Offtopic: How does school lunch look around the world?

[dreamville-bg.livejournal.com]

A chain of restaurants called Sweetgarden has made a research on the question, and has come up with a series of photos of the typical school lunch that's being served in various countries around the world. The idea is generally to have healthy food for the kids, which takes into account the food habits of the particular nationalities. Personally, I'd love to have a diverse diet that could maybe include one of these for each day of the month.

















Etc.

Comments

[airiefairie.livejournal.com]

Almost all of them look extremely delicious and healthy. Almost. =)

[nairiporter.livejournal.com]

Reminds me of this (http://time.com/8515/hungry-planet-what-the-world-eats/).

[policraticus.livejournal.com]

FWIW, I remember reading that these were prepared by chefs from the written menu standards offered by various schools, not images taken of the actual school lunches. Let's see a real time image of each of these, as served to the students. Then we can make an honest comparison. Cause, I can tell you from experience, any one of those lunches can be as delicious as it looks, or it can be dog food on a plate, depending on how carefully and artfully it is prepared.

[dreamville-bg.livejournal.com]

The way I see this, the idea of these photos is to summarize what the diet of these nations generally includes.

[policraticus.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I get that. I just call bullshit. Not on you, on the photos. They are idealized stereotypes of each countries "traditional" foods. Except when you get to the American one, which is, of course, styled to be as uncool and "processed" as possible.

Look at the Spanish example, paella, gazpacho, Valencia orange, pimientos... bullshit.

The Greek one, dolmas, yogurt with pomegranates, fresh apricots, artfully presented with their stems, orzo with chicken (?) or feta (?), tomatoes and cucumbers... bullshit.

The Brazilian, pigeon peas and rice, caramelized roasted sweet potato, fresh kale salad with corn and tomato.., bullshit.

The French, roast beef with carrots, haricots verts, Camembert and fruit... bullshit!

I'm not saying these aren't things eaten in various other cultures, I'm just objecting to the implication that this is how children actually eat on a day to day basis in an institutional setting. No one eats like this. Most people, in most places, most of the time, eat shit food, poorly prepared, at the lowest cost possible. A that is from a man whose job is to sell good food, expertly prepared, at the highest cost possible. This is a fantasy wish fulfillment for people who wish they could get their kids to like kale salads and dolmas and paella. I'd love to see what these kids actually eat, what they toss in the trash, what they laugh at, etc.

[dreamville-bg.livejournal.com]

You seem confident in what you're saying. Have you actually been to a school in any of those countries?

[luvdovz.livejournal.com]

Well, my turn to call bullshit (http://www.eufic.org/article/en/artid/School-lunch-standards-in-Europe/) on the stuff you're pulling out of your ass.

For someone who claims to be professionally involved in the food industry, you seem to know little to nothing about food standards around the world.

[abomvubuso.livejournal.com]

Just don't tell them about the lutefisk!

[luvdovz.livejournal.com]

But, but... It tastes better than it looks!

[policraticus.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, it looks so bad that saying "it tastes better than it looks" is really not much of a recommendation.

Honestly, it was the smell more than the look or the taste that got to me.

[ddstory.livejournal.com]

Never heard of that thing being served in schools. And neither are lamb's testicles.

[luzribeiro.livejournal.com]

Oh, he's just jealous that you Nordskis are so slim and carved.

[luvdovz.livejournal.com]

[dreamville-bg.livejournal.com]

Haha!

[luzribeiro.livejournal.com]

Pretty much.

[airiefairie.livejournal.com]

It must be hard to believe that there are places where schoolchildren eat actual food at lunch.

[policraticus.livejournal.com]

Again, written standards are one thing, actual food served in actual cafeterias to real students is something else and will generally fall short of the ideal. The US FDA has awesome goals and standards for school lunches, too, you know. http://www.fns.usda.gov/school-meals/nutrition-standards-school-meals If having awesome standards was all it took to feed hungry 3rd graders then they'd all be eating dolmas and paella with fresh fruit and multi grain rolls. But its not. As someone noted down the thread, Greek schools are now so strapped for cash that they no longer serve lunch at all and Greek children are going hungry in record numbers.

[luvdovz.livejournal.com]

I don't know how it's like in your place, but here, written standards are followed in practice.

[policraticus.livejournal.com]

DQ? Cause that is some funny stuff.

[luvdovz.livejournal.com]

That's cool, ya know. So when was the last time you visited a Swedish school?

[policraticus.livejournal.com]

You think "written standards are followed in practice" is the same thing as "the food is healthy, delicious and satisfying?"

When was the last time you visited reality?

I have no doubt that there are excellent meals served in Swedish schools, but there are also excellent meals served in US schools. Just like some lunches in Swedish schools are inedible as anything served in a US school. This has very little to do with standards and written policies, it has to do with how thoughtfully the menu planned and carefully the food is prepared. Because if you give me almost any set of standards, X-many calories, Y-many grams of fat, sugar, sodium, etc, I can produce you two lunches, one which will be eagerly devoured and one that will be slid unceremoniously into the trash can.

[luvdovz.livejournal.com]

Eagerly devoured =/= healthy. Reference: anything in the McDonalds menu. That said, you're of course welcome to give another try at deflection.

[policraticus.livejournal.com]

I stipulated that each dish would follow the guidelines, so try again. I deflect your deflection deflection with another deflection.

That being said, how is "healthy and uneaten" better than "unhealthy and eaten." A Happy Meal at least satisfies a child's hunger. A macrobiotic kale salad with tofu and rutabaga chips that is pushed around the plate and then tossed in the garbage does nothing but produce worse habits later in the day.

Schools in the US have found this out when they started noticing that the "healthy" foods were going uneaten and children were bringing snacks to school to supplement school lunches they found unpalatable. Teachers found that students complained of hunger after lunch because many of them were unwilling to eat their prescribed healthy food or found the new healthy portions unsatisfying. That isn't because healthy food in by its nature unpalatable or unsatisfying. Not at all. It is because lunchrooms were preparing foods that children did not want to eat in ways that did not inspire appetites or palates. Lunch rooms were prepping too much by the bureaucratic standards and forgetting that ultimately school lunches should still be cooking, not just a vehicle for prescribed amounts of protein, calcium and nutrients.

[luvdovz.livejournal.com]

A macrobiotic kale salad with tofu and rutabaga chips

Hyperbole noted.

As is your extremely Americentric take on the matter.

[garote]

Yeah, surprise surprise.

Of course it's an "americentric take". The American lunch is the whole point of the slideshow.

The slideshow was constructed in a disingenuous manner to shit on American lunches as a marketing gimmick - for an american restaurant chain, no less - and now here you are shitting on the American who comes in to earnestly defend himself, when this American marketing material is being trumpeted as evidence of the quality of actual school lunches elsewhere in the world. Who is the one leaning on the "Americentric take" here??

"When was the last time you visited a Swedish school?" The creators of that slide show never visited a Swedish school.

If you have some nice direct evidence of Swedish lunches along with some real statistics, to form an actual basis for argument (which is currently, conspicuously, missing) it would certainly be more helpful than throwing around the word "deflection" like a pot lecturing a kettle.

[luvdovz.livejournal.com]

The creators of that slide show never visited a Swedish school.

Well, *I have*. And the notion that eating junk food is perfectly OK as long as it's convenient and "attractive" for eating, is considered bullshit there. So you can argue that it's an ad gimmick all you want, but the fact is, there *are* places around the world where eating healthy *and* eatable food in schools has been turned into practice, rather than a nice idealized utopia.

Evidence, you say? Very well (http://www2.varberg.se/download/18.ee3fb6d14300e770a9dd3/1388739558987/Riktlinjer+f%C3%B6r+mat+och+m%C3%A5ltider+inom+skola+och+f%C3%B6rskola.pdf). Be my guest (http://www.livsmedelsverket.se/matvanor-halsa--miljo/maltider-i-vard-skola-och-omsorg/skola/). Suit yourself (http://www.molndal.se/medborgare/utbildningochbarnomsorg/matsedel/mateniskolan.4.47315bb7131d8f123cf80008490.html).

[garote]

LISA! IN THIS HOUSE WE OBEY THE LAWS OF PHYSICS!!!

[abomvubuso.livejournal.com]

Most people, in most places, most of the time, eat shit food, poorly prepared, at the lowest cost possible

Spoken like a true American. Aw hell yeah!

[policraticus.livejournal.com]

No, spoken like a realist.

[garote]

WTF, yo. Have you ever been to India??!??!

[abomvubuso.livejournal.com]

One to Goa, once. Does that count?

[ddstory.livejournal.com]

Just by uttering "bullshit" repetitively, that does not make your "truthiness"-induced assertion any less erroneous.

[policraticus.livejournal.com]

Except is it clearly not erroneous. These images are not representative of what is actually served in these school systems. They are idealized and are designed as advertising to sell a restaurant chain's http://sweetgreen.com/ various products including (quelle suprise!!) nutrition classes for children! http://sweetgreen.com/community/

[telemann.livejournal.com]

The photos have generated a bit of buzz. As you noted, they're not actual school lunches and are pretty simplistic of a complicated situation. And others have noted, they staged and they're not really representative of what those countries serve. Mother Jones in its article "What's French for Chicken Nuggets: the truth about school lunches around the world," (http://www.motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2015/02/school-lunch-around-the-world-photos)Real school-food blogger Bettina Elias Siegel (http://www.thelunchtray.com/about-bettina/)points out,

Most egregiously, the Greece photo portrays a robust lunch featuring chicken over whole grains with yogurt, pomegranate seeds, a salad, and fresh citrus. [I think there are two stuffed grape leaves as well?] Siegel provides a reality check: Debt-plagued Greece doesn't have the resources to provide much of anything to eat for its school kids. She points to a 2013 New York Times piece reporting that Greek schools (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/18/world/europe/more-children-in-greece-start-to-go-hungry.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0) "do not offer subsidized cafeteria lunches. Students bring their own food or buy items from a canteen. The cost has become insurmountable for some families with little or no income."

And here's one of an French lunch Siegel found on the What's for School Lunch? blog, where "real people around the world submit their actual photos of school meals."



There's no reason to assume all French lunches consist of chicken nuggets and well, French fries—but there's no reason to believe that Sweetgreen's idealized version is representative, either. She adds that some US school districts do magical things with their minuscule budgets. Besides, even in France, where schools typically have twice as much to spend on ingredients per meal, lunches in some cases can look pretty, well, American.

[policraticus.livejournal.com]

Thank you for doing the research I was too lazy to do. I think the Mother Jones article was the one I read, ages ago. Also, as a food professional, I know what is possible and what is practical when it comes to feeding large numbers of rampaging godless barbarians school children on a microscopic budget. The pictures tell a "just so" story that pats the bien pensants on the head while kicking America as being, once again, stupid, backward and tasteless. It is just too good to be true. America may well be stupid, backward and tasteless, but I think we have more company in this regard than is generally believed. It is the common currency of humanity.

The other thing that people aren't willing to look at is the choices school kids make when presented with a menu. Our daughter generally has at least three or four main courses to choose from for lunch that range from obviously pandering the kids (corn dog, chicken nuggets) to obviously pandering to mom and dad (tuna steak wrap, veggie chili), and sides that include fresh fruit, veggies and salad. A school lunch could look super fresh and healthy, if the student chooses some of the super healthy stuff. However, kids are kids. How many of us, educated, enlightened adults will voluntarily choose "what is good for us" and not the crap that we actually like? Absent a doctor's order or the specter of involuntary celibacy how many people have the courage of their convictions to say, "No corn dog and fries for me, thanks! I'll have some of that nicely steamed broccoli, the brown rice and these celery sticks. Chocolate cake? No thanks, this sugar-free fruit bar and a no-fat yogurt will do nicely."

http://whatsforschoollunch.blogspot.com/ has some cool stuff on it, including realistic American lunches that look pretty good, especially compared to what I remember.