My elementary and middle schools didn't serve a lunch every day. There was no cafeteria lady. There was no cafeteria. Our gym had a bunch of tables that folded out of the wall. There was a small kitchen attached, but it was never used, indicating that lunch may have been served at the schools at some point (built around the 1960s). My mom packed me a lunch. They provided a small carton of milk, but I think your parents had to pay for it at the start of the year. There was a program for impoverished kids to get a bagged lunch provided. There was another program where they offered a catered fast food lunch like twice a month, but your parents also needed to pay for it at the start of the year. Context: I went to public elementary and middle school in the 2000s in a somewhat wealthy suburb in the American midwest.Cartoons always featured the cafeteria lady like it was some relatable thing, but I never related to it. The local news talked about school lunches (even breakfast), indicating that it even happened near me. I just never really thought about why until now. Is it something that used to be popular and is going away? Is it something that isn't necessary if the poverty rate in the district is so low? I talk to some people my age now, and they think it's weird that I didn't get school lunch. I don't want this to be a datamining thread, but context from your own experience would help.
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>>21777810Do you yourself have school aged kids? Y/N Are you also poor and also live in a poor neighborhood adjacent? Title I provides lunches for all (and breakfast too if you haul your kids out of bed early enough), once the school is like 60% or greater below the poverty line, everyone is free. They also pay for food over the summers with boxed lunches on food trucks. Whatever comfy nostalgia you might want to have is silly. Cafeteria lines are annoying. Chipotle-it-is-not. Parents who care for their children pack their lunches at home. Back in my day [insert music] the extremely powerful PTA parent-teacher association at my public, but wealthy, school operated 2 additional lunch options for $1, a full fledged loaded salad bar w/fresh pitas and homemade dressings manned by soccer moms, and a BBQ grill on the patio for dogs, sausages and burgers, etc, alternating with other random good things like falafel day. They sold bakery items in the AM for $1, such a fresh bagels or croissants from a local bakery. This was their nod to the fact that cafeteria food is bleh and not gourmet enough. My elementary proverbial lunch ladies (southern black grandma types who called us all by name) bought from the farmer's markets by the bushel, put butter and ham hocks in all the veggies, and made amazing homemade rolls or cornbread daily. Nothing wasn't delicious, but the rest of the schools used microwaved frozen crap like square pizzas, which is more likely the norm even today.
Horse meat is excellent, another fail for the Simple-sons!
not reading all that
>>21777810I went to a small Catholic elementary school with no cafeteria, but when I was in public high school, we had two cafeterias each with the meal of the day and a snack bar. The lunches weren't terrible but they were processed. Pasta day and "rib tickler" day were the most popular. Don't actually recall pizza being served that often as is usually stereotyped... Suburban Chicagoland by the way.
>>21777810I live in canada but in my area I think the availability of school lunches and shit is all based on income levels of the school. People I know who went to the poor schools got breakfasty stuff too and they like made the kids brush their teeth and shit in the morning as well. Wereas at my school, which was like middle-middle class, we got literally nothing and all we ate was brought from home.
>>21777810>more testiclesLucky Kids
>>21777810i'm against school lunch programs because i don't think we should be giving blacks and browns any more free food. they get enough hand-outs as it is
>>2177781036. Grew up in Northern Virginia. I wasn't aware there were public schools that didn't have cafeterias. My mother used to assist at a Montessori school with their foreign language instruction and they didn't have a cafeteria, but there was like 30 kids in the whole school so I can understand why they didn't have one.
>>21777810worked as cafeteria lady ama
>>21777810I had both "free" breakfast and lunch while in elementary school, and just lunch for middle school. I took my own lunch in high school, though they did have a cafeteria. Cartons of milk, freezer tier foods basically, essentially what I know recognize as military chow. Everything I got served in a chow hall in the military was approximately equivalent to what I got as a kid in elementary and middle. Which when Max showed that they yoinked military menus, it made a bunch of sense:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40MvjFaTVzEhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cBhi_7c4toSo yeah, totally got to experience that both in school AND in the military. It's chow that sucks in taste but gets the job done as fuel. Funnily enough, chow in the army didn't bother me at all like it seemed to bother other people. I guess I was used to it all.
>>21777810>somewhat wealthy suburb in the American midwestProbably why you didn't see one. Everyone was too wealthy so you didn't need the assisted lunch program very much and it was cheaper to get those vac packed cold lunch trays from a supplier. I've eaten those things on occasion on trips, they are a special kind of hell of shitty food. Don't worry, you didn't miss out on much, it was a shitty experience. Since you are talking post 2000s, with all the new diet and allergy shit taking over, schools have gotten real weird with the zoomers. It's hard to tell what is real retardation in the news from clickbait made up ragebait. I've not set foot in a school in a LONG time.
>>21777810you went to a private school dumbass
