Несъедобные обеды американских школьников

[peacetraveler22]

At my school, there was no cafeteria. Each morning, my mom awoke early and packed lunch for my sister and me. It grew monotonous, eating the same sandwiches and fruit each day. Secretly, I dreamed of being like my friends who went to public schools, lining up each day to have some old woman with a net around her hair throw slop on my plate. In the U.S., there's constant debate over what school children are fed in the cafeteria. A lot of schools have removed snack and soda machines, and guidelines about nutritional values for school meals are always shifting. Over the weekend, I looked at the menu from my nephew's elementary school, listing the meal choices for each day in the month of May. Common choices include pizza, tacos, hot dogs, hamburgers, chicken nuggets and pastas, all served with some type of vegetable and potatoes or rice. There's always one healthy option like grilled chicken or fish, and a wide-variety of fresh fruit is available for purchase. Yet only the most disciplined of children would pick such options when there are tastier and more indulgent choices placed in front of them each day. All of this creates a very sad picture on the white tray. I grew curious, and began to read about school lunches around the globe, and here's what I discovered!

Look at the culinary delights thrown on these plates from Brazil, Greece and France. The Greek dish looks especially appetizing to me, while the plate from Ukraine has the same sad and pathetic appearance as the USA lunch, filled with greasy sausages, potatoes, cabbage, borscht and a pancake.


If the topic is of interest to readers, I can take my camera and join my nephew for lunch one day to explain more about what school kids in the USA eat. Of course, many parents still pack lunches for their children, so they aren't forced to eat this cafeteria slop each day. However, I think there's some level of excitement for most young kids to go through the cafeteria line each day, pick from a choice of foods, and create their own meals. It's a rite of passage for almost all American school children.

What did you eat during your school days? Cafeteria food, or homemade lunches? I have no idea what Russian children are served in cafeterias or dining halls, because I've never once visited a school there. Has it changed a lot from the Soviet era? What happens if the family has no money to pay for a child's lunch, does the Russian government subsidize it?

Comments

[komshuk-off.livejournal.com]

That's not a cheese cake. That is a common school dish cooked with eggs. We call it "omelette".

[vlgirl.livejournal.com]

А что плохого в борще или супе? Или в каше - любой, гречневой, пшеной, ячневой?
я считаю это здоровой пищей. Паровая или из дузховки котлета или рыба ( источники белка) - тоже замечательно. Компот из натуральных сухофруктов ( при условии, что немного сахара) - прекрасный источник витаминов. Еде в столовых советских школ была не так плоха с точки зрения безвредности для здоровья. Даже салаты были - какая-нибудь тертая морковка, свекла вареная или винегрет ( овощи!).
Еда была такая, от которой не станешь толстым, все было или вареное, или паровое.
И каши - это здоровое питание. Все диетологи советуют - кушайте каши с утра- гречку, овсянку и прочие.
Всякой нездоровой пищи - как хот доги, гамбургеры и пиццы - этого в советских столовых не было, и слава богу. У меня, например, не было ни одного толстого одноклассника.

[peacetraveler22.livejournal.com]

I disagree about kids menus. They all have the items you described but most also have at least one very healthy option like grilled chicken with vegetables or fruit. For instance, here's the kids menu at Chili's, where my family sometimes eats http://www.chilis.com/EN/Pages/menuitem.aspx?cat=1197, or Bob Evans https://kids.bobevans.com/menu.asp. I know, because my nephew usually picks these choices for his meal. :)

[peacetraveler22.livejournal.com]

It's the same word here in the USA - "omelette", but ours are not made in squares like that. :) That's why I was confused.

[komshuk-off.livejournal.com]

Greece and France are laying in Miditerrian region. They have a lot of fruits and sea food there.
So It allows them to cook more healthy food at schools. But the same food is quite expensive in Russia.
I think, it costs not less than 20-30$ for a lunch or 400-600$ per month. However, the average salary in Russia is about 500$ per month. So that's for rich kids and their relatives, I think. :-)

[living-for-free.livejournal.com]

Shannon, this article isn't real. At least to Ukranian school lunch)

[peacetraveler22.livejournal.com]

You can search in Google images and see similar photos. Are you living in Ukraine? What do you think they eat in the canteen? Enlighten me. :)

[komshuk-off.livejournal.com]

Honestly, if you visit a Russian school you will be shown meals like at Gordon Ramsey Restaurant. :-)))
Russian authority consists of tricky people. :-)))

[living-for-free.livejournal.com]

in most schools there is no even a lunch because of school poorness .
in some pearents do pay for lunches.
different schools - different lunches, but you must understans the meanest rule: Ukraine is VERY poore country. and school feeding is not in top 100 their most necessary things.

[dubovich.livejournal.com]

Well, nowadays so many children have peanut allergies that peanut butter is not being served in many schools.

[komshuk-off.livejournal.com]

School kitcheners cook huge portions of omelette and cut them to small squared pieces. That's the old Soviet technology. :-)

[mb-b.livejournal.com]

On my first exposure to peanut butter ('make your own sandwich'), I spread it over turkey breast, causing some dropped jaws around the table. Soon after that, I earned the distinction of 'family trash pail' for eating anything the kid(s) wouldn't finish, I just couldn't stand the idea of anything going to waste - perfectly understandable considering where I had just come from. Years after, it was still officially maintained that I 'had no taste buds'.

[peacetraveler22.livejournal.com]

:))

[once-for-all.livejournal.com]

You can find it at Whole Foods.

[www ??????? (from livejournal.com)]

Не знаю как у вас,но у нас обед был до продлёнки.Во время продлёнки был "полудник"вроде так называлось.Что то типа второго облегчённого обеда.

[zirazira.livejournal.com]

Come on, one healthy option in between 10 deeply fried ((( No no, America is a great country but food is not your strong side, sorry ))) And it is not the quality of products, because you can find anything in the US, even Russian sunflower seeds, it's a culture! I think so

[crakadil.livejournal.com]

The Cleveland police department, which has become synonymous with the racially charged debate over police tactics, has agreed to follow some of the most exacting standards in the nation over how and when its officers can use force

[riliness.livejournal.com]

тот факт, что в школах нет столовки для детей с супами и полноценным горячим питанием, говорит о том, что сша не заботятся о здоровье детей, В ссср школы строили обязательно со столовками, мед кабинетом.. Так как речь шла о здоровом воспитании нации в целом. То есть и мозги и тело.
а то монополия на мозги у государства, а кормить тело должен родитель.

[rodevlag.livejournal.com]

Как я сейчас понимаю система школьных столовых в советское время была очень неплоха.
Стоили обеды рубля 2 за месяц. Нормальная еда. То, что я терпеть не могла в детстве, ем с большим удовольствием сейчас.
В столовых можно было на перемене выпить молоко бесплатное или купить что-то из выпечки.

Мой ребенок учился в школе в России, Голландии и Франции.

В России школа частная. С детей пылинки сдували и любили. Дети любили школу и учителей.
Питание отличное 3 раза в день. Входило в стоимость школы. Не буду называть цену, дорого.

Во Франции мы давали чек в школу. Деньги шли на специальную карту для столовой.
Там дети могли выбирать, что хотят. Только бургеры были запрещены до какого-то возраста, то есть по своей карте они их купить не могли.
Ребенку школьное питание во Франции не нравилось. Школа была хорошая, частная, католическая. Вообще, школы во Франции похожи на российские. Обращение с детьми жесткое. Школа под охраной просто так не зайти-не выйти никому ни родителям, ни детям, ни посторонним. Забор почти как в исправительном учреждении.

В Голландии дети берут сэндвичи с собой в школу и какой-то напиток.
Школы совсем другие. С учителем на "ты". Учитель может запросто ученика попросить сгонять за какой-то едой в магазин, попросить сделать кофе ему прямо в классе на уроке. В школу детишки ходят с удовольствием.

[new-forester.livejournal.com]

While I'm not entirely happy with the menu choices at my daughter's school here (elementary school in a wealthy suburb of Boston), it is healthy enough, and definitely much better than what I had to eat growing up in the Soviet Union.
They have junk food items here, like pizza and such, but I keep telling my daughter how bad it it to eat this stuff, and we never eat it at home, so she doesn't have a habit, and she picks milk and cereal for snack instead. Also, since payments are all electronic, parents have access to all the records, and we can see what she ordered at the cafeteria, and we can send a letter to school requesting them to refuse selling "snacks" (like chips) to our daughter (we didn't send it, I want her to make a conscious decision to avoid unhealthy foods, not force it upon her).

[new-forester.livejournal.com]

В школе, где учится моя дочь, горячее питание есть. Лучше, чем в СССР на порядок. Про современную Россию не знаю, не видел. Мед кабинет в школе тоже есть, с постоянно там работающей медсестрой.
Допускаю, что в бедных районах всё не так хорошо.

[sanya-de-costa.livejournal.com]

There are special schools where pupils stay after lessons to make homework at school.

But normally a Russian schoolchild spend 4-5 hours at school. In the 90's this was a true for 90% of schoolchidren.
The youngest, use to have 3-4 hours of lessons per day.

Furthermore, the soviet-built residential areas have many schools inside. When I was a child and lived in such area, there were 4 schools within 10-minutes walking distance, and I used to get out from home at 07.53 am to be at the start of lessons (at 08.00 am) at class.
Curiously, it was opened one more school in 3-minutes walking distance from home when I was already in the 10th grade, but I preferred do not transfer to it.
In the residential area where I live now there are 3 school, in 2-minute, 4 minute and 7 minute walking distances (and 3 kinergartens nereby also). In cities and towns nobody loose much time travelling to school far away. Certainly there are exceptional cases, when family moved to diffferent area but children prefer to stay at their "native" school, or something like this.

[(Anonymous)]

Короче всем жиров и углеводов. И побольше ))

[amandakysses.livejournal.com]

France looks amazing!!! I could live on fruits, veggies and cheese!

[new-forester.livejournal.com]

Суп это просто традиция. К тому же, в США суп тоже в школе есть, кто хочет может купить. Равно как и овощи, фрукты, что угодно. Обед в школе стоит $3, а для бедных (надо стоять на учете официально) 30 центов (бесплатно, можно считать).
Детские сады с кроватями в США тоже есть. За ваши деньги, всё, что хотите. Тоже самое и с едой. Бесплатных садов, правда, нет.