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?

It was the allergy rates varying per country that I was interested in, as I have read about the difference in Israel.

Both of my children’s school class themselves as “nut-free schools” - their wording - I have no issue with it either way, as neither of my children like nuts anyway, but I had a university flatmate with a peanut allergy, so it is something that I am used to taking into consideration.

Generally a sandwich (tuna/ham/turkey, etc), a juicebox, an apple, a granola bar, and a packet of fruit gummies (or some other processed sugary snack).
We didn't bring peanut butter because there was a girl with an anaphylactic allergy in my brother's class, but there was no outright ban (there is now!). Pretty much everyone brought the same stuff for lunches because it was cheap and relatively healthy.

I don’t have children but I’ve just looked at our school district website and the menus for this month. It’s not the greatest but it’s not bad either. Everything is served with a side salad, a portion of fruit and a serving of milk. Seems to be similar to what’s offered in UK schools in terms of variety and cost.

I’m a Brit living on the West Coast, and this is our breakfast & lunch menu. It’s ok, my child eats it 2-3 days out of the week. The breads, buns, pizzas, muffins and tortillas are always whole grain or brown bread, which isn’t mentioned, and there’s always fruit and veggies and a small salad bar, as much as they like. There’s a sweet treat most days, which bothered me until I saw it, a cookie is the size of a ritz cracker, so I don’t worry too much about a tiny dessert.
In our school district, everything is free for everyone regardless of income, so free breakfast and lunch, and has been for about four years. They also had pick up spots for meals during lockdown, which I know some families used and appreciated.

I forgot to mention, this is elementary school.

Interesting that some US states provide free breakfast and lunch for all at school.

Why do Americans call main courses entrees? Entree means starter in French. What do Americans call starters?

There's been some study done (mainly California I think) that found it was cheaper simply to provide free meals for all than have to check eligibility, collect money etc. Some areas have picked up on this and others are opposed on the grounds that it smacks of socialism.

I am in the south of England and our school is both nut and seed free (so people can't bring in hummus for example as a snack- the sesame seeds).

The school though has compulsory school meals for everyone, no packed lunches with a single exception I can think of (that I personally know of I mean) for a child who had so many allergies that her diet was exceptionally restricted and it was too risky for her to even go into the dining room.

DS1 has an anaphylactic peanut allergy.

I look at alot of youtube videos about school meals. It started because my older DS has alot of sensory issues around food and I was looking for ideas for meal plans that he might be able to cope with. It is another stereotype I am sure but I like the French school meal videos as they are really serious about what they feed children - The Michael Moore one was very interesting (the link should come up below).

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=school+meals+in+france

It's an independent school I should say which is why they can do compulsory school dinners I expect.

I’m just amazed schools aren’t nut free. I don’t know of a single school, state or private which allows nuts on site

Yes, that makes sense. At nursery it was fine as there was only a handful eating lunch. This was where an item was removed from her lunch. But her Primary has over 1000 DC so I'm not confident it could be spotted. I mean everyone I know is very used to no nuts and sticks to it but in the nursery situation I had done it by mistake.

They do don't they? Although I have to say I liked the look of lots of the lunches!

I think it might be a case of our schools being a bit behind with the times. When I was pregnant with my first it was recommended that you didn't eat nuts in pregnancy and didn't introduce them to your DC til a certain age (can't remember what it was.)

Thank you for all that information. I like the sound of the deli station!

It's interesting the vending machines have energy drinks but not Coke. I'm not sure high schools here have vending machines anymore but we did when I was at school. There was a fizzy drink one and a chocolate bar one and I remember spending all my lunch money in them sometimes!

I'm glad to hear there is no spoilt or burnt food! The farm to school programme sounds really good.

Yes, it sounds pretty similar.

Thank you for that information. I think free breakfast and lunch for all is great.

Especially on the breakfast menu, things I didn't recognise. What is a 'sunrise stick' (I think it was)? And a 'sun butter cup'? And I suppose the other thing that stands out is the ubiquitous chocolate milk!

They call a starter an 'appetizer'.

Thank you for that I'll have a look.

When Infant universal FSM came in I know some Infant schools tried to do compulsory school meals but there was a lot of opposition.

I know! I didn't think any school child got to enjoy a peanut butter sandwich! It seems to vary by area.

Same here,no nuts on the menu at any of the last 3 schools I've worked at. My last school was also halal.

My dc school is completely nut-free due to serious allergies.

A friend worked in US high schools in the 2000s, she often reminisces about carrots and beans being sprinkled with sugar to entice the teens to eat them

Not the point of the threat at all but I adore how AmEnglish uses entree for main meal, I just think it's really cute.
Also off topic, I have a friend from France who referred to the main as plat de résistance. Loved it!

I went to a few schools, including one in North America (public school system), one in Continental Europe (private) and one in the UK (private). Honestly, the Continental European one was streaks ahead of the other two which were pretty comparable. The latter two were both boarding schools and the one in the UK served a very similar menu to the school in the US, unless there was a parental event or another event going on in where there were leftovers.

The menu for breakfast was always cereal or toast with a cup of juice.

Lunch rotated but there was definitely Burger Wednesday, Pizza Thursday and Chip Shop (Fish or Sausage) Friday every week. We did get something that vaguely resembled a roast on Sunday and I cannot remember the rest of the week. We did have a salad bar but it was never fresh; all vegetables were frozen and reheated (grim) and usually it was just peas and carrots, or peas and corn with some form of potato. Or rice, I think we had rice occasionally. I cannot remember what the evening meal was because I basically figured out it was better to cook a simple stir fry or similar in the evenings in the boarding house as we had a couple of hobs we could use. In the boarding house we had access to crappy white bread, jam, margarine, and milk - we could take as much as we wanted but there was an allowance of what each house was given each day.

In Continental Europe breakfast was decent cereals or porridge, you could mix your own muesli, croissants and pastries, cheeses and hams plus as much fruit as you wanted. Lunch (as a boarder) you could either take your own packed lunch, or, as most of the school did, you sat down for a proper meal, starter, main, and desert if you wanted. There was a long rotation period - maybe 4 or 6 weeks and everything was cooked fresh, and sourced from fresh ingredients. Some of the mains I remember were Horse (!) steaks, three vegetables and steamed potatoes, freshly made pizza where you could chose your toppings, Risotto, Pasta, Pork medallions, and lots of vegan options as well. I think we had three or four options for mains a day plus sandwich and salad stations. Dinner in the evening was always a home-cooked meal in the boarding house (there were not as many boarders so perhaps this is why that happened).

The variety of food I could get in the US school was far better than in the UK private school - but the European school topped them both. Needless to say there were virtually no behavioural issues at the European School, very little class disruptions, and people rarely were ill.

At the end of the day school food come down to funding and cost cutting and many schools simply don't see it as a priority, which I find is incredibly sad.

We need some social scientists to explain these different attitudes. Utterly disgraceful that the meals are so bad in the uk.