School lunches of the world

Originally posted by acmpnsfal
Maybe its just me but I dont have the ability to pick apart the nutritional value of the food based on looks alone...

 

Posted Via ATS Mobile: m.abovetopsecret.com

 

I can look at a bowl of ice cream and know it is not as healthy as a bowl of fruit....

No,but I know what you mean.

Just teasing.

Thanks for posting this... I love love love learning about other countries' foods. It really is quite interesting. I also liked that you posted all the pics. That's one of the best ways for me to get a feel for it, instead of just reading something like: meat and gravy, rice, fruit, brownie with egg on it (lol, I don't know what that is!), etc. Pretty cool.

reply to post by kaoticf8


What are tatter tots? (I feel like Gollum asking that lol)

Our school dinners have been criticised a lot recently, a chef called Jamie Oliver has been making up healthy luncheon options, buit not many schools have taken up the incentive.

Mostly schools serve pasta, salad and chips, with pies and mash, a lot were serving up mechanically reformed chicken (eww) in the form of chicken nuggets etc.

reply to post by FortAnthem


Your depiction of your average school meal in a U.S. American public school is laughable. I would have put that tray right back on the shelf. I get your overall point, but that picture alone shows some serious bias. That or a serious lack of understanding.

www.asfsa.org...

www.asfsa.org...

If there is a PUBLIC school in the nation offering only that slop as a main meal, well, not only are they breaking the law, they are breaking all morality.

As for the rest of the post:

Some of those Asian schools offer up some tasty looking meals.


Also, I see no sources anywhere. I find it hard to believe every picture listed represents your average school meal in its respective nation. Some of those meals are prepared in a manner befitting an expensive restaurant, which would lead me to believe that its not your AVERAGE daily meal.

You also neglect to mention that people generally have a CHOICE of what to put on their plate/tray.


EDIT TO ADD:

I'm a little slow on the uptake apparently, please redirect some of my points to the author(s) of the original article, as I realize most of this material is directly from the source.

reply to post by ateuprto


I did use the more gross USA pic for effect. The other pic is probably more representative of a typical USA school lunch:
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/40caaae6d0f2.jpg[/atsimg]
Still not very healthy looking IMO. Too many sugary snacks and salts.


All the pics came from the source article so, I have to take them at their word that these are typical school lunches.

If you can find other sources to refute these pics, I would be glad to see them.

Originally posted by CherryV
reply to post by ArMaP

 

Yep, those are deffo Mussel's
I wonder if they serve them hot, and fresh...

yeah, mussels.

they don't stay hot for long and will over cook if kept for more than a few minutes.

i'd say they are cold with a vinaigrette for that type of service.



the artichoke is cool, pretty healthy.

eta; i don't get the big plate of fries, tho. lol.

Originally posted by CherryV
reply to post by kaoticf8

 

What are tatter tots? (I feel like Gollum asking that lol)

You can find answers to all your questions in Wiki:

Tater Tots

reply to post by FortAnthem


Still didn't look like anything I would have put on my tray during elementary, middle or high school. Not everything served in the cafeteria is deep-fried or even meat-based for that matter. I graduated in the 90's and we were federally mandated, even then, to offer fresh and healthy produce and cooked food for vegans and vegetarians. Most of our food was actually well rounded. Corn, beans, rolls, squash, salads, pizzas, "mystery loaf," tater tots, fries, tacos, stromboli, steak (on occasion). The list could go on. I ate PLENTY healthy throughout my years in the K-12 program. The food helped me grow strong and kept me in perfectly good health for 13 years.

It boils down to choice. If you want to load up on the deep-fried, sugary or otherwise unhealthy stuff, go ahead. If you have parents that are worth their weight in sh*t then it shouldn't represent a problem.

Let's also not forget that MANY kids bring lunch with them. That is entirely on the family there. I know I did about 50/50.

As for the pictures, its not evidence in any light. No matter how many I post or you post. They are not scientifically submittable evidence enough to warrant a judgement on what the average K-12 lunch served in U.S. American schools are. I linked in my earlier post to an organization that mandates food in public K-12 schools in the United States of America. One of many easily obtainable sources on the net. If you need pictures in place of written/typed facts, well, that would be rather sad.

To prove my point, here are ALSO some pictures of U.S. American school food, oh, and the children growing and harvesting it themselves, keep in mind these are all from different states and schools according to the various sources I used. I know we used to do the same in my school:

reply to post by FortAnthem


Compare with this thread:

The Poisoning of America's School Lunches

That was very interesting to see school meals from around the world.

The lunches we had at my schools didn't look anything like what they showed for the USA pictures, but our lunches weren't all that better, either. You could almost say that the lunches we had were as bland as what the Philippians has.

There was the main dish (chicken nuggets, steak fingers, etc) that usually came with mashed potatoes and gravy, or something similar, plus a roll. Then you could get a side of vegetables (either corn, green beans, peas, or carrots; once a week there was mixed vegetables (that I would put good money on was just the leftovers)) or fruit (either diced pears or fruit cocktail). You didn't have to get fruit or veggies, but it was included in the cost. The main dish changed every day, but they also always had pizza (the cheese was literally plastic, and it was cut into a rectangle), baked potatoes, salad, and some type of Mexican (normally tacos). There was also a snack cart that had bagged chips and sweets, similar to things found in a vending machine.

I cringe thinking about the food I grew up on, but I do miss it sometimes. There was something about the rolls with the gravy that was so good. It was all processed crap that had no nutritional value whatsoever, but it still fed everyone just fine. I'm not saying the food doesn't need to be improved, but its not like it was exactly killing anyone, either.

Edit:

I went to the website of the school district that I went to for all my years in school, and found the menus for August and September. From look at the high school menu, things are still the same.

Here's a typical menu for me in high school

August/September lunch menu

And here's a link for menus for elementary, middle, and high school (plus Shannon, a school for kids that either couldn't get along with others or wanted to finish high school early). Scroll down to the bottom of the page and clink on the link.

Menus for all schools

reply to post by FortAnthem

Here in Holland the entire concept of "school lunch" is not known, as a matter of fact eating warm food in the afternoon is pretty weird.

My kids go to school at 08:30 till 12:00, then they come home for lunch and school starts back up at 13:30. If your mom and dad both work you can "stay over" at school but you better bring your own lunch, which usually consists of a couple of slices of wholebread and some fruit and milk.

How does that work anyway with the warm meal, do you also eat a warm meal for dinner?

Peace

reply to post by FortAnthem

Here in Norway we had to bring our own food which basically meant a couple of slices of bread..

Originally posted by operation mindcrime
reply to post by FortAnthem

 

Here in Holland the entire concept of "school lunch" is not known, as a matter of fact eating warm food in the afternoon is pretty weird.

How does that work anyway with the warm meal, do you also eat a warm meal for dinner?

Peace

That's good that they send the kids home for lunch. If you checked out the thread Loam linked to you would be scared to let them eat food prepared at school.

When the parents make the kids lunch, its generally just a cold sandwich plus some fruit or chips and a snack so its a cold lunch. If they eat what the lunch lady prepares, its generally something cooked and served warm (at least you would hope so).

Yes, we do eat a hot meal for dinner as well. If the parents don't just give the kids cereal for breakfast and serve eggs and/ or pancakes for breakfast, that could be a total of 3 hot meals in one day.



reply to post by juleol

Here in Norway we had to bring our own food which basically meant a couple of slices of bread..

If a parent were to send their kids to school with just a few slices here in the US, Big Brother nanny state would deem them to be an unfit parent and try to take them away.

No way we can get away with not sufficiently fattening up our kids.

I'll bet you're not talking about the cheap Wonder Bread we have here though. The bread over there is probably a lot more hearty and nutritious than the bleached out crap we have here. The bread in the foreign lunch pics looked really good to me.

Mu son (was kinder, now first) eats salad instead of the plate meal, i know they arnt the best, but it makes me happy my school district is offering free breakfast and lunch to EVERY student. Regardless of what it consists of, the fact that all students can eat in this economy, makes me smile. Be if your 6 and starving at home, you dont care if its healthy, gm modified, excetra...

In the french picture, it is "moules- frite" - Mussels and fries. They are always served hot, cooked in bouillon and are super good! I even have a young american houseguest here right now that just had mussels for the first time and loved it.
What is funny is that here, the kids don't get everything at once like that- they are served each course separately.

Interesting to see all these.

A couple more pictures of typical American school lunch, it's just as I remember

pulled pork sandwich and baked beans


"pizza" and corn?

where are the plates?!?

when i was in school i mostly ate chips (fries) and gravy/curry unles i saw a pastabake or potatobake available.
was never really fat but i loved my school dinners.

there was always lots of choice but i had my favourites.

The food in Asian restaurants around here don't even look that good! But seriously, that really is sad how bad the American school lunch looks compared to the others. That's just one of the many reasons my son will never go to a public, government-run school.

www.remnantofgod.org...

Korea wins for me (based on looks alone)

I didn't like my school dinners but they really wasn't as bad as some on this list!

We regularly had things like spaghetti bolognese, lasagne, jacket potato, shepherds pie, curries etc. I remember fridays was pizza and chips day, my favourite lol... I guess we had it okay here in the UK

School lunches I grew up with in the south were so utterly terrible that I eventually just gave up eating food at school at all.

Wrapper pizza, overcooked corn, and a roll so yeasty you could get drunk by eating it was standard fare. Sometimes salsbury grease loaf with a side of moist dander they called "potatoes." And let's not forget the breaded bread on bread, aka "chicken sandwich."

when I got to alaska, the fare was much better, and catered to the heavy Filipino and native population where I was - lots of spring rolls, fish tacos, salmonberry parfaits and whatnot... but I'd already weaned off school food at that point and spent my lunch period playing magic and trying to look counterculture (ahhhh, the 90's)

American school food is generally garbage, as far as I've been able to tell from many accounts. After all, gotta keep the football team funded on that tight budget!