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Original poster

School food in North America - is it that bad?

135 replies

UndertheCedartree · 20/08/2022 18:33

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?

OP posts:
EthicDiss · 21/08/2022 15:20

I find it disgraceful too - particularly as we know that poor nutrition leads to poor behaviour and school attainment (for women at least) impacts the health of the next generation.

Really makes me angry that nutrition for kids is not invested in.

BlueberryMuffin817 · 21/08/2022 16:10

When I went to school in the 90s/early 00s we did have pizza but it was usually a treat on some Fridays and only a single slice. The portions were always very small but what do you expect for $1.25. I remember there being grilled chicken, pasta, wraps, maybe the occasional chicken burger. You had the choice of milk or chocolate milk and if you didn't want the meal of the day you could buy a sandwich (all different types) or get a salad (I remember all the popular girls ordering the Greek salad). There was one vending machine in the building selling drinks/snacks near the gym but it wasn't turned on until school was finished for the day.

NoBarrelOfLaughs · 21/08/2022 16:46

UndertheCedartree · 21/08/2022 10:47

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!

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A sunrise stick would be a taco stick. We have a large Hispanic population, and lots of Mexican food. Whole wheat tortilla, rolled with meat and cheese filling, so like a rolled up burrito or taco.
A sun butter cup is sunflower seed butter (tastes like peanut butter and has similar protein), in a little cup for dipping crackers into.

Cheeselog · 21/08/2022 17:45

DayYTY · 21/08/2022 00:22

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.

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I looked it up after writing this post and it does look like peanut allergy is marginally less prevalent in the US than in the UK, but also the stats aren’t very good. For the US I found between 0.6% and 1.5%, and 2% for the UK, so slightly more here. But on the rise in both countries.

Original poster
UndertheCedartree · 21/08/2022 23:22

EthicDiss · 21/08/2022 11:25

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.

The UK food sounds really terrible. Who has a 'frozen' salad bar??

The European food definitely sounds the nicest!

OP posts:
Original poster
UndertheCedartree · 21/08/2022 23:24

EthicDiss · 21/08/2022 15:20

I find it disgraceful too - particularly as we know that poor nutrition leads to poor behaviour and school attainment (for women at least) impacts the health of the next generation.

Really makes me angry that nutrition for kids is not invested in.

I agree, it is so important.

OP posts:
JudgeJ · 22/08/2022 22:22

UndertheCedartree · 20/08/2022 20:16

Pizza counts as a vegetable? I have heard of fries be referred to as a vegetable - in an American book I think! I'll check the video out, sounds interesting.

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I seem to recall that Reagan classified ketchup as a vegetable in terms of required portions of fruit and vegetables!

There also was a legal speed at which ketchup should leave a bottle lying horizontally on the edge of a table, Heinz used to advertise that their product left the bottle at 0.028 mph!

Original poster
UndertheCedartree · 23/08/2022 08:24

NoBarrelOfLaughs · 21/08/2022 16:46

A sunrise stick would be a taco stick. We have a large Hispanic population, and lots of Mexican food. Whole wheat tortilla, rolled with meat and cheese filling, so like a rolled up burrito or taco.
A sun butter cup is sunflower seed butter (tastes like peanut butter and has similar protein), in a little cup for dipping crackers into.

Show quote history

Ah, I see, thank you!

OP posts:
Nanof8 · 26/11/2022 02:24

Canadian here. The school lunches at my son's elementary school were awesome. The main lunch lady made a lot of it from scratch. They had things like lasagna, homemade stews, chicken pies, a lot of us parents tried to convince the school to let us come have lunch as well. 😆
Bread was donated from a local bakery. Lots of fresh fruit as we live where there are loads of Orchards.
She would also do up full turkey dinners for special occasions a few times a year.

sashh · 26/11/2022 04:40

FredGarland · 20/08/2022 19:34

I watched a video by Evan Edinger on YouTube this week: he was comparing a New Jersey school menu to two British school menus.

He said that pizza counts as a vegetable - genuinely thought he was joking but this agrees with him 😶

Ketchup is also a veg.

We might serve pizza in UK schools, but not for breakfast.

The UK food sounds really terrible. Who has a 'frozen' salad bar??

I think the not fresh salad and the frozen food were seperate.

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