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

[peacetraveler22.livejournal.com]

Eggs in a bag smell terrible, esp. in summer! :)

[peacetraveler22.livejournal.com]

It would be interesting to watch! But unfortunately there are no English subtitles. There was also a show about horrible cafeteria food in various U.S. schools. It was called "Food Revolution." http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamie_Oliver%27s_Food_Revolution

[mivinka.livejournal.com]

TY. Thanks to you now I have a plans for weekend;)

[peacetraveler22.livejournal.com]

:))

[lay-zzz.livejournal.com]

When I was in school, very rarely ate in the dining room. There was no cooking delicious. Sometimes bought buns or pies.

[lay-zzz.livejournal.com]

У нас в школе тоже супов не было. Только картошка и лапша с котлетой или рыбой. И всегда были каши и очень сладкий и некрепкий чай. Иногда компот.
Тоже 90-е гг, дальнее ЗаМКАДье =))

[anna-sollanna.livejournal.com]

I don't like yoghurts like greek one, they are too fatty IMHO. My favourites are ones somewhere in the middle between greek and drinkable ones, with lots of fruit pieces inside.
Yes, a Soviet school was closer to a military bootcamp, not to a western school.
About our chores. Well, they varied from school to school, but usually they were to wash the classroom's blackboard and to sweep and wash the classroom's floor. Usually two pupils had to stay to do this. Can you imagine tired (after all the lessons) and hungry (because the lunch had been long ago) children who had no ability to change into clothes suitable for dirty work, lifting up bulky chairs onto tables (and standing them down after), bringing heavy buckets with cold(!) water, washing the floor manually, with no mops but with coarse floor cloth? And each a pupil had to do this at least once in three weeks.
I heard about Soviet schools where all the chores consisted only of washing a blackboard, but these were rare exceptions. The cases when pupils had not to lift up chairs, but to take them and tables away to a corridor before washing and then carry them back, or to wash not only classrooms but also corridors, were more widespread. And periodically we had to clean not only our classrooms but school's area also, to remove leaves in autumn and so on...
And all of this was done just to "train" pupils to labour. There were common cleaners, who washed the floor of staff rooms and so forth, but there was no ability for pupils or their parents to decide whether they want their children to have such a toil or whether they are ready to pay additional money for common cleaners to do this washing duty instead of children.
There were also such minor duties like to stand in corridors during breaks and to check that pupils behave themselves (and to reprimand them if the don't), in fact they "stole" our private time of breaks. But they were approximately once a semester and in comparison with floor washing they were almost unnoticeable.

Несъедобные обеды американских школьников

[livejournal.livejournal.com]

User mastergambs referenced to your post from Несъедобные обеды американских школьников (http://mastergambs.livejournal.com/257139.html) saying: [...] трудно, это собакам давать жестоко. Оригинал взят у в Несъедобные обеды американских школьников [...]

[nesseressi.livejournal.com]

As far as soup, it is just believed by many people that soup is a must have in lunch (обед) for health reasons, that is why people make a big deal of picture of lunch without it. That and stereotype that Americans eat only fast food (hamburgers and pizzas and such)..

[peacetraveler22.livejournal.com]

The stereotype is 100% wrong.

[nesseressi.livejournal.com]

I know, I live in US for a while now. And it's for both stereotypes, about must haveness of soup for lunch and about American food.

[evgeniykoval.livejournal.com]

я слава богу учился в частной школе (правда это было очень давно), у нас были прекрасные обеды.. Конечно на завтрак иногда давали молочную кашу, а я терпеть не могу молоко.

Про сейчас ничего не могу сказать... но вот проблема в американских школах, там не дают супы, всё основано на мучном.

[peacetraveler22.livejournal.com]

It is not true. In American schools, there is soup. And even salad! :))

[evgeniykoval.livejournal.com]

okay )

[snowy-owl-1.livejournal.com]

Hi) During my school days we usually eat nothing. We have dining halls, of course,but eating dinner (or lunch, i'm always confused with american name of repast =)) was considered to be indecent, not cool XD Cool was to snack chocolate bar, or little pie or something else. Soup, mush and coutletes was not tasty, and it was usually eaten by poоr pupil's (dinner was free for them), so it concidered like "sucks".
In High school, when we had a lot of additional lesson and spent in the school all day, we went out in city cafeterias during dinner break.

[snowy-owl-1.livejournal.com]

The same things. Та же фигня)

[peacetraveler22.livejournal.com]

Hi! Thanks! :) In America, "lunch" is what we eat in the afternoon. "Dinner" (also called "supper") is the last meal of the day. :)

[ggreminder.livejournal.com]

I also find Greek serving to be the most tasty and healthy but I have to disagree (or to make a correction) about Ukrainian one.
My daughter goes to the primary school in a big (1.5 million people) city. Food in other areas, depending on various factors, may be different. I think there's no strict menu for all schools in the country.
I have noticed that meals are prepared with a) less expensive products, b) with the products that cannot go bad fast.
Thus, "omelet" served in Ukrainian school canteen does not contain eggs, meat is usually boiled rather than fried, semolina or buckwheat is prepared in boiling water rather than milk. Other inexpensive groats/mixes are used. Pasta and rice are also common. Pancakes and oladyi ("fritters" is not an exact match) can be served but I don't know what they are made of.
My daughter returns from school early so I don't know much about the second meal (~2PM).

[peacetraveler22.livejournal.com]

Hi, thanks for the info! I love Greek yogurt. :)

[323mersy.livejournal.com]

I believe in a modern world it is possible to get the food LOOKS LIKE the same in different countries, but this food will be with different in quantity of nutritious and have different texture (because of growing techniques) for the proper digesting, what is much more important than the appearance.
For example, Shannon, you wrote that Ukrainian lunch looks like the same for you, but I am sure that Ukrainian potatoes consist less nitrates and pesticides (at least in Soviet time, now they use "international"/American technology in growing). They add real butter into mush potatoes without palm oil addition (very bad for digesting), like Americans demand. It was a real story when USA returned an installment of Ukrainian butter because it consist just butter without palm oil addition. "It is so good for American people" :). USA food standards are really lower than standards of developed countries and some Eastern European ones.
It is impossible to cook the same "borsch" in USA because of lack of quality ingredients . Soup in USA also is more "creamy" not because of adding cream or yolk but because of flour (very reachy soup :))
In USA lunch box we see typical meat or fish cooked in grease with bread crumbles, in Ukraine (and all over the Europe) it usually sauted. ...and much much more "nuances".

I see now some American people struggle for the natural food very hard. I also try to grow my food, but the waste of constant chemtrails, strange fall-outs, "hybrid" seeds, propaganda, laws, ... do not make this struggle equal. But we hope... ,at least, because of our children.

[peacetraveler22.livejournal.com]

Do you live in the USA? Where do you get your information about our food? Yes, there's processed foods, but it's very easy to find organic foods in every grocery store if you're anal about what you put in your mouth. Come visit, you will see for yourself. :)

[323mersy.livejournal.com]

Yes, still live in USA. This information about food tell me my stomach, my experience, my Italian, Brazilian, Bulgarian .... friends, who had experience growing food in USA and in their countries and also can compare :), We have great educational center in Concord,MA, for example. Some information it is possible to find in internet.

To find food with printed words "organic food" is more than easy :), I am agree with you.
Shannon, there is no such thing as "non-organic food" , all food should be organic or it is not the food.
There is no such thing as "gluten-free" bread, if it is not a bread etc.

It is pity that you do not want to learn the real thing (which is business not of one day or some posts) but continue writing and rewriting propaganda from one post to another.

[peacetraveler22.livejournal.com]

I don't give a shit about processed foods. I am not anal about this topic, and am mostly eating a vegetarian and chicken diet. Propaganda every post? Very amusing. :))

[323mersy.livejournal.com]

May be you do not realize it, but from topic to topic about food you try to say how much healthy food it is possible to find in American shops, and it is even written "organic!" :)

[peacetraveler22.livejournal.com]

So, what is your claim? That you can't buy foods in the U.S. which are pesticide or hormone free? Because this is a lie. And many people grow their own vegetables and fruits, esp. on the West Coast. In what State do you live?