing else

[@Katothin]

High school was a tough time but there was an upper level shift in the district to have lunch ladies actually cook food instead of just reheat it. They would beam with so much pride and literally give away food they were supposed to sell because of how excited they were for us to try their new creations. I will always adore my lunch ladies as they made getting through high school so much nicer and the food they made was genuinely delicious given the limitations set on them. When I got a scholarship for kids of school district workers (separate from the one for the kids of teachers) they were so proud of me. I still feel bad I dropped out of college only because I wish I didn't let those beautiful souls down.

[@Queerlien]

Oh my bad experience with school lunch was when i opened a sealed bag of multi grain "healthy" crackers, ate a few, then was mortified to realize bugs were crawling out of the bag 😱 My friends and I immediately went to the lunch ladies and they had to recall those crackers. 😬

[@garrettbates9124]

I was in middle/high school when "obamafication" was going on and I can say from experience that the most common tactic to "reduce calories" was to reduce the amount of food served entirely, rather than actually serving healthier food in the first place. Edit: I was one of the kids that qualified for free lunches so I essentially got nothing but the bare minimum food each day. I can't think of a time I undoubtedly got food poisoning, but there were definitely times that I got sick the day after eating a school lunch that tasted worse than usual.

[@CharlieHofigan]

that's a weird scenario. I remember i qualified one semester for free lunch and they required us to get more food. it was more expensive to get the main meal plus a side. i remember having to get a fruit and a milk on top every time. the only thing not allowed for free were chips and snacks which makes sense

[@Bombman297]

Even school teachers can make better meals than lunch ladies.

[@animeloveer97]

I remember literally EVERYONE being pissed about taking away nacho cheese. Absolutely awful

[@animeloveer97]

​@@Bombman297they didn't cook it it was premade frozen stuff I remember watching them make it they just shove shit in the oven

[@WJ_Slay]

My school reduced their food options! They got rid of the snack bar, and we barely ever had any options to begin with which sucked. I remember one of our meals of the week was “bosco sticks” and it was the cheap mozzarella sticks and you only got two for your main meal, which already isn’t a lot but halfway through high school they took away one of the sticks so they would serve a singular long bosco stick… not very filling when the only other thing you’d get would be a weird apple

[@notoriousnitram3996]

I had the poverty as a kid, sometimes I'd get brown bag lunches. Often they were literally moldy, the baby carrots floating in fermenting liquid or milk that was solid by the time it got to us poor folks. Love that for us

[@jessicag6729]

My experience with UK school lunches: In the 80s my parents said you got a proper plate and could get seconds, now kids basically get a blue prison tray with a small portion of food. They were an ok quality compared to US dinners and tended to be things like bolognese or sausages, mash and veg, and on a friday it was always an unhealthy thing as a treat like chips and beans with pizza or fish etc. One thing I do remember as a kid is we got free milk cartons for a bit and also were encouraged to eat lots of fruit. Now at things like college and uni they know the unhealthy stuff is the money maker.

[@amethyst1062]

I have the same situation as college and uni selling unhealthy food for money making but in highschool rn

[@victoriangm7774]

I'm from England not America, but I'm glad I'm not the only one who used to be obsessed with school lunch mashed potato. The taste was so specific. It's unreplicatable.

[@RedBaroness]

It's Potato Buds, a specific type of industrial reconstituted mashed potato. (I worked in a nursing home dietary establishment in the 2000s, essentially like a school cafeteria setting for elderly people)

[@registeredpyromaniac]

I attended school and developed lactose intolerance during my sophomore year. That's when I realized how much of the school food contained dairy. There were days where I went hungry or just ate a fruit cup for lunch (which was extremely dangerous for me due to hypoglycemia) just because the only options were either Mac and cheese, a cheeseburger where the cheese was melted onto the patty and bun, salads that were 50 percent cheese (that was half melted into the greens), and a yogurt parfait. The water from the fountains always tasted like there was rust in the water, so there was no alternative to the milk unless I wanted to pay a dollar fifty for a tiny water bottle. It was a pain in the neck to deal with, especially when on the days I could safely eat the food it tended to either be overcooked or downright moldy. (Edit: I forgot about what they gave the kids who couldn't afford food. It was a cheese sandwich. A fecking *cheese* sandwich.)

[@Montork]

the american gov subsidizes the cheese industry.. they lit have a massive supply they have to get rid of.

[@thebininabin4410]

god bless ‘murica 🦅🦅🦅🦅

[@clownstuf]

Same but I’m not lactose intolerant, just really hate cheese and milk, schools gotta chill out on the dairy products

[@QueenAxolot]

I have a similar story. so I'm in 7th-grade rn, and I am vegan and palm oil free and have allergies. (btw palm oil is in most shelf-stable food. aka all school food). I get to school "lunch" every day. it normally consists of 1 apple, orange, or pear. most days, they are so bruised, they are not even edible, so I'm just like (in my head) "well, shit my lunch is bruised" and eat it anyway bc I have to be at school until like 5, and I show up at 7 30. (I have after/before school activities) and I get hungry easily. Thank god lunch is free for all students at my school because there is no way in hell I would be paying 1-3 dollars on a bruised apple/orange/pear.

[@skitterly]

I’m guessing there’s so much dairy because the us government is constantly giving bailouts to the dairy industry. Do yourself a favor and look up the government cheese vault

[@kingpancakes6036]

This reminds of when I lived in China, in elementary school they always bring in these metal pots that were full of rice, curry, and a meat/seafood option like steamed fish or small steaks. And it was so good it was almost like a home cooked meal, and they gave you pretty generous portions as long as you finish your food. Then I came to the US in 2nd grade and the first day at my new school, they served nuggets that were watery and sheet metal pizza. After a few weeks I got fed up with the food and my mom made me home cooked Chinese meals or I brought leftovers from the previous night. When Covid hit our school offered free meal kits and my parents saw how bad the food was first hand. They always thought I was exaggerating but after seeing the food, they were disgusted by it.

[@StripperOfHorniness]

Omg I remember my highschool freshmen year 2020-2021 school year they would send kids home with those meal kits and I love the bigger uncrustable PB&J sandwiches and I’m sad you can only find smaller ones in the store

[@spencerpetunia8268]

The lunches you had in China sound amazing! One of my friends growing up's parents, grandparents, etc. had immigrated from Vietnam and her mom was a SAHM, so my friend mostly had these downright delicious-looking leftovers in Styrofoam containers for lunch. Sometimes her mom brought her McD's to school at lunchtime.

[@danaj-b9452]

I'm South African and this is so interesting. Our middle schools don't usually have cafetarias - kids either bring their own lunch or they buy with cash from a "tuck shop", which is usually filled with cheap sweets, chips, and if you're lucky, something like toasted sandwiches.

[@Lucailey]

wow! that seems crazy to me. what happens to children with lower in comes? no school lunch for them i guess

[@danaj-b9452]

@@Lucailey yeah!!! There's often a "feeding scheme" in place where kids who can't afford tuck shop food get shitty little squished peanut butter sandwiches for lunch. At least that's what happened at my school. Hopefully other schools provide better food for those kids

[@shadycatz85]

it's exactly the same in new zealand (and australia i believe). we even call them tuck shops too.

[@songtangchen4438]

I love the way you explained these things in the video! The food background is really cute!❤

[@terriblecacti]

I remember being so baffled as a kid when the obamafication wave came through. even in elementary/middle school, it all just seemed counterintuitive. one of the programs we had was to encourage kids to eat breakfast, so they removed the hot breakfast option in the cafeteria ENTIRELY in favor of breakfast being brought to homeroom and eating in there everyday. they tried to send some hot options, but they were always uncomfortably room temp and moist from the condensation of cooling food. more often than not it was prepackaged cardboard instead of prepared food. and one time in 8th grade, the ENTIRE school's egg muffin supply was moldy. every single one. and they tried to pass it off as a "chemical reaction" from the eggs and foil they were wrapped in(until my friend with a severe mold allergy threatened to eat one to call them on their bluff). i went from eating breakfast every morning (even if the hot food wasnt good, we could get cereal instead) to only ever eating on the days we got zucchini bread. (and yes, it was always uncomfortably room temp and moist in a 'not good for zucchini bread' way).

[@Dante_yo_son_of_sparda_yo77]

I remember this in early elementary

[@pugdad2555]

So you were in the 8th grade 10 years ago? But for real, it was your school district’s fault. This never happened at my high school, and we are one of the poorest in the State of Illinois. Maybe ask your school district board why they did that to y’all

[@ThexDynastxQueen]

....Yall had hot breakfast in the the 10s? In the early 90s mine only had cereal as I think thats when giving student's breakfast started being required or at least offered. Lunch was still terrible tho, that has seemingly stayed the same.

[@levig6375]

Whwn the michelle obama lunch program came through when i was in early high school all they did was change the brand of fried chicken sandwiches we got and got rid of the fries so it was just chicken sandwiches and milk. They were so dry if you didn't have milk you couldn't eat them. Mississippi delta schools are crazy.

[@angelvu]

@@levig6375I was in 4th grade when it happened and I remember being so distraught and sad because they removed my favorite strawberry milk, gogurts, and stopped serving cookies, pudding, and jello for dessert. They stopped serving small fried chickens and good quality fruits/veggies. Now, we have apples that taste like acid, oatmeal cookies, bread that is solid enough to make dents in the table, and stale pizza that has cheese falling off of it. People would also be unable to get any food if they didn't have money for it. We would have to put ourselves in debt to pay the lunch ladies and would get in trouble for not paying, despite making getting lunch mandatory... I never ate much of the desserts back then but now I'm regretting it 😞 My school is in Texas btw. I really miss that strawberry milk.

[@tcd2cool]

Yeah when I was in high school, they tried making lunch more "healthy" during the Obama years, and we got tasteless soy burgers and countless other mystery foods. I even accidentally took a sip spoiled milk out of a milk carton. I spat it out and almost vomited. I never thought I needed to read the expiration date, but when I looked into the carton.... there were chunks of milk. Parts of it had actually turned solid. Nice.

[@thebininabin4410]

what a genius plan. instead of buying fresher, higher quality vegetables and fruits, how about we make tasteless burgers made of soy and other mysterious ingredients!!

[@tcd2cool]

@@thebininabin4410 I agree. It is sad that we can see other countries do it so well and make it taste good. Fresh fruits and vegetables, and herbs are more common in other cultures. We just make whatever is cheap and mass produced.

[@VHSValdesHasSpoken]

A teacher of mine in the 11th grade once told me the American public educational system, mostly in urban areas, are one step above Correctional facilities.

[@sweetlullabys]

Once in elementary school, my friend got a bag that usually comes with block cheese, yogurt, and/or an uncrustable. She grabbed the cheese and it had SO MUCH MOLD INSIDE THE PACKAGE. She was so shocked and lost her appetite. I called the teacher for her for them to figure out why there was mold.

[@bee_sylvester]

Since people are sharing their lunchtime stories, I'll share mine: I grew up pretty poor (especially from kindergarten to 2nd grade) and due to parental abuse factors I often would not have the money for hot lunch. So when I'd get in line the ladies would scan my card, tell me I couldn't have lunch, and then line me up on the wall with the other poor kids, where other students and even adults would make fun of us for being poor. We'd stand there for the full lunch (30-45 minutes), and the ladies would say things to make us feel bad. A couple of times one of the ladies would gather up what she could for us so we could eat, but the school put a stop to that pretty quickly. They even started yelling at kids who shared food with the kids who didn't have anything for lunch. It really just feels like they didn't think poor kids deserved to eat lmao. By the time the "free lunch program" came around I had started bringing my own lunch, so I never benefited from that, but I think that all people should have access to food regardless of financial status.

[@HarryHarshman]

This is why I hate school so much. I know this is an isolated thing, and I hope and pray that this isn't a common experience, and I hope you are doing alright. But jeez man, schools are so bad, and they only get in trouble for this garbage a small amount of the time, and they let this thing happen a lot. I hope you are doing alright.

[@Twiggo_The_Foxxo]

And did everyone clap at the end too?

[@unknown..66..99]

@@Twiggo_The_Foxxo 🙄

[@dylanalvarado1865]

Dude.. wth

[@reeses_unicorn]

I can't even describe how horrible that is.

[@theatrekid0-0]

I am currently in "Middle School" and our cafeteria has been serving rotten / sour milk all year, with the longest ignored date being ONE YEAR (I was the unlucky person who drank that :/) Multiple kids have gone to the nurse for various rotten food and drinks causing stomach discomfort. The nurses do not care. They always say "Food is not really spoiled until it hits your stomach acids so it does not do anything." Me being the first person to ever go to the nurse for drinking TWO spoiled milks has experienced this... A LOT. They used to say that they would 'check the milk' but they never did because this still happens to this day. Not only that, but in elementary school we got moldy and raw 'Chicken Nuggets'. MY school district needs a serious 'check-up'.

[@santiagomontoyaflorez1059]

Ngl that makes no sense, there are literally some bacteria species that survive stomach acids in enough numbers to pass on to the intestines and cause infection, like salmonella. Shame it happened to you.

[@nuggieslova4703]

Yeah same I have drank like 2 expired mills in one week my school is trying to reuse fruits/vegetables because so many kids have thrown them away because they have been rotted or heavily bruised which Is bad cause there’s a reason it’s getting thrown away

[@MrFishio]

JESUS CHRIST That’s literally awful I didn’t realise that schools could be that bad For your own health please just move school if you can

[@THEECOOLERPERSON]

In my elementary school, a lot of the fruits were rotten, as well as the milk and most of the the lunch ladies were toxic and mean, same for middle school except they now have a mean security guard who was so picky about what you do, my friends were singing Sophia the first quietly and she yelled at us even though most kids were in there phones ( we weren’t allowed to) and she would yell at us for me to loud before lunch ( I went to a certain school and due to us getting there before 3rd hour would end, we had to wait) and said “ how would you like it if the 300 kids were being loud while you are in class, like Bruce there was prob 80 kids there and the classes were not near the lunchroom. And lol, once I got a burger with no bun??? I was one of the only kids who got no bun-

[@GodsWrath7]

I don't drink the milk😮‍💨😮‍💨

[@spritefroggy]

Thanks for your interesting anecdotes! In my country, everybody brings food from home and we eat outside wherever we want. In later years, you can buy food from the canteen or just walk off the school grounds to buy something else.

[@Flourescentlightfromceiling]

I think you’re one of my favorite youtubers ever because of how much i relate to your experiences

[@pinkfrostsaber1337]

I've gone to poor schools my whole life so the idea that some kids could scoop their own food from the lunchline had me in AWE, especially that some had several kinds of desserts not just terrible tasting chocolate chip cookies 😂

[@HarryHarshman]

The cookies In my school are weirdly hard, maybe not stale, but hard so that I think I had to knaw through 1 or 2

[@M4rlol]

Ya'll had deserts? Damn, I had black wrinkled old fruit when I was lucky

[@lillcow]

You had desserts at all? 😨😨

[@ProfessionalBugLover]

i wish my elementary school had cookies it was just ice cream for desserts and it would melt the second it got out of the freezer

[@adwaitagnome]

I find it interesting how schools (at least where I was in Ontario Canada) did things differently. I didn't even have access to a cafeteria until high school, as it was generally expected for students to bring their own lunches. Even when students were given the option of getting food at a cafeteria in high school, most still brought their own lunches and cafeteria food was seen more as an occasional "spoil yourself" sort of thing.

[@quiznak1003]

I don't even think every high school in Ontario even has cafeteria service. The high school I went to had only just started to provide cafeteria service 2 years prior to me going there (for context, I graduated 2 years ago). In my experience, there were kids in high school who did use the cafeteria service frequently (such as me since I usually didn't have time to pack my lunch in the morning, plus my book bag was constantly full, so I didn't have a lot of room for my lunchbag) but there were also kids who just brought their own lunches from home. There were also quite a few kids who would just go out and buy something from nearby restaurants too.

[@tomysshadow]

Same - my school didn't have a cafeteria and the expectation was that you'd bring your own lunch. This is in Alberta, around the same time period of the 2000s. We did, however, have "hot lunches" every Wednesday, where we could optionally buy some not particularly healthy food. Depending on the week, it was Mr. Sub sandwiches, Taco Bell soft tacos, Little Caesars pizza, or hotdogs (which didn't have any branding on them.) The best one, however, were the hamburgers, which also didn't have any branding on them. They were pretty greasy, but tasted amazing. I actually liked them enough that I asked around at the time where they were from, and the answer I repeatedly got is that they were from Costco, which is perplexing to me because they taste nothing alike. They tasted closer to something from Burger King or Carls Jr., but with a thinner patty. Like in the video, when I was in grade eight they passed legislation to try and solve the issue of child obesity. The law now required that teachers were not allowed to give students candy, schools were not allowed to have vending machines, and that hot lunches had to be healthier. This resulted in the bread being replaced with whole wheat - which I didn't mind so much - and with the hamburgers getting replaced by Booster Juice smoothies and wraps, which I did mind. I stopped ordering the hot lunches at that point. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind smoothies or wraps if they're done right, but Booster Juice smoothies are too tangy and the wraps were super plain and bleh.

[@realsadegg7246]

@@tomysshadow I’m also from AB and went to school around the same time! I totally remember the forms for Little Cesars Pizza lunches and how you had to pay in advance for it. I remember there being bullying for kids who had “weird” (usually cultural) type foods that they’d bring to school and the fighting that happened over the microwave in the classroom. I also remember the flex of the kids who were “lucky” to get McDonalds for lunch, though in hindsight I feel bad for their long term health. I was lucky to go to high school in a major city with a really good student culinary program so our hot lunches were usually pretty next level and varied. But it was still definitely a rare treat type deal for a lot of kids. I also remember the cafeteria not being very well used, most people at my school ate elsewhere or went off campus for lunch if they didn’t buy the hot lunches. It’s really interesting how different the US school lunches were!

[@rabbitrulez]

I go to a school in Ontario Canada as well. My school had an amazing cafateria and I was a “spoil urself with cafeteria food” person as I did bring my own lunch but my schools French fries and cookies where addictive. I miss the cafeteria but since Covid it hasn’t opened. I remember being in grade 9 and being scared of highschool cafeteria food and just being shocked that my caf was so nice and loud but in a homey fun vibe.

[@tomysshadow]

@@realsadegg7246 Yes, the wonderful yellow slips that decided if you were getting Cheese or Pepperoni. I think they were in Comic Sans? Everything was in Comic Sans... I avoided using the microwave if at all possible. By the time the line was up, the lunch break was almost over and I'd barely have time to eat anything. Instead, I'd pack things like bananas, oranges, Goldfish, Kraft Dinner crackers (during their brief existence,) ham sandwiches (couldn't be peanut butter because peanuts weren't allowed,) fruit bars, Bear Paws, chocolate pudding, granola bars, Harvest Crunch and other such food that didn't need to be heated. It's possible that kind of bullying was going on at my school but I wouldn't have known because I was always the type who preferred sitting out and eating on my own instead of eating at the lunch table. What I know didn't happen was anyone getting McDonald's, because I would've been supremely jealous. Everyone would've been. There wasn't a McDonald's within walking distance, but even if there were, heaven forbid anyone walk an inch off the school grounds. What we did have just across the street in front of the school was a Husky convenience store and the high schoolers would often go there for slurpees (or "cold sucks" as Husky so eloquently called them.) But everyone knew that if we tried to go there, we'd be in big trouble. Even stepping on the sidewalk in front of the school was risque. It just sat there right across the street, within view from the playground, taunting us. Teachers were not unaware that this was desired, though. One year, they told us about a new rule that would allow us to go to the Husky to get Slurpees on Fridays. It came with a catch, however: it was a reward for good behaviour, so only a handful of students would actually get to go. Some of my classmates were quite disappointed in this idea because, to be blunt, they were loud and obnoxious and knew they weren't getting any rewards for good behaviour. I didn't mind as much, but it didn't matter because ultimately the new rules were never put into practice, and were gone as quickly as they were proposed to us. Why exactly I don't know - maybe parents complained, maybe they re-evaluated and decided it was a bad idea, or maybe they just forgot. I pretty much forgot about it for the rest of the year after my initial excitement at the idea of getting a slurpee during school faded away. We were just already conditioned to it being an impossible thing.

[@tylerbrittan593]

I seriously love your videos! They bring back some great memories from the early 2000s. I gotta say though; school breakfast was the best sometimes. I remember these French toast sticks served with syrup. And maaaaannnn, they were good. The ends were always a little tough, but they were always the move. Lol.

[@amberspark9434]

My experience was considerably worse, especially going into high school. As mentioned in the video I always had to do checks for mold, however there were also just a lot of weird things about the produce. I once stopped eating bananas for a week because I found this red strip thing in one of my bananas. To add to that they basically started serving only soggy pizza and burgers which get very tiring after awhile. Food or especially drinks are also routinely frozen, for a week at my school the orange juice was frozen and when I was searching for any thawed orange juice I was told to “eat it with a spoon like a desert”. Lastly, and honestly worst of all is the lack of disclosure of ingredients for allergies. I once had a friend with a soy allergy ask if there was any soy in the pizza crunchers because she had an allergy. The lunch ladies were very rude and eventually told her no. She had to go to the nurses office for anaphylactic shock after eating them. Turns out they did contain soy, who knew. So yeah 0/10 experience would not recommend.

[@kkuudandere]

The quality of American school lunches became even more apparent to me when I started teaching abroad. The lunches at both my elementary schools in Korea were so good, sometimes I'd just replicate those meals at home when I don't know what to eat. Always piping hot, a variety of dishes on a sturdy metal tray, and we teachers ate the same lunch as the students. Once they served us a rice dish topped with greens from the school garden... that's still one of the most beautiful meals I've ever had, from a small school for lower income families. I'd pay someone to make that for me again lol Most of my American school lunches in elementary and middle school ranged from unremarkable to occasionally quite good. Then high school was barely edible if you got free/reduced lunch and didn't wanna fork over extra money to buy pizza and those delicious bread sticks. Some kids would literally JUST eat a whole tray of bread sticks. But even being in the lunchroom overwhelmed all of my senses so I skipped lunch to stay in the library almost every day in high school 😅 I've never thought about how weird all the lunch lady slander is. They were very nice to me as a kid, and the lunch ladies in Korea were also super sweet towards me as an adult (always offered me extra kimchi bc they knew i really like it). idk, seems like they were the nicest part of lunch sometimes 🤔

[@Zectifin]

yeah I feel like high school lunch was much worse than elementary school lunch. I don't remember anything bad about elementary school lunches and the high school ones in the same school district were so shitty I ended up just making my own most of the time.

[@TombNGloom]

Ngl all my lunch ladies have been chill. But there's always that 1 where if you disrespect her of the cafeteria floor you'll be read,roasted and burned like you just showed your parents a report cards full of F's

[@crdddz]

the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act literally saved my life bc i was a picky and selective eater, especially when i decided to go vegan in high school. Since i came from a low-income family, school is where i ate my food growing up. She made it so that there was at least a couple vegetarian/vegan meal options available for me to eat everyday.

[@etaoinshrdlu927]

I grew up eating whole wheat bread. The first time I encountered sliced white bread as a kid, it tasted off and the texture was *wrong*. It's funny to hear that this works exactly the same way in reverse; it's just what your parents got you used to. I guess that's the classic argument for exposing kids to a variety of food when they're young.

[@frogeedogeee8333]

Growing up in poverty the free school lunch program saved my butt! I loved school lunches because during the summers us kids had to cook for ourselves because parents were at work. We could eat cereal or ramen and ended up missing school food all summer. I was often judged by other kids for not bringing a home lunch but there was no lunch to bring from home! Luckily, my elementary school started a summer program to serve free lunch five days a week to the community for anyone, but especially school kids. This helped with the hungry summer kids problem a ton and gave the lunch ladies more working hours! I did my senior project on this issue of hungry kids when school is out and suggested food drives later in the spring before school gets out to stock up food banks. Gotta say, some school lunch was trash but it was food and I’ll forever be grateful for that!

[@k2_21]

As a non american this is quite interesting to watch, especially since all i've always known was a cafeteria with vases with soup on the tables waiting for children to serve themeselves, and then to get the second course for example like potatoes with meat and salad, pasta or pancakes you needed to stand in line to the window, where lunch lady was giving them out. Sometimes there was a dessert like some yoghurt, fruit or candy bar. You couldn't choose what to eat, because there was only one meal prepared for each day. And when it comes to money, parents usually pay monthly, so that the children are going to the cafeteria to just eat. If your parents don't pay for the cafeteria, you just stay near the classrom like during any other break.

[@cpeugh123ad]

WHAT WHERE DO YOU LIVE?? CAN I COME

[@Sarcast4ny]

In my country it’s very common the kids bring lunch made at home by their own parents. And since the schools here are not like full day, you choose if you want to study at the period of morning or evening (like 7am-12pm or 1pm-5pm) so everyone go to school without the need of eating a full meal

[@one-onessadhalf3393]

This sounds like a legit utopia, WHERE IN THE WORLD DO YOU LIVE??

[@Maji52805]

Idk what country are you from, but in Poland it's pretty much the same. The only thing that was kind of weird in my school was that kids in 1-3rd grades had to eat at least one ladle of soup.

[@Julia99lol]

My sisters school is very similar, as a german It's always interesting to see the american experience :D

[@cecygutierrez7900]

I'm mexican. It's interesting knowing about school lunches in other countries. In my school you had two options; you could bring lunch from home or you could also buy food at the cafeteria. There were two "mini stores" at school, one for meals and the other one for drinks and sweets/candy, you could buy everything you wanted. Also the meal options were tacos, quesadillas and pizza.

[@moonie6368]

Hey! I’m also Mexican and I was through kindergarten till 9th grade in Mexico, so I also remember the cafeterias and puestecitos. My mom would always pack me lunch, so if I had spare change I would buy like some junk food to accompany my lunch, what’s funny is that I remember always being amazed by the idea of school lunches that I would always see in American series, it wasn’t until I started high school in the US that I experienced it myself, and it was okay, I didn’t like all the cafeteria food, but most of it was decent, I would have 1 or 2 meal options per week that I would really like, for example my favorite were when they would serve nachos with curly fries or orange chicken with spring rolls, those were so good

[@cecygutierrez7900]

@@moonie6368 *bump fist* Puestecitos are the best

[@idontexist6497]

the only dessert options I ever had for school lunches in both middle and elementary school was a single cookie you could get once a week in elementary school. we never had any desserts other than that, but overall the school food wasn't really that bad at my schools

[@nerdbrain396]

6:35 I can share this experience too. My school lunches worked the exact same way. And being able to just put in the lunch number and buy whatever goodies I want was my first and not my only experience with bad spending habits as an elementary schooler. I was lucky enough to live in a pretty privileged household, so going to negative 15 dollars in my school lunch account pissed my parents off but fortunately not too much damage was caused. But really just the fact little kids were given very little restrictions on their spending connected to an account I had no way of viewing the balance of since it was only viewable through the parent log in of the school website was kind of silly

[@MagicalGirlFia]

Honestly the thing I’ll always associate school lunches with is the fact that (due to my autism and sometimes borderline debilitating sensory issues) the textures and tastes of most schools lunch foods make me literally sick, not to mention the fact that I couldn’t even touch the styrofoam without wanting to uhhh cut my hand off. I remember when I was in 2nd grade I wanted to fit in and be cool by buying lunches only to have thrown up because of how the food felt in my mouth and not eaten lunch for another week out of embarrassment before my mom caught on to what was happening and I bring my lunch to school for…until now. I do however think that having free school lunches is a genuinely important thing and think it’s unfair to see my high school just…stop giving kids the right to have a lunch every day.

[@yeetyoot4433]

Really is fun going to school and being autistic. I can't force myself to eat stuff if it's Bad to me (taste, texture, whatever - and this is suddenly a realization on why I lost the "you need to finish this plate of vegetables or you can't have dessert" thing that one time when I was like 5, wow) so if I chose the wrong thing at lunch... I would just be hungry! :D Now I'm in college and oh my god it is so important that I can just get my own food whenever. It really does feel like prison looking back (which checks out, schools are built by prison architects and fed by prison food companies, from what ive heard.)

[@wusstunes]

The first time I had cafeteria pizza I legitimately thought it was covered in plastic so I can relate

[@yeetyoot4433]

@@wusstunes Yeah omg theres so many times where the cheese on those things felt like straight up rubber. How do they manage that.

[@lovelydolltime8006]

My elementary school's lunches were so disgusting to the point where even just looking at them or smelling them made me gag. There was absolutely no way I'd be putting those nasty school lunches into my mouth and I'm glad I was able to being my own lunch from home daily instead.

[@duh5359]

Going through school with autism was hell for me. I really struggled to learn and I could barely speak until around 3rd I started communicating better. The cafeteria was so loud I had to sit outside (even in the rain or summer heat) with just my 1 on 1 aid that never left my side. I will say I would have never gotten as far as I did without her she was just so kind and patient

[@gear-zolu]

i went to school in japan until i was in middle school, i remember the lunch ladies would come to our class rooms with stew, salad, curry, vegetables, noodles, soup, rice, green tea, and milk. they forced you to eat everything but the food was genuinely so delicious and many of my cousins say it is really good even in high school and junior high. but then when i moved to america we ate in the cafeteria there were things that were completely strange and nobody could tell what it was. i once got food poisoned by the burger. i was sick for two months. i became vegetarian. they forced students to eat everything. there was no dessert, or anything other than the soggy floppy.

[@lionheartt15]

hey genuine question but doesn't going to school in japan require paying a bunch of fees to attend that school could be why you had actual decent food

[@gear-zolu]

@@lionheartt15 no, tuitions for primary, and secondary schools are free in japan

[@lionheartt15]

@@gear-zoluI didn't know just heard that it costs to go to school in japan

[@gear-zolu]

@@lionheartt15 it only really costs money for high schools and colleges

[@sushicat.3707]

Thankfully now the schools don’t force you to eat everything, just try it. At least that’s how my son’s Japanese public school does it. We pay a lunch fee once a month, and it’s about 4500¥ (and the fee is income-based). The lunches are really nice.

[@williamchristopher9454]

This is making me feel incredibly nostalgic again. For my entire life I always recieved my lunch at school and getting the square Pizza was the best we looked foward to every Friday! I was handicapped being in a wheelchair with CP, and I remember skipping the lunch line everyday and talking with the lunch ladies who I knew each of them very well and were all delightful. It used to break my heart to see kids waste or throw away good food but thats just childhood haha. Thank you for this channel, your doing gods work for our memories here.

[@enjatro6408]

this made me appreciate my mother preparing my lunch when i was in elementary-highschool everyday. i remember my classmates would always wait for me to open up my lunchbox because i always had homemade meals like rice, meat, soup, and vegetables packed in a thermos so it would stay warm. sometimes my mom would even decorate my bento box by making faces or shapes even if i was already in highschool which i thought was sweet. during always shared some soup with my classmates and they would share theirs too. even now my mom still prepares my little siblings’ school lunches and recess snacks like that and i aspire to be like her when i have kids of my own

[@elizabethamber4236]

I am from Russia, and every school child was fascinated with American school lunches. I remember how everybody made jokes about lunch food like "I would it more if there were foods like in American school". That was so unreal to us that you can get sweet milk at school or cookies, or pizza, or sandwiches. I also remember how I met girl from USA and then we discussed school lunches, and she said that food is terrible and nobody likes it. I was in total shock about this info

[@meowsha]

What kind of food do you have in Russia these days for lunch? 😊

[@RinkuStars]

@@rock-cb3hl in American schools the lunch is typically one main menu item that changes everyday and then they’ll have the option of pizza or a salad everyday. Also I’m curious, has your opinion of American school lunches changed after watching this video?

[@LizaMonstrik]

@@meowsha I'm also from Russia, iirc in my school there were free but limited lunches (and breakfasts) for grades 1-5 and payable lunches with at least some variety of choices for evereone else including the teachers, and also a snack bar with sweets like snickers bars or cookies and muffins baked by lunch ladies. So the free segment usually consisted of some kind of porridge (oatmeal, rice, wheat and others) with a piece of butter on top and a piece of a whole grain bread with cheese or butter on it for breakfasts, and some kind of soup and/or either mashed potatoes, macaronies or again wheat porridge with some sort of meat, usually cutlets made from questionable meat or truly artificial sausages for lunch. And sweet tea or (not) hot cocoa-like drink. While not that bad, you may notice that there are barely any veggies or fruits. Additional payable options included things listed above plus pizzas, pigs in blankets, fish pies, stew, beef liver, roasted chicken or pork fillets usually coated with mayo and cheese, sometimes with tomato slices, mushrooms or even pinapples. I have to mention that my school was somewhere in the upper-middle rank and there are stories across the country about moldy food, insects and spoiled products. As for my school, generally it's pretty good compared to the contents of this video, never had food poisonings from school lunches. But sometimes I would still grow sick from poor quality of the dishes (they were always quite oily, some pieces of meat were unchewable, macaronies were always overcooked and almost slimey) or just the lack of veggies and prefer to bring something with me or not to have a lunch at school at all.

[@meowsha]

@@LizaMonstrik thank you so much ❤️

[@meowsha]

@@rock-cb3hl thank you ❤️❤️❤️

[@mag.angel14]

I remember when they took away strawberry milk. I was devastated when that happened. I am in high school right now and they let us go off campus for lunch but the school food is still horrible. Lunch has also been free for me through elementary, middle, and high school. The “desserts” we had was just ice cream, and they had to change from blue bell to blue bunny because i guess there was too much “beaver butt meat” in the ice cream. My high school is sponsored by a restaurant in Texas by the name of Whataburger but we don’t really get any food but we get some Whataburger branded supplies. The vending machines we have just have water, Gatorade, Doritos Flamas, Baked Hot Cheetos, Rice Krispie Treats, Welches Fruit Gummies, and Grandma’s cookies. And there is also no way you only have a little less than 300 subscribers. Your content is very good for someone with less than 500 subscribers. I also subbed. Sorry for typing a lot but I had a lot on my mind.

[@PaolaRodriguez-rd2qi]

They got rid of the strawberry milk but they kept the chocolate milk as if it was healthier😭 my school still gave us strawberry milk from time to time

[@mag.angel14]

@@PaolaRodriguez-rd2qi honestly😭😭

[@BonesGalore]

Oh my god the strawberry milk sends me back I remember the one day I had decided I wanted to try it it was gone lol

[@reeboksboiz1266]

@Angel Rodriguez 4 me, we had strawberry milk4 like 1 month. Then they had chocolate milk and white milk* *milk milk

[@arionthedeer7372]

Youre in Texas and the lunches are free?

[@Dr.RobotnikGaming99]

at the elementary I used to be at, there was this strange “manager” who didn’t do anything to help with food. I got a half cooked chicken sandwich once, there was also turkey with fake grill marks.

[@francescaorioli6154]

I love your voice its so calm and calming

[@a.w.4708]

About sugary snacks thiugh: our country once took it too far in opposite direction. They banned every unhealthy things to the point they banned sweet buns and even salt and sugar on tables... Our middle school director actually rebelled against it. The problem with this model was the only food available in school (high school in my case) was overpriced "bio" foods I usually didn't have money for. Also fat in milk isn't something so bad for children really... The ideal thing to do would be adding affordable and attractive healthy options, but it isn't so easy to do.

[@mememologies7363]

Jesus Christ that’s really extreme

[@aaronlaughter6471]

Honestly, just say fuck it and let the parents raise there kids.

[@MrFishio]

What country do you live in?

[@capnsteele3365]

@@MrFishio its county

[@MrFishio]

@@capnsteele3365 ah ok

[@pandaaachu]

it's so interesting to see the wide variety of ways that schools in America operate. we weren't even allowed to use vending machines in any school I went to so it's weird that other schools were allowed to just have them in the cafeteria. it's also pretty sad that school food is overlooked so frequently.

[@turtlesunday101]

my high-school had vending machines in our cafeteria however they had hours set on them so you couldn't purchase during lunch or breakfast time

[@Adamfaraday]

I wonder how much the income level of the districts affects this disparity? I know my kids school is not affluent and the things I hear from my mom (who works as a lunch lady there) are not great. Especially regarding portions.

[@MaxElizabethboi]

We had vending machines outside the gymnasium but they were off all day while school was in session and only turned on after school hours.

[@ImaginaryAlchemist]

We weren't generally supposed to use the vending machines at our school because they barely worked and often just stole your money. Eventually they just gave up and removed them because they couldn't be bothered to maintain them.

[@carvahaunter122]

My school’s drink vending machine just had Dasani, Powerade, and 5 calorie Minute Maid lemonade (which I’ve had a few times). So technically they still had a contract with Coca Cola but without actually serving sodas. Ironically the snack vending machine was a little more lenient on junk food, at most some of the snacks were low-cal versions but even then I think most of it was just the regular stuff aside from candy.

[@mmmmhi1234]

When I was in kindergarten, I would say hi to every single person I saw at school. That included the lunch ladies. They were nice to me and even remembered me whenever they saw me

[@jessicabibbles]

My school was different. There were two meal options and you went to the line you wanted and then the lunch lady’s served you. There was a free salad bar too. I liked Michelle’s lunch changes because I always wanted healthy food.

[@Fighting.Flower]

My highschool had a cooking class for those trying to get ready for the world of work. So our food were usually made by understudies or lunch folks following recipes made directly inside school grounds. So our school lunches were usually really good quality and often quite healthy too! To say i was confused with the stereotype in media that school cafeteria food was beyond nasty was an understatement. I often brought my own lunches anyways.

[@QUBIQUBED]

Cooking class is slowly being phased out of high schools.

[@Fighting.Flower]

@@QUBIQUBED well that doesn't make any sense for the school i went too: it was not only merged with a school that was all about preparing people for the world of work: but it also had programs for people with disabilities so they could help them prepare for living on their own! If they just removed cooking class they would not only completely be unable to prepare students for an entire work industry, but also be unable to help teach some students how to feed themselves!

[@QUBIQUBED]

@@Fighting.Flower yeah I wasn’t talking about your school, I was talking about a growing trend in the average American public school

[@Fighting.Flower]

@@QUBIQUBED oh...

[@estelaangeles2346]

@@QUBIQUBED blast to the past

[@Tortilla_Pizzeria_Pixels]

Our food at my school ain’t that bad… but like half of the milk I’ve gotten were like at a booger like consistency. It kinda makes me glad that me and my parents made lunches. Also, forcing kids to take a vegetable even if they don’t want it is just gonna make them not eat it. They’ll just throw it out which is a huge waste. Also, this is a great video. Keep up the good work! I’ve subscribed.

[@derekpayneszubliminals7723]

Good thing they never force me to take one of those fruit cups/ apple sauce.

[@katie7748]

I hate wasting food!!

[@pugdad2555]

That was a school district issue. That was never a thing at my school.

[@gogetbamboozled]

glad im not the only one with the booger milk problem

[@boomboom-wn9jm]

in high school some kid a my table´s milk had the consistency of cotton candy, it was so nasty

[@Kno_Buddy]

Where I am it’s absolutely atrocious unsold food from Meals on Wheels where some schools in other states actually have a food court full of chain restaurants like you’d see in a mall. When they tried the healthy lunch program my state did everything they could to get around it by classifying pizza as a vegetable and in 9th grade lunch one day was a milk and a half cup of lettuce with three pepperoni and no dressing. My school did have those treats and desserts, but they were a rare instance and they would take place of another item on the tray instead of in addition to.

[@the_yt_crok]

I honestly have pretty much no experience with cafeteria food. I've only attended some small schools so the closest I had to that was the hot lunch Fridays in grade school that served either pizza or Culver's in the office, and the food truck that came every day in my sophomore year of high school. So your video definitely helped with my curiosity

[@Vlad2319]

The pizza thing is literally, counts for bread, a veg and protein. Mom was a lunchroom worker. The school she worked for was a bit on the up and up but that's why pizza is popular.

[@pombox4860]

my mom was a supervisor and used to work in all three schools in our village when i was in elementary school. it was like a beacon of light in the dark whenever i saw my mom working in the lunchline. she made always made sure that the food was actually COOKED and was friendly to all the kids. my school also served a lot of traditional food and various mexican foods as well so it was always a godsend seeing my mom's red rice in the trays. also i got to wander around the kitchens of the schools whenever my mom picked me up. it was always so cool being able to take the stuff that didnt get eaten by the highschoolers, my favorites being the pb n j and the baked hot cheetos. we were pretty poor when i was a kid so it really helped keeping us full till the next day.

[@vechirni_anbernic]

gosh this channel is gold

[@11bunni11]

my school has a MTO sub bar in it, along with more than 5 options a day. We also have a cafe in the library with coffee machines, smoothie machines, more food options and snacks

[@DashiGurl]

I grew up being poor for the most part, lunch time at school was always so terrifying because I never knew what the outcome was going to be when I put in my pin.. I would get this pit in my stomach every time.. so when the michelle healthy lunch thing came around, our school district made all lunches free regardless if u had money for it or not. It was a HUGE relief at the time and I no longer felt this existential dread everyday at 11:00. I also didn’t feel obvious divide between my friends, who had money, anymore! it was bad food but it was free food! I’ll be thankful for the burden it took away from me

[@nervousneko5119]

Personally, the portion sizes always bugged me. In my school district, the same amount and kinds of food are fed to my 5 year old brother and people who are nearly adults. I never felt full after school lunches. One thing that frequently went wrong in my school lunches frequently was the juice and milk going bad. Orange juice tasted like alchohol and by the time I noticed the milk went bad i had already swallowed some. The taste in my mouth lasted for hours sometimes >:(. Our lunch line was so long that half of our 30 min lunch was spent in the lunch line,and thats if you were lucky. So you had to practically inhale your food every lunch. Very annoying

[@spencerpetunia8268]

The school lunch line being horribly long is why by middle school my mom was packing me a lunch to bring every day. Thank you so much, Mom!

[@FallingMoonXoffical]

This is literally my experience, it used to be much better when I was in elementary, but by my middle schools years the portion sizes where tiny and the food, with few exceptions, was nasty.

[@Dumb_Killjoy]

I had the same experience. It was fine in elementary school, but by the time I was in junior high, the school just stopped caring. Our milk usually tasted horrible and you could tell something was wrong with it. I told an adult about it one time and they just shrugged it off.

[@cheszuz]

as a brazilian, i still find it ludicrous that you need to pay for school lunch and that "school lunch debt" is a thing at all, specially considering the gross food man everyday im thankful that i was born here instead of the USA

[@SmileThatSwiftie]

13:07 at my school they would give out FREAKING WHOLE GRAIN GOLDFISH IT TASTES SO BAD

[@Wowocats1]

They don't have a difference for my mouth 😎

[@aperture_inc]

school lunches are one of the main reasons i have an eating disorder now 😭 i either couldnt afford it, was belittled by other students for what i did eat, was judged by the lunch ladies, or just straight up had raw food a couple of times. i didnt have much food at home that i could eat, and i certainly didnt have money to get some food.

[@adrianjuarez1162]

@@TOTU as a U.S. citizen I can agree but the government needs to get out of school Lunch wise and education wise but in my high school we had a lot of kids eat off campus and we had pretty damn good food nothing nasty or gross during my schooling years. Every time I hear these types of stories it makes me happy am out of there and I got good food. We feed prisoners better than our own kids sometimes but in all honesty parents need to take there kids out public school especially nowadays the schools are awful and got worse after Covid now and am 24 now graduated 2016.

[@kingrobotnik6950]

⁠@@adrianjuarez1162 sounds like you were just in a better place than most. I’m 28 and the school lunch I had was often straight garbage…

[@frostedfelony]

Before I graduated, I wanted to get a chicken patty, but they were all out. The lunch lady told me that "It's alright, it's better that you didn't get them because they were frozen from before Covid." I looked at her doubtfully, shocked, but she looked on, really ashamed. The next day I tried to see if she was joking or not and my chicken patty had black in it.

[@HarryHarshman]

That description genuinely scared me

[@Averaage_Commenter]

So she knows that but does nothing about it? I smell a lawsuit coming

[@HarryHarshman]

@@Averaage_Commenter The school probably made them serve it, although it is terrible

[@TofuSG98]

In Australia we just had canteens, i remember having to buy a ticket either for a National Meat Pie or Sausage Roll. There were "Pizza Singles" and either a Poptop Water or Poptop Juice. But most of us had packed lunches, school canteens were run by school prefects with only one adult overseeing and helping. Pretty cool system.

[@wesleydraves1281]

I fell to the floor in agony learning that some schools sold ice cream every day the most I had as a kid was Italian Ice but that was once a month but the middle school i went to had top tear chicken sandwiches they were up there with Chick-fil-A and they sold it every other day and when they didn’t sell it we got some low quality burgers

[@kristinayoung8070]

In my school (in Kansas, graduated 2019), there was definitely a problem of kids just not getting food at all. Sure, there were programs to help some families who couldn’t afford it get cheaper or free lunches, but there were still those who fell through the cracks. If you didn’t have money and didn’t have a special plan, you just weren’t allowed to have anything. It ended up with a situation where I would buy lunch for a boy in my class who always had none because my family was comfortable enough and completely supported me helping him out. It’s just horrible and unacceptable that any kid could be put in that situation in a country where you know for a fact we can afford to feed school children.

[@jesse8028]

Lol

[@clowncage]

In my school district, the entire district had a free lunch program for *all* students. No paying unless you wanted a second portion of lunch, or ice cream/snacks (separate line selling snacks at the HS). There was even a lunch program to get kids food from the cafeteria during the summer, and the past two years, the principal went around during the last period of the day with a cart of different bags containing expired / clearance item snacks that were still good. Our NHS winter food drive raked in thousands of dollars worth of food and monetary donos which went to self-reported lower income students in the district. Pretty lit, thinking about it.

[@cookiedreams5569]

Every grade except hs had a 3 week rotation of what they'd serve in the cafeteria and one of my schools had what they called the leftover line where they served meals from the previous day's schedule. ex: Friday was pizza you'd go through the leftover line for pizza until they ran out and cooked another popular food like chicken sandwiches or burgers and the mainline for whatever was scheduled for monday such as chicken noodle soup. so there were a total of 4 lunch lines. I always went through the leftover line at this school and had the least amount of issues with things being undercooked/frozen. frozen pb&j was the worst!