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Location: The western periphery of Terra Australis
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From movies and tv shows, it seems that most elementary and high school kids in the US eat at an indoor cafeteria, with it's notoriously bad food. Often, the meal is served with a carton of milk. Is the cafeteria like a shop where you pay for the meals or is the food all free? Do children also eat meals at recess?
In Australia we have canteens or tuck-shops, typically outdoors, sometimes in an under-cover area, where we buy our food. We don't have a buffet style arrangement...for lunch at my primary school we had 'lunch orders', where we'd write what we wanted on a brown paper bag with the money and at lunch time they'd deliver it to class. Typical lunch items included meat pies, hot dogs, chicken rolls, pizza, spaghetti, burgers. In recent years I've heard they even serve sushi, showing how times have changed. At morning recess we had things like cheesies (like toasted bread with melted cheese), fruit, jelly.etc.
Many kids brought their own lunch/recess in a lunch box. Do many do this in the US as well?
Students can pack their lunch, buy, or do a combination of both. My elementary students go through a cafeteria line. I believe they choose from three different types of milk. They have a choice of two entrees and a few different fruit and vegetable sides. An additional entree choice is a salad or hummus "biteable". They eat at assigned tables in the cafeteria. Students pay $2.65 for lunch, unless they qualify for free or reduced lunches. I have very few who qualify for a reduction. Some schools serve breakfast, but mine does not. Here is the menu for October: http://www.fcps.edu/fs/food/serve/menus/OctES12.pdf
More and more children are qualifying for free and reduced-price lunch and breakfast at school. Quite a few bring lunch from home. Fewer and fewer students go home for lunch, like I did from 1st thru 6th grades in the 1960's and 70's.
There are strict rules as to what can and cannot be served by the school, and what must be served. For example, milk must be fresh, not powdered even though powdered milk is just as nutritious and far less expensive and easier to store and transport. Vegetables must be served even though most students throw them away.
In the area where we were living in SE KS, a high percentage of students qualified for free or reduced price breakfast and lunch. To me, the menus always sound like junk food rather than healthy choices. Things like pancakes and sausage at breakfast in an area of the country where obesity is high made no sense. In AZ, I think they served green beans every day and I never saw a kid eat any! When I mentioned that so many fried foods were not healthy to the cafeteria workers, they said they were supposed to bake many of the items but if they did the kids threw them away. Saw more than once a kid eat only the ice cream provided with the lunch. The waste is a shame! My kids packed their lunches and ate breakfast before leaving for school for a lot of reasons! Would like to see schools in the US start teaching the basics of good nutrition in elementary school and parents with obese children attend classes also!
Many students in large urban and some rural areas are on the free and reduced lunch programs therefore they buy the lunch at school.
They say those in the lowest economic stratus are more likely to be exposed to poor food choices.
We used to have great lunches at our area school. Moms cooking and serving family style. Then... some bureaucrat found out because of a compliment and shut that down.
It became so bad, being standard governmental regulated fare, that no one eats it. They finally stopped even having a kitchen. Same with at a high school in the same disctrict.
And, don't worry, those who can take care of those who can't.
Around here, school lunches are not as bad as movies make them out to be and they are subsidized. The chefs prepare the food from scratch everyday. I remember my highschool had the best lobster ravioli.... and it was $1.50 or something really cheap and came with a drink (milk or fruit).
A lot of children bring their own lunch or have their parents or hired help bring in hot food during lunch time.
We had great lunches when I was in school. Real meals. Roast beef, turkey and dressing, creamed chicken on biscuits, and many others. We got as much bread and butter or bread and peanut butter as we wanted. If you did not want the meal you could have a hot sandwich. The meals were 45 cents in the 60's.
I have seen menus for schools today. I would never eat that crap. I would rather take peanut butter and jelly than the things I see listed.
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