For perspective: I come from a country where “cafeteria” food at school is good and affordable (most is less than the equivalent of 5-10 USD max and it’s not slop, it’s actual food), but it’s not an obligation for everyone since it’s up to the student if they want to buy something or bring their own lunch.
The “cafeteria” in my school isn’t a typical American one, rather it’s closer to a canteen where they sell food you can purchase from cup noodles, fried stuff, sandwiches, baked goods, etc. also appliances like a kettle or microwave are available in the dining hall for students to heat up left overs if they wanted.
The thing I tend to notice from American schools (according to US movies, there’s bias whether it’s true or false) is that they tend to depict kids always heading for the cafeteria for recess or lunch picking up whats available instead of bringing their own food from home (left overs from dinner), why is that the case?
(GenX) when I was in school, the cafeteria food was trash: square pizza and fries were the constant staples, then a small rotation of things like burgers or chicken nuggets. The “fruit” was canned “fruit cocktail” in heavy syrup.
To a kid, that shit’s awesome. To my mom, it was horrific. So she went through all the effort of packing a healthy lunch every day. Lots of kids didn’t have that luxury, as other comments have addressed.
Due to the divide, I got mocked for my nutritious meal (think of that one scene in The Breakfast Club). This often ended with me bartering for some of that trash food or purchasing cafeteria food with my own allowance and the lunch my mom made was often wasted. I’m so ashamed of that.
and wedge fries, that has somewhat cold. it was sitll like that in the early 2000s.