Lunchtime in the cafeteria - yay or nay?

[Heidi]

I love that Michelle Obama's (Jamie Oliver, too!) taken the bull by the horns and started discussion about this issue, specifically teaching our children about eating healthy and making healthy choices.

Part two of a two part series on school cafeteria lunches:

A national look at school lunches

I know that most of the time, while in high school, I would pass on the school lunches because they looked unappetizing, smelled bad, and seemed entirely too greasy. About the only thing I'd ever order from the cafeteria were the homemade wheat rolls. I had my mother buy sandwich making stuff and pretzels or chips or dry cereal and fresh fruit and veggies so I could have a healthier meal. Even back then, I knew better than to eat what they were serving.

Now I'll occasion on the cafeteria meals, especially the grilled tilapia - the hospital actually has a pretty decent chef who plans tasty healthy meals and veggies... all for under $5. It's still not the $1 meal that's being served to children, but not a bad deal.

So what about you? Did you eat cafeteria lunches at your school? Would you now? What are your thoughts on this?

[RandomAnthony]

This is an interesting question. My grade school cafeteria didn't make lunch...it was a small Catholic school. We either brought our own or went home. I don't think I went in any of my high school cafeterias more than a few times and I rarely bought anything.

Our university's cafeteria is pretty gross but they're trying to improve. Still, I feel like anything I eat there makes me feel like I have to burp the rest of the day. Yes, ours is pretty much all you can eat for a little over four bucks for people who work there.

My oldest son eats the cafeteria lunch at his middle school pretty much every day. I think he eats pretty crappy, but he eats ok the rest of the time, so I don't make a big deal of it.

[Heidi]

BunWat wrote: "I have had some horror shows of cafeteria lunches. The worst I remember was in England where I had shepherds pie with chips and a dessert of sponge and custard.

For those who do not know, sheph..."

Bun, the two stand out lunches that grossed me out: "hamburger" pizza - looked like cardboard with a sheet of white plastic melted over boogers... and was often served with corn. The serving of corn was about 1/8 cup corn, 1/4 cup salty water... that would spill over and make the pizza soggy. Wouldn't touch it.

The other one that grossed me out was the chicken fried steak - looked like deep fried tire tread. The steak fingers weren't much better looking. I don't even remember what they served with it - I'd close my eyes while standing in the line on the CFS or booger pizza days... waiting just to get a carton of milk.

We were never allowed to leave the campus for lunch... this was the rule at all of the schools I attended. Apparently classes that came and went before us ruined the privilege for anyone after them. That sucked.

[[deleted user]]

I always ate the cafeteria lunches while in school, now I take my lunch every day.

[Rebecca]

I usually ate school lunches. The only thing I remember really not liking was that in elementary school they gave us Uncle Ben's Converted Rice and I got to the point of really hating it. Mind you, it was never mixed with anything. It was just plain rice as a side dish. I guess the benefit to Uncle Ben's is that it's hard to screw up and you can let it sit awhile, unlike real rice, but I just get so turned off by chain restaurants who use it as a shortcut (Applebee's, I'm talking about you!)

I substitute teach now,and kids still get that wierd mix of things that ought never to go together, and french fries counting as a vegetable and all that sort of thing. I have eaten the occasional school lunch, and it's MUCH worse than ours were. It's all microwaved shit, unless it's in a can or box. They bring in pizza from Papa John's and it's still horrible. We had fantastic pizza in high school!

[Stacia (the 2010 club)]

I went to a small private school for elementary, so we only had hot dog wednesday, which I was able to purchase every week because it was like a buck fifty for a hot dog, chips and a drink. The rest of the week was the very basic peanut butter and jelly sandwich, chips and milk type of lunch.

In junior high I got 2 dollars for lunch and would buy an ice cream for 75 cents and pocket the rest for the mall on weekends.

In high school I ate off campus for the first half until I moved to a district that only had closed campus lunch, which sucked. About the only good thing on their menu was this mexican pizza thing that was the size of an english muffin, so I got that every day. I was way too lazy to pack a lunch in high school.

[Lobstergirl, el principe]

In elementary school, which was public, I think you could either bring your lunch or eat cafeteria food. I remember doing both. The cafeteria food was pretty bad. I remember square pieces of pizza on flabby undercooked crust. You could buy either regular or chocolate milk, and fudgesicles for dessert.

I switched to private school from 7th-12th grade, but the food wasn't a whole lot better. If you didn't want the hot meal they were serving, there was a peanut butter and jelly sandwich bar. A lot of kids left campus to eat at fast food places, but my parents would've never approved of that since we were already paying for lunches as part of our tuition.

[[deleted user]]

I always had a packed lunch. Oh wait, I still do.

[Félix]

That lunch must be getting a bit ripe by now.

[[deleted user]]

Hardy hardy har.

[Dr. Detroit]

We usually adjourned to the parking lot during lunch in high school.

[Sarah]

My primary schools didn't have cafeterias. My high school did, but I packed lunch all the way through. Sometimes "packed lunch" meant went to the corner store and bought a giant chocolate chip cookie as a meal, but for the most part I brown-bagged it.

The cafeteria in college wasn't bad, but I'm jealous of the choices they have now. Mind you, I wouldn't have eaten some of the good stuff at the time.

[Rachel]

Hah! Wussies.

My school cafeteria, honest to goodness, sold sausages which had actual dead worms in them this year. Nuggets gray on the inside, oh, and did I mention they sold packets of nasi lemak (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasi_lemak) which had pebbles in the rice? Oh yes, I once suffered a bout of diarrhea from a muffin. A MUFFIN.

Of course, they shut the place down after this was reported. For a grand total of about ... 1 day. Then it was opened for business again the next day, up until a few months ago, when they got sacked and new staff were brought in. Cheers!

[Félix]

Ew Rachel.

[[deleted user]]

That's Mr. Wussie to you Rachel.

[Rachel]

Larry wrote: "Ew Rachel."

deleted user wrote: "That's Mr. Wussie to you Rachel."

LOL!