Food in American high schools

[Mumbling]

Hey all,

I'm writing an essay for English in which I compare Dutch and American highschools. Hope you can help me out

Since there are a lot of americans on this forum and I need it for english, can you guys explain to me how food is/was in your highschool?

Things like.. did you take your own lunch, or did it get served every day... Can you choose what meal you want?

Any vegetables?

I've asked several people about this already.

One of them said they had a lot of meat products, but he had to leave before he could explain any further.

Another person said they can take lunch with them or order in advance, but that is way overpriced. They also have microwaves in his school. Also he got vending machines with doughnuts and poptarts. He also mentioned that they usually give discount to the poorer people.

Kacie also helped me out and explained that she could choose whether to bring it or to get some at school.

You guys got anything special about your highschool?

[Malte279]

Now here is just the former exchange student talking. However, at Lafayette Highschool in Red Lake Falls / Minnesota you got lunch served at school. The menu there repeated the same dishes time and again, but with so long gaps between two times the same dish that I never felt any lack of alteration. Altogether I think the food served there was more tasty than healthy. There was no salad to be served along with the main meal, but sometimes the dishes themselves included salad e.g. in case of the taco wrap. Other dishes included Pizza, Spagetthi Bolognese, Corndogs... I don't remember the other dishes (of course there were more than that) right now, but if I do I'll let you know.

[Cancerian Tiger]

It's been a few years, but when I was in high school we had the option of bringing our own lunches or ordering food.  Honestly, the food was anything but healthy, and I sadly happened to be a junk food junkie in my teen years which I later came to regret with my waistline (fortunately I've turned things around since ).  We had pizza, greasy breadsticks with ranch dressing, ice cream, chicken nuggets, fried chicken strips, chili cheese fries, french fries, big chocolate chip cookies, chips of all kinds, 2% milk, and soda.  Just reading over those items makes me wanna vomit .  It embarrasses me to think I had stopped taking the time to make a healthy lunch and resorted to that garbage .  I saw many students' waistines expand during my high school years, and I think the lunch items played a huge factor :blink:.

[Mumbling]

Thanks both of you, this input really helps!

[landbeforetimelover]

I'd rather starve through the school day than eat the school lunches.  The chicken tastes like rubber off an old tire, the pizza tastes like a dirty feet with spaghetti sauce, and the burgers have hard nasty things in 'em that you can't even chew.  They're like $4.25 too!  I just bring some crackers and water and spend my lunch time in the library on my laptop.  As for the school offering any sort of vegetables, not really.  The lunchtime is 30 minutes, but in reality it's like 10 because it includes two 5 minute passing periods and the ten minutes spent getting through the frickin' line.  A lot of the time I do just starve through school, as eating food is forbidden outside of the smelly lunch room and I have to sneak the damn crackers.  School is a s*** hole.  There's NOTHING good about it.  I can't wait till June when I'll finally be out of there.

[Serris]

Really, school lunches are actually fairly cheap.

$5.00 per meal (high school) vs. $8.00+ per meal (office complex where I trained for my EMT certification).

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My school actually had a private company for their meals.

They offered made-to-order sandwiches, salad bar (most of the time it was disgusting but their mozzarella and tomato salad is very good), fresh soups, tea that you brewed yourself and pretty good hot lunches.

They even did an experiment and served sushi (eel rolls and California rolls). The sushi was very good (apparently it was made fresh and trucked in from NYC on the day they served) but the experiment was canceled after 1 month as no one (aside from me) bought sushi.

Their food was actually fairly healthy and it tasted quite good too. Of course, their most popular items were the classic unhealthy school lunch fare, which I rarely ate.

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As for eating outside the cafeteria, some times you had no choice but to do so (due to double lab periods). And frankly, I was rather hesitant to eat my lunch in the CHEMISTRY lab.

And going without food is NOT an option as I will start falling into something that is best described as "between unconsciousness and consciousness".

[landbeforetimelover]

I should mention that the food in my old school back in Washington was actually pretty good.  On top of that, it was only $2.75.  The school was a hell of a lot better too.  I'm in the #1 high school in Minnesota and it totally sucks!  It matches Minnesota perfectly.

[pokeplayer984]

I don't blame any kid who goes and takes the money their parents gave them for lunch and goes off to get a bite at a fast-food joint.  Or even better, bring their own lunch.

The reason is because the food my high school served just sucked.  What's even worse was that you couldn't afford a good meal. ($4.00?  Back then it was tough for parents to give their kid $2.50 a day.  I had to rely on just $2.00 when I decided to order lunch.) Calazones were probably the ONLY good food they served and those sure didn't last long.  Plus that's all I could afford to eat.  No drink or anything else.

There were vending machines with Lunchables in them, but you had a hard time getting the meals out.  Basically, you would have to put the money in and then open the sliding door to the meal you wanted, and they were VERY difficult to open.  Most of the time, you just ended up wasting your money. (Oh and did I mention you needed EXACT change?  Yeah, that sucked too.)

I spent my Junior year pretty much eating a home-made meal.  It was mainly due to the fact that I had a class that was at another place and had to take the bus to get there, which came during lunch time.  So I seriously had NO time to wait in line for a meal.

I didn't go out to eat during lunch until my Senior year.  I had gone to the nearby bowling alley and they had good meals there.  Sure it was only stuff like hot dogs and sandwiches, but they tasted much better than the crap my school served.  Plus, you could actually afford it.  It cost less than the $2.00 I was given for money and it was great.

The idea to eat out during lunch has grown in popularity at the school I went to since I graduated from it.  On my off days I drive by there and I see plenty of kids (probably half the school if I had to guess) going out to the Carl's Jr or McDonalds nearby.  All because it tastes so much better. (I've actually tried Carl's Jr.  I can't complain about the taste.)

If this keeps growing, maybe it'll give the school the idea to actually serve something good for a change.  Not to mention make it affordable.  It would be worth it.

[landbeforetimelover]

Wendy's McDonalds, and Burger King all server $1 burgers.  A HUGE drink is usually only $1 too.  I'd much rather have three burgers and a drink than a nasty ass old tire for lunch, thank you very much!  They're ripping people off like you wouldn't believe.  To top that, they're thinking of restricting kids from going off campus to eat so they can be sure to force everyone there to pay 'em the $4.25!

[Cancerian Tiger]

It appears that more and more schools are eliminating gym class AND recess, yet they're not willing to help fight the obesity epidemic and give these kids food that will actually keep them healthy.  If the schools are gonna make the poor things sit on their a**es for six to seven hours a day, they need to change the amount of calories and fat the kids are being fed .

[Petrie.]

My two cents to give you relevant data.

I haven't been in high school for eight years now so perhaps my version of "school lunch" has changed.

Price - $2.00 or less, depending on if you buy any extras like cookies or pastries; basic lunch was $1.55 if my memory serves me correctly, and I paid for my own lunches with money I earned doing my paper route. Depending on family income, you could get lunch for $.25 or for free if you're family is really dirt poor.  A lot of students were on that plan.

Food - Food was ok.  Nothing spectacular, but it wasn't bottom of the barrel either.  Perhaps not the healthiest stuff, but my school did have side salads you could get and I was always buying skim (fat-free) milk.  We could've gotten stuff like pretzels, nachos, or bagels from the snack bar.  You couldn't go off campus to eat so you either brought lunch or bought lunch.

Currently at the school I work at, I would honestly not buy lunch and would bring lunch given the choice.  That's pretty much what I currently do and just eat in my classroom with students that cannot tolerate the noisy cafeteria environment.  Saves a lot of money not buying lunch every day.

[Malte279]

As for the cost of the school lunch where I was I am not even sure. There was a school fee which included the costs of the lunch, so one did not have to cough up the money every day but just got a tray filled.
Like I said I don't think the food would have gained five stars for being healthy, but I must also say I found it quite tasty.

[tempestwheel]

Some of the things in my school cafeteria:

Price: $2.00 (Unless you buy something not on the main course)
Typical dishes: Chicken Burgers, Cheese Burgers, Mashed Potatoes, various pastas, waffles, soups, pizza chicken nuggets, fish burgers, quesadillas

[raga]

Its been a good year now but I remember high school lunch.  You could bring lunch with you but the cafeteria was open from 1st period till the end of 7th period, although some friends who are still their say it now remains open until half an hour after school ended.  When I was a freshmen the food was horrible for you, but absolutely delicious.  Oh how I miss those french fries.... .  Starting in my sophomore year our school adopted what is called the Wellness policy, I'm not sure if they were forced to by law or not.  Essential all kinds of limits on things like calories, fat, sodium, ect. were put in place.  All kinds of bread were replaced with whole wheat (including burger buns and even pizza), a salad bar was added, things like that.  Essentially offering a healthier variety of foods.  There is a decent selection, they have burgers, pizza, calzones, certain pre-made sandwiches, and of course the salad bar.  Everyday there was a special lunch that rotated on a regular basis.  Also they had a mini-deli style thing where you could get sandwiches or wraps made to order.  There was also a variety of snacks such as cookies, some ice cream, pretzels, fruit smoothies, all of it usually of the low fat variety.  Hope that helped!

Edit: Oh, and as for price, it varied but most of the food was cheaper then you would find it outside of school.  Maybe 10%-20% cheaper then an equivalent item in the real world.

[F-14 Ace]

It has been quite a long time since I ate lunch from a school lunchroom but I do remember that my old elementary school made great lunches.  Then again, that was years ago and I'm sure things have changed since then.  Sure it wasn't all healthy but it was good.  The lunchroom pizza was not only edible, it was actually enjoyable.  The green beans were good, the rice and chili was good, the lima beans and corn was good, and there was usually something good like pie slices for desert.  That is all I remember because that is all i ever got in the lunchroom.  Dang, I miss the good ol' days.