School food in North America - is it that bad?

[UndertheCedartree]

My DD and I were watching a video on 'school food around the world'. The North American meal didn't look very fresh but ok. It was chicken nuggets, very gloopy looking mash, peas, a giant chocolate chip cookie and some tinned fruit. But in the comments loads of people were saying that's gourmet food compared to what you actually get. People saying the food is routinely burnt, under cooked, rotten. Loads of comments all agreeing on this. So I'm just being curious - can it really be that bad? If it was wouldn't parents, teachers and governors complain? And how could they pass an inspection?

Is the chocolate milk not bad for teeth? Or is it not so bad as only drunk at lunchtime?

I do supply teaching and I've never ever come across a not free school. Even when children have severe allergies. It creates a falsely safe environment.

There's a YouTube channel which does direct comparisons with branded items UK vs US and the difference is shocking. Even for something "simple" like a portion of McDonalds fries.

So even if US meals looked and sounded ok, I'd hazard a guess that they contain a whole load of stuff which we've banned in the UK.

It's literally because of the sauce. It's pathetic and a joke even to many Americans when it came out during one of Obama's presidencies as his wife was the lead for healthier options

It's bad. It's usually fat free but full of sugar. Only at lunch would be okay but I doubt that's the norm for a lot of households.

That sounds good. That's kind of how they do it at my DD's school - the 3 options have a theme but there are always jacket potatoes too.

You all know that North America isn't just USA right?

The lunch shown was described as 'North American' but the You Tuber was Canadian and it was something she was used to. It's interesting you say sushi and poke bowls because the UK lunch and Italian I think had fish and she insisted they couldn't have that in Canada as lots of kids don't like fish. I don't know whether the people that commented were from Canada or the US, though.

I've spent a bit of time in the us offices of my employer and my general perception of food in the US was that vegetables didnt feature a lot.

You would get a lot of stuff like burgers or pizza but never any green vegetable sides. On a menu extra fries would be really cheap (like $2 or $3) but a dish of spinach would be 3 times as much. There was a lot of sugary stuff too. I can't even imagine a british school serving up chocolate milk every day but it's not that unusual in US schools.

English school meals were nothing to write home about for a very long time pre-Jamir Oliver (much as I dislike him). In fact they were so bad and unappetising at my middle school that kids took packed lunches. Lumpy smash springs to mind and in latee decades when teaching, chicken nuggets.

However, the idea of routinely giving out donuts for a school breakfast did make me 😁. There is nothing more likely to make you put weight on than a fatty, sugary, fried doughnut covered in rubbish. Occasionally I treat myself to a coffee and donut for brunch but worry that I have instantly piled on pounds

English primary state schools tend to do Fishy Friday. At our kids school it's whole breaded white fish one week, fish finger sandwich another, then salmon the last. And rotate. Most kids opt for fishy Friday apart from Salmon day as "it's grey" [grim]

You only had 30 minutes? I have to say lots of high schools seemed to have reduced to a 45 minute lunch when we've been looking round this summer. We've discounted those as 1 hour lunch break is needed so there is time to eat and to do clubs.

Jamie Oliver tried to change the pizza lunches the DCs got in California - but was drummed out of the state ......

We go to a local secondary (England) weekly for a separate non school club on an evening. I sometimes stroll around the grounds while dd does the club. They have multiple "food counters" which are like parked up street food vans.

Handy for quick meals for 1000kids but there's no way they are serving meat and two veg/spaghetti bol/cottage pie from those.

Savoycabbage

I've not heard the term nut free used but nuts arent allowed in any schools round my way (south east england), I thought it was quite common for them to be banned in schools.

Chocolate milk every day.... Oh dear. Chocolate milk is a treat, not a casual drink.

Still, it's obvious there's a reason for the obesity rates (and how we're going in the UK too).

Thank you for that. The breakfast sounds very different. I don't even know what a Southern fried chicken biscuit is! And lunch does sound a bit low on fruit and vegetables but I'm sure my DD would love the sound of a Dominos cheese pizza!

the food at my dc’s school isn’t gourmet, but it is perfectly fine. There is definitely a reliance on packaged, processed food. The one advantage there is predictability and allergen safety.

There is a salad bar and a selection of fresh fruit available daily and those are included with every meal.

Thank you for sharing your experience. I have heard some parents comment on here that their Y6 DC was recieving the same size meal as a Y1 so some schools here obviously have that issue too.

That’s a lie. My daughter goes to a public school in Chicago and while not 5 star food it’s also not the extreme pictures and videos you see on the internet all done to align with stereotypes.

When we were moving to the US about 8 years ahi we could barely find any YouTube videos with sane unbiased information, all extreme videos based on stereotypes to get likes in social media.

Even during the lockdowns they still continued to give food for families to pick up from the school or even delivered for free and we got some boxes a few times not because we needed it but because it was going to waste and also curious and there was fruits; vegetables etc in it.

also there’s nothing like one type of food in American schools, all school districts are different and there will differences across them some may be bad I agree but generally not so. Even a state like Illinois alone has hundreds of school districts as schools are run by cities and they do not all offer the same lunch, there is NO universal school lunch in the US.

Please don’t watch the video, it’s just useless stereotypical dribble.

Donuts for breakfast and chocolate milk at lunch? Wow, I'm shocked!

Canadian here. My primary school (Reception-Y5) and middle school (Y6-Y8) didn't even have a cafeteria. All lunches were packed from home, but in primary there was milk provided (white or chocolate) if parents paid. High school (Y9-Y12) had a small cafeteria where you could buy pizza, chips, and a few other overpriced greasy options, but the vast majority of students brought food from home, went home for lunch, or walked over to a local takeaway.

That's so strange I've never come across a school or nursery that allows nuts.

All schools and nurseries round here are nut free. I just assumed it was the same everywhere. It would certainly make life easier when doing a packed lunch if nuts were allowed.