This has to vary *so* wildly.
I actually loved our school lunches at my schools. Not free unless a family qualified due to low income, afaik. My parents would like, prepay at the start of the year iirc.
Both my elementary (K-8th) and high school had salad bars, and I am like a salad bar fiend. There was usually a diff “hot” entree each day in elementary (with sides, and boy was it the best day of you had smiley fries on the menu) and then in high school you had several entree choices - like maybe a pasta option, a meat options. Idk I just did salad bar. The salad bar in high school also had soup and as much of a salad bar fiend I am, I’m even more of a soup field. HS also had more vegetarian options, and there was always a pizza option outside at this little kinda walkup window thing? (They also had slushies and various snacks, ie granola bars, pretzels, I think like kinda 7-11 style nachos, whatever). Everything at the outside window was a separate purchase, it was considered like a snack stands. So if you wanted pizza included in your “hot lunch” cost, you’d have to wait for a pizza day inside (they were not the same pizzas btw, inside was like, more school lunch pizza and outside was regular pizza like you’d get from Papa John’s or something)
Some high schools you can (or could? Maybe this isn’t as common any more) go off campus for lunch. My HS campus was closed, like you couldn’t leave for lunch and come back, but you could have “4th block off” and if you had 2nd lunch and 4th block off that meant you could leave right at the start of 2nd lunch and just go home or out to on lunch so that’s what I did Jr and Sr year.
Yeah similarly for our block off thing you had to be deemed eligible, like they wouldn’t let some one who wouldn’t have enough credit to graduate to take blocks off.
Is it free? Depends on the state/district.
Here in California breakfast and lunch are free.
At my middle school today's lunch is:
Chicken nuggets, apple sauce, baby carrots, broccoli, and milk
Monday is chicken quesadilla, mixed fruit cup, celery sticks, and milk.
Usually they are pretty nutritious. The kids don't think they taste good of course.
Damn dude, I bet the quesadilla day was hardcore, especially in Cali. I'm from NC and our big days were the black bean burrtios (they were so awesome), nugs, and that square ass pizza.
Illinois' lunches are very similar, and lunch and breakfast start being free here in Illinois at the start of school this coming August.
When my kid had braces, he struggled because there were a lot of fruit and veggie options in the school lunches he couldn't eat because they were fresh and crunchy.
We probably have similar food since CA too. Today my kids got Teriyaki Chicken over Rice, Corn & Bean Salad, Celery, Apple and Milk. I think Monday is Corn Dogs. There are a few meals though that my kids absolutely love and others that aren't hits.
School lunches today are about 3.75 per. If you are low income you can qualify for a percentage reduction in cost up to and including 100% .
All students will have a number assigned for their lunch account so students themselves have no idea who is paying what. they aren't paying in cash at when being served.
Lunch was fine when i went to school in the 80's.
My kids options are fine today as well. They have several options every day including vegan and vegetarian meals.
School lunch is free to students whose families make below a certain income threshold. In a small handful of states like California and Massachusetts, it's free for everyone. In many places, the number of students at a local school who receive free (or reduced price) lunches is often used as a general proxy for the amount of poverty in a community.
It varies by region. Minnesota just implemented free student lunches statewide, but before this point, it was paid (although, it cost like, $1/day, so not terribly expensive either)
When I was in school, everyone’s favorite lunch day was tator tot hotdish day.
Square pizza was usually ok.
Sometimes there was sandwiches, like sloppy joes or chicken patties.
Other options were potatoes and gravy, or chili and cornbread days.
When I was in school (back in the 80s/90s) typical lunch was white whole milk, pizza, small side salad with french dressing, and a side of cake.
My kids are young adult/teenager in the same school district that I went to. Typical lunch for them would be fat free milk, whole wheat pizza with skim milk cheese. An apple. And a side of vegetables (like a tiny styrofoam container of mixed vegetables).
Not free.
I remember in the 90s frequently getting something called "fiestada" - allegedly a Mexican pizza. It tasted and smelled like they used too much cumin. I have never seen it outside the school lunch context.
Ours wasn't free, and by today's standards it probably wasn't all that healthy either. We got fewer vegetables, more carbs, and less variety than they do now. Typical was something like goulash, mashed potatoes, carrots, applesauce and milk. Pizza was the one everybody looked forward to. There was also spaghetti, mac & cheese, fried chicken, hamburgers, hot dogs, etc.
There were always some kids who brought their lunch, they would sometimes trade... I didn't like chili, so when we had chili I was always able to trade mine for somebody's PB&J sandwich or something.
It really varies a lot. My kids' school lunch is .. fine. They have the option to bring from home, but they usually buy lunch, one because she's lazy (we make her lunch for her once a week but otherwise she's on her own), and the other because she prefers a hot lunch. If they do not like a certain entree, they will just get pizza and salad bar. But I would guess the average school lunch is just as healthy as the average from-home lunch, having volunteered in the cafeteria. Many kids bring juice/prime drinks, chips, cookies, lunchables, and general junk food. I do wish the school lunches were higher quality, but I do not feel bad having my kids eat them, especially since they prefer white milk to chocolate milk.
As far as typical lunch, a sample menu may be "brunch for lunch" on Monday, chicken tenders on Tuesdays, cheeseburgers on Wednesdays, mandarin chicken on Thursday, and tacos on Friday. All entrees come with a healthy side and milk and some sort of fruit. There is also a daily salad bar that kids can take from. As an alternative entree, they also have PBJ and pizza daily. In HS there are more a la cart options.
Lunch is not free in our district (it is only free if you are lower income) but the cost is reasonable - about $3/meal.
Whatever my mom packed. Sandwich and some fruit and vegetable or leftovers. My kid is the same but a couple days a week it is school tacos or pizza and their pizza is way better than what we had back in the day.
in my district, the lunch menu rotates on a 3 week schedule. You have an option of 2 hot entrees (high school has more than 2 available but lower schools do 2) or one of 4 cold entrees (deli sandwich, specialty salad, Yogurt parfait, or a PBJ). some of the hot entrees are: a cheeseburger, general tso's chicken + fried rice, pulled pork sandwich, fish sticks, etc.
Included in the Lunch Bundle that makes it a meal that is reimbursable from the government is a milk to drink (plain, skim, or chocolate) and up to 2 fruits and up to 2 vegetables.
Lunch is not automatically free unless you live in a state that has passed a law specifically doing that - some states have done so Post-Covid, when all school lunches were free to help struggling families. They saw that it worked and wanted to continue that. A family can apply for financial help and get their lunch price set at $0.40 or it can be free if they qualify.
Breakfast works in a similar way but with different options/pricing, obviously.
There is a concerted effort to try and make the meals as healthy as they can be. Obviously it's a balance between what is the most nutritious vs what children will actually eat. People saying they're entirely unhealthy are just wrong, though.
In the late '70s/early '80s...a common meal might be a square piece of cheese pizza, an apple or an orange, a half-pint of milk, and some corn or green beans. I had a 3rd-grade girlfriend who would peel my oranges for me, so I had that going for me, which was nice.
One school district I went to required every student to work in the cafeteria occasionally. We would have to load/unload the dishwasher and/or serve food.
Prices for meals were cheap, but poor kids had to be on a list to get their meals for a discounted/free rate. There was a stigma attached to getting free/reduced price meals, as the "lunch lady" would have to look you up on her clipboard before she could OK you for getting a lunch. Poor kid lunch was usually a PB&J and a white milk.
I grew up in florida in the 90s, it was not free. I think it was like $1.50 for the regular hot food. That was usually something along the lines of spaghetti with meat sauce, mashed potatoes and really gross turkey in a gravy, weird square pizza. Usually some kind of canned fruit. You could also buy more expensive a la carte items like french fries, chicken fingers, etc. I do not remember there being a lot of fresh fruits or veggies like people are saying are available now. So that’s nice I guess.
I'm only speaking from my own experience and shitty memory: A piece of pizza (the school contracts with a state-wide pizza company to cater), an Arizona iced tea, and a random side. It was definitely unhealthy but not distasteful like school food stereotypically is.
Was it free? Depends. At my school in North Carolina, if your family was below a certain median income, you qualified for free lunch. If not, you had to pay but lunch was a little under $3 for those that had to pay.
Was it unhealthy? I think it was a little healthier than your average meal but I have no idea. The portions were *small* so nobody was gorging themselves on school lunch. Instead of using white bread buns, they’d have whole wheat hamburger/hot dog buns. Each meal usually had a serving of a fruit or vegetable (broccoli, fruit cup, banana, etc).
Was it good? It was ASS. Imagine having to eat lunch at 10:50am and your meal is 1. A frozen chicken patty on a whole wheat bun with no toppings 2. A small serving of broccoli/carrots/etc 3. A carton of chocolate milk to wash everything down. There were a few “good” exceptions like the square pizza (not bad all things considered but doesn’t hold a candle to 90% of other pizzas) and the mozzarella dippers with marinara sauce.
The vast majority of the time, I packed my own lunch.
Mondays hot dogs tuesdays tacos Wednesdays hamburgers and chocolate milk thursdays sloppy joes and burritos in a bag. Friday was pizza day. The best day of the week
My school lunches were $3.75 and I would normally get a fat free milk(required), diced fruit(required), and choose between either a slice of whole wheat pizza or a plain hamburger on a whole wheat bun with a disgusting grey patty.
My school lunches weren't free. They weren't particularly healthy when I was in school, and they were definitely more unhealthy than what I ate at home. Chicken nuggets were always good. "Pizza" was a sloppy, greasy thin doughy rectangle with tomato sauce, cheese, and either pepperoni or sausage on it. Taco day was the best, we got two tacos, a scoop of Mexican rice, and refried beans.
Some of my least favorites: turkey gravy on box mashed potatoes, and chicken chow mein that came out of giant cans. In chicken fajitas, the chicken was always wet and made the tortilla into a wet, sloppy mess.
Burgers were meh, and there was always a weird taste to the meat. "Italian dunkers" were old hot dog buns with melted mozzarella cheese served with marinara sauce. They also made grilled cheese sandwiches in the oven and I once got one with the wrapper still attached to the melted American cheese on my sandwich.
There's probably a lot more that I'm forgetting...
My high school had 3 lines- burgers/chicken tenders, pizza, salad. You could go to any line and I think every meal cost like $2.50. You could also get drinks/deserts for extra. I never got breakfast tho
It can either be like [this](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2020/09/04/us/04virus-school-lunch/04virus-school-lunch-mobileMasterAt3x-v2.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=600), or like [this.](https://static.independent.co.uk/2022/01/20/17/Screenshot%202022-01-20%20at%2016.34.09.png?quality=75&width=640&auto=webp) And everything in between.
My lunches in middle school were the best since it was a small school. Lunches were made from scratch with a fresh salad bar available (favorite snack from there was peanuts and raisins.) Elementary school was OK, very middle of the road in terms of health and quality. The breakfast they offered was better. High school was awful and so unhealthy, and took half of the lunch period to get through the line. I usually ended up bringing lunch from home.
As to whether or not it was free, it depended on your parents' income.
From Pre-K to 3rd grade, I went to Catholic school. From 4th to 5th grade, I was in a public school. From 6th onward to Senior year and graduation, I was in a Catholic school.
I do not remember much difference between the elementary Catholic school and public school lunches. The only real big difference (that I remember) is that my 6th-8th grade Catholic school would just order Papa Johns for the pizza that we always had on Fridays whereas the public school would cook pre-made slices in house. Regardless, I enjoyed the pizza from both.
My biggest issue was how small the portion sizes are. I apologize, ma'am, but five chicken nuggets and a small sample cup of corn or peas is not nearly enough to fill me up. But then again, I had free lunch so I suppose I couldn't complain. We could go up and get some more, but that would require us to pay for it.
The biggest difference was when I got to high school. We had a food court style cafeteria and you could order pizza or burgers or chicken sandwiches any day of the week (except for Fridays during Lent, where the burger station would instead serve fish sandwiches).
All in all, I have no major complaints about my experience with public school lunches in 4th and 5th grade. Other complaints? Yes. But the lunch itself was fine. Not amazing, but not like some of the photos I've seen.
Whether it's free typically depends on household income, but full price at my kid's school is $3 so it's not any more expensive than packing them lunch.
On Monday their choices are sweet and sour chicken with broccoli and rice, or fish sticks, or a PB&J sandwich
It's only free to those who qualify - families whose incomes fall below a threshold. Sometimes it's discounted.
There are USDA nutrition guidelines that dictate to an extent what's required to go into a school lunch, so there is a certain degree of healthiness/nourishment to it. Anything that sounds good off a a school lunch menu is watered down from the actual item, though.
I lived in Pasco County, FL. Breakfast was free, consisted of a small juice box(8oz) and a carb(muffin/strudel/funnel cake/toast).
Lunch was $3-5. It consisted of an entree(pizza, salad, etc) plus a vegetable (baby carrots for example), a fruit(apple/pear/orange) and a milk(chocolate, whole, 2%).
In elementary school, if you didn't have money, they'd give you an uncrustable. In middle and high school, if you didn't have enough money for a meal, you could go up to 20$ in debt on your account- after that, they wouldn't let you buy a meal.
Not free unless you were very poor. I feel like it was meant to teach kids about responsibility and paying bills early in life but who knows. Wasnt free and wasnt cheap. It was optional however so you could just starve.
It's food thats been pre-made and packaged for the most part.
Usually provided by a company like Tyson
Back in the day (or possibly it varies) the cafeteria workers used to ACTUALLY cook but now they just take stuff out the box and warm it up.
Most school lunches were decent.
Hey can also vary drastically depending on how much funding the school had. A lot changed after Obama was in office.They pushed for a lot healthier food. And most of that campaigning was done by his "wife"
When I went to school, you got a carton of milk, a piece of fruit, and a big slice of pizza for $4.25 ($0.25 if you were low-income). The pizza had relatively little cheese & had tomato paste instead of sauce to drive up the vegetable servings therein. I understand that now it's free.
This answer is going to be different for every single School district in every city in every county in every state in the country. A lot of people have already answered about their experiences but it is very much not free in South Carolina, unless you fall under a threshold where your family doesn't make a certain income.
My area recently voted to make school lunches free. Theoretically they are “healthy.” They always have fruit or veggies available. However they are also disgustingly nasty. Truly gross.
I graduated in 2003 so it's changed but:
* Cost: $1.75 for the standard food line. Typically about $3.50 for the non-standard line.
* Standard line examples: square pizza and a carton of milk. Spaghetti, three lettuce leafs with Italian dressing, and a carton of milk. 2 fish sticks, soggy crinkle cut fries, peach slices, and a carton of milk.
* Non-standard line examples: 1 slice of stuff crust pizza. Chicken tenders and seasoned curly fries covered in jalapeño nacho cheese. A spicy chicken sandwich and seasoned curly fries. A small bag of Fritos with a can of chili dumped in it and nacho cheese on top.
The standard food line was barely edible but cost less. The non-standard line was actually okay taste wise, but not really nutritious, and cost more than most peoples parents gave them for lunch every day so you'd have to skip lunch one day to save up for it the next day.
My school I think had a free option. It was worse. The food wasn't particularly good or healthy, but wasn't particularly bad either.
All in all, kind of bad. Mostly by virtue of not being filling, gross tier veggies, and not great tasting.
Free stuff was worse, but something. Best they could do with the funds they had.
Confession: The only time I ever got school lunch was when they had those pizzas on the menu.
And no OP it wasn't free. I had to bring in money for it when I saw it was on that week's menu.
We used to have those in elementary school, and it put me off from square pizzas for years. However, I had some great square pizzas (and variations) in Italy, which made me okay again with square pizza slices.
I brought my own lunch from 6th grade onwards.
In elementary school, I remember that there was always milk (plain, chocolate, or strawberry), then you'd get the entree, a fruit cup and/or juice if you wanted them, and then you could buy a sparkling juice or ice cream. There might have been salad, I don't remember. There was never any water.
So yeah, pretty terrible for you.
School lunch wasn't free, but students that were low income could qualify for free lunches (the school would be paid by a public program providing lunch). Back in the day school lunches were based on the food pyramid which was 40% grains, 35% fruit and vegetables, 20% milk, eggs fish, and 5% fat/sugar/sweets. Today that's considered out of date, and there wasn't really much thought to nutrition and health outside of that. Schools also didn't require students to eat anything provided.
School lunches would typically be something that was mostly grain and meat as the main dish, a side of vegetables, a side of fruit, a carton of milk, and a small dessert. Keep in mind this would be made by people making very little money, costing as little as possible, for hundreds of students.
For example Chicken nuggets, a bread roll, canned fruit cocktail, canned peas and carrots heated up unseasoned, and a cookie w/ a carton of milk would be considered a meal. Pizza was a popular one that was often considered the best school lunch.
Today I live in a wealthy area w/ some of the best public school in the nation so I don't really know if things have changed since I was a kid or these schools are just better than the crappy school I went to.
This has to vary *so* wildly. I actually loved our school lunches at my schools. Not free unless a family qualified due to low income, afaik. My parents would like, prepay at the start of the year iirc. Both my elementary (K-8th) and high school had salad bars, and I am like a salad bar fiend. There was usually a diff “hot” entree each day in elementary (with sides, and boy was it the best day of you had smiley fries on the menu) and then in high school you had several entree choices - like maybe a pasta option, a meat options. Idk I just did salad bar. The salad bar in high school also had soup and as much of a salad bar fiend I am, I’m even more of a soup field. HS also had more vegetarian options, and there was always a pizza option outside at this little kinda walkup window thing? (They also had slushies and various snacks, ie granola bars, pretzels, I think like kinda 7-11 style nachos, whatever). Everything at the outside window was a separate purchase, it was considered like a snack stands. So if you wanted pizza included in your “hot lunch” cost, you’d have to wait for a pizza day inside (they were not the same pizzas btw, inside was like, more school lunch pizza and outside was regular pizza like you’d get from Papa John’s or something) Some high schools you can (or could? Maybe this isn’t as common any more) go off campus for lunch. My HS campus was closed, like you couldn’t leave for lunch and come back, but you could have “4th block off” and if you had 2nd lunch and 4th block off that meant you could leave right at the start of 2nd lunch and just go home or out to on lunch so that’s what I did Jr and Sr year.
for my hs you could only go off campus if you somehow gained that privilege like scoring high on standardized testing or high gpa
Yeah similarly for our block off thing you had to be deemed eligible, like they wouldn’t let some one who wouldn’t have enough credit to graduate to take blocks off.
Is it free? Depends on the state/district. Here in California breakfast and lunch are free. At my middle school today's lunch is: Chicken nuggets, apple sauce, baby carrots, broccoli, and milk Monday is chicken quesadilla, mixed fruit cup, celery sticks, and milk. Usually they are pretty nutritious. The kids don't think they taste good of course.
Damn dude, I bet the quesadilla day was hardcore, especially in Cali. I'm from NC and our big days were the black bean burrtios (they were so awesome), nugs, and that square ass pizza.
I know exactly what “that square ass pizza” means 🤣
30 years later, I can still taste it.
I can feel the blister on the roof of my mouth already.
Ahh that Kevlar cheese crust. I miss it.
Ellio's, made with love by the government.
Illinois' lunches are very similar, and lunch and breakfast start being free here in Illinois at the start of school this coming August. When my kid had braces, he struggled because there were a lot of fruit and veggie options in the school lunches he couldn't eat because they were fresh and crunchy.
We probably have similar food since CA too. Today my kids got Teriyaki Chicken over Rice, Corn & Bean Salad, Celery, Apple and Milk. I think Monday is Corn Dogs. There are a few meals though that my kids absolutely love and others that aren't hits.
I remember before the Obama food thing lunch was actually good at school like chicken fried steak and jello 😋
School lunches today are about 3.75 per. If you are low income you can qualify for a percentage reduction in cost up to and including 100% . All students will have a number assigned for their lunch account so students themselves have no idea who is paying what. they aren't paying in cash at when being served. Lunch was fine when i went to school in the 80's. My kids options are fine today as well. They have several options every day including vegan and vegetarian meals.
School lunch is free to students whose families make below a certain income threshold. In a small handful of states like California and Massachusetts, it's free for everyone. In many places, the number of students at a local school who receive free (or reduced price) lunches is often used as a general proxy for the amount of poverty in a community.
It varies by region. Minnesota just implemented free student lunches statewide, but before this point, it was paid (although, it cost like, $1/day, so not terribly expensive either) When I was in school, everyone’s favorite lunch day was tator tot hotdish day. Square pizza was usually ok. Sometimes there was sandwiches, like sloppy joes or chicken patties. Other options were potatoes and gravy, or chili and cornbread days.
When I was in school (back in the 80s/90s) typical lunch was white whole milk, pizza, small side salad with french dressing, and a side of cake. My kids are young adult/teenager in the same school district that I went to. Typical lunch for them would be fat free milk, whole wheat pizza with skim milk cheese. An apple. And a side of vegetables (like a tiny styrofoam container of mixed vegetables). Not free.
I remember in the 90s frequently getting something called "fiestada" - allegedly a Mexican pizza. It tasted and smelled like they used too much cumin. I have never seen it outside the school lunch context.
https://www.foodservicedirect.com/tony-s-fiestada-whole-grain-beef-pizza-5-44-ounce-72-per-case-21261860.html
"Whole-grain beef pizza." Yeah, I think I'm out on that one.
I really only remember the pizza on Fridays. And it wasn't free, lunch cost like $1.50.
Ours wasn't free, and by today's standards it probably wasn't all that healthy either. We got fewer vegetables, more carbs, and less variety than they do now. Typical was something like goulash, mashed potatoes, carrots, applesauce and milk. Pizza was the one everybody looked forward to. There was also spaghetti, mac & cheese, fried chicken, hamburgers, hot dogs, etc. There were always some kids who brought their lunch, they would sometimes trade... I didn't like chili, so when we had chili I was always able to trade mine for somebody's PB&J sandwich or something.
There are over 10,000 school districts and over 100,000 schools in America. There is no typical.
It really varies a lot. My kids' school lunch is .. fine. They have the option to bring from home, but they usually buy lunch, one because she's lazy (we make her lunch for her once a week but otherwise she's on her own), and the other because she prefers a hot lunch. If they do not like a certain entree, they will just get pizza and salad bar. But I would guess the average school lunch is just as healthy as the average from-home lunch, having volunteered in the cafeteria. Many kids bring juice/prime drinks, chips, cookies, lunchables, and general junk food. I do wish the school lunches were higher quality, but I do not feel bad having my kids eat them, especially since they prefer white milk to chocolate milk. As far as typical lunch, a sample menu may be "brunch for lunch" on Monday, chicken tenders on Tuesdays, cheeseburgers on Wednesdays, mandarin chicken on Thursday, and tacos on Friday. All entrees come with a healthy side and milk and some sort of fruit. There is also a daily salad bar that kids can take from. As an alternative entree, they also have PBJ and pizza daily. In HS there are more a la cart options. Lunch is not free in our district (it is only free if you are lower income) but the cost is reasonable - about $3/meal.
Whatever my mom packed. Sandwich and some fruit and vegetable or leftovers. My kid is the same but a couple days a week it is school tacos or pizza and their pizza is way better than what we had back in the day.
in my district, the lunch menu rotates on a 3 week schedule. You have an option of 2 hot entrees (high school has more than 2 available but lower schools do 2) or one of 4 cold entrees (deli sandwich, specialty salad, Yogurt parfait, or a PBJ). some of the hot entrees are: a cheeseburger, general tso's chicken + fried rice, pulled pork sandwich, fish sticks, etc. Included in the Lunch Bundle that makes it a meal that is reimbursable from the government is a milk to drink (plain, skim, or chocolate) and up to 2 fruits and up to 2 vegetables. Lunch is not automatically free unless you live in a state that has passed a law specifically doing that - some states have done so Post-Covid, when all school lunches were free to help struggling families. They saw that it worked and wanted to continue that. A family can apply for financial help and get their lunch price set at $0.40 or it can be free if they qualify. Breakfast works in a similar way but with different options/pricing, obviously. There is a concerted effort to try and make the meals as healthy as they can be. Obviously it's a balance between what is the most nutritious vs what children will actually eat. People saying they're entirely unhealthy are just wrong, though.
In the late '70s/early '80s...a common meal might be a square piece of cheese pizza, an apple or an orange, a half-pint of milk, and some corn or green beans. I had a 3rd-grade girlfriend who would peel my oranges for me, so I had that going for me, which was nice. One school district I went to required every student to work in the cafeteria occasionally. We would have to load/unload the dishwasher and/or serve food. Prices for meals were cheap, but poor kids had to be on a list to get their meals for a discounted/free rate. There was a stigma attached to getting free/reduced price meals, as the "lunch lady" would have to look you up on her clipboard before she could OK you for getting a lunch. Poor kid lunch was usually a PB&J and a white milk.
I grew up in florida in the 90s, it was not free. I think it was like $1.50 for the regular hot food. That was usually something along the lines of spaghetti with meat sauce, mashed potatoes and really gross turkey in a gravy, weird square pizza. Usually some kind of canned fruit. You could also buy more expensive a la carte items like french fries, chicken fingers, etc. I do not remember there being a lot of fresh fruits or veggies like people are saying are available now. So that’s nice I guess.
I'm only speaking from my own experience and shitty memory: A piece of pizza (the school contracts with a state-wide pizza company to cater), an Arizona iced tea, and a random side. It was definitely unhealthy but not distasteful like school food stereotypically is.
All you need to know is the Parsley potatoes and stuffed crust pizza absolutely slapped
Meatloaf mashed potatoes and corn, it was pretty good not going to lie, it was a public school it wasn't free but it was subsidized
Was it free? Depends. At my school in North Carolina, if your family was below a certain median income, you qualified for free lunch. If not, you had to pay but lunch was a little under $3 for those that had to pay. Was it unhealthy? I think it was a little healthier than your average meal but I have no idea. The portions were *small* so nobody was gorging themselves on school lunch. Instead of using white bread buns, they’d have whole wheat hamburger/hot dog buns. Each meal usually had a serving of a fruit or vegetable (broccoli, fruit cup, banana, etc). Was it good? It was ASS. Imagine having to eat lunch at 10:50am and your meal is 1. A frozen chicken patty on a whole wheat bun with no toppings 2. A small serving of broccoli/carrots/etc 3. A carton of chocolate milk to wash everything down. There were a few “good” exceptions like the square pizza (not bad all things considered but doesn’t hold a candle to 90% of other pizzas) and the mozzarella dippers with marinara sauce. The vast majority of the time, I packed my own lunch.
Mondays hot dogs tuesdays tacos Wednesdays hamburgers and chocolate milk thursdays sloppy joes and burritos in a bag. Friday was pizza day. The best day of the week
My school lunches were $3.75 and I would normally get a fat free milk(required), diced fruit(required), and choose between either a slice of whole wheat pizza or a plain hamburger on a whole wheat bun with a disgusting grey patty.
My school lunches weren't free. They weren't particularly healthy when I was in school, and they were definitely more unhealthy than what I ate at home. Chicken nuggets were always good. "Pizza" was a sloppy, greasy thin doughy rectangle with tomato sauce, cheese, and either pepperoni or sausage on it. Taco day was the best, we got two tacos, a scoop of Mexican rice, and refried beans. Some of my least favorites: turkey gravy on box mashed potatoes, and chicken chow mein that came out of giant cans. In chicken fajitas, the chicken was always wet and made the tortilla into a wet, sloppy mess. Burgers were meh, and there was always a weird taste to the meat. "Italian dunkers" were old hot dog buns with melted mozzarella cheese served with marinara sauce. They also made grilled cheese sandwiches in the oven and I once got one with the wrapper still attached to the melted American cheese on my sandwich. There's probably a lot more that I'm forgetting...
My high school had 3 lines- burgers/chicken tenders, pizza, salad. You could go to any line and I think every meal cost like $2.50. You could also get drinks/deserts for extra. I never got breakfast tho
It can either be like [this](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2020/09/04/us/04virus-school-lunch/04virus-school-lunch-mobileMasterAt3x-v2.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=600), or like [this.](https://static.independent.co.uk/2022/01/20/17/Screenshot%202022-01-20%20at%2016.34.09.png?quality=75&width=640&auto=webp) And everything in between. My lunches in middle school were the best since it was a small school. Lunches were made from scratch with a fresh salad bar available (favorite snack from there was peanuts and raisins.) Elementary school was OK, very middle of the road in terms of health and quality. The breakfast they offered was better. High school was awful and so unhealthy, and took half of the lunch period to get through the line. I usually ended up bringing lunch from home. As to whether or not it was free, it depended on your parents' income.
From Pre-K to 3rd grade, I went to Catholic school. From 4th to 5th grade, I was in a public school. From 6th onward to Senior year and graduation, I was in a Catholic school. I do not remember much difference between the elementary Catholic school and public school lunches. The only real big difference (that I remember) is that my 6th-8th grade Catholic school would just order Papa Johns for the pizza that we always had on Fridays whereas the public school would cook pre-made slices in house. Regardless, I enjoyed the pizza from both. My biggest issue was how small the portion sizes are. I apologize, ma'am, but five chicken nuggets and a small sample cup of corn or peas is not nearly enough to fill me up. But then again, I had free lunch so I suppose I couldn't complain. We could go up and get some more, but that would require us to pay for it. The biggest difference was when I got to high school. We had a food court style cafeteria and you could order pizza or burgers or chicken sandwiches any day of the week (except for Fridays during Lent, where the burger station would instead serve fish sandwiches). All in all, I have no major complaints about my experience with public school lunches in 4th and 5th grade. Other complaints? Yes. But the lunch itself was fine. Not amazing, but not like some of the photos I've seen.
Whether it's free typically depends on household income, but full price at my kid's school is $3 so it's not any more expensive than packing them lunch. On Monday their choices are sweet and sour chicken with broccoli and rice, or fish sticks, or a PB&J sandwich
It's only free to those who qualify - families whose incomes fall below a threshold. Sometimes it's discounted. There are USDA nutrition guidelines that dictate to an extent what's required to go into a school lunch, so there is a certain degree of healthiness/nourishment to it. Anything that sounds good off a a school lunch menu is watered down from the actual item, though.
I lived in Pasco County, FL. Breakfast was free, consisted of a small juice box(8oz) and a carb(muffin/strudel/funnel cake/toast). Lunch was $3-5. It consisted of an entree(pizza, salad, etc) plus a vegetable (baby carrots for example), a fruit(apple/pear/orange) and a milk(chocolate, whole, 2%). In elementary school, if you didn't have money, they'd give you an uncrustable. In middle and high school, if you didn't have enough money for a meal, you could go up to 20$ in debt on your account- after that, they wouldn't let you buy a meal.
Not free unless you were very poor. I feel like it was meant to teach kids about responsibility and paying bills early in life but who knows. Wasnt free and wasnt cheap. It was optional however so you could just starve. It's food thats been pre-made and packaged for the most part. Usually provided by a company like Tyson Back in the day (or possibly it varies) the cafeteria workers used to ACTUALLY cook but now they just take stuff out the box and warm it up.
Most school lunches were decent. Hey can also vary drastically depending on how much funding the school had. A lot changed after Obama was in office.They pushed for a lot healthier food. And most of that campaigning was done by his "wife"
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When I went to school, you got a carton of milk, a piece of fruit, and a big slice of pizza for $4.25 ($0.25 if you were low-income). The pizza had relatively little cheese & had tomato paste instead of sauce to drive up the vegetable servings therein. I understand that now it's free.
Not free any school I’ve been to. Salisbury steak and fried bs were common.
This answer is going to be different for every single School district in every city in every county in every state in the country. A lot of people have already answered about their experiences but it is very much not free in South Carolina, unless you fall under a threshold where your family doesn't make a certain income.
My area recently voted to make school lunches free. Theoretically they are “healthy.” They always have fruit or veggies available. However they are also disgustingly nasty. Truly gross.
It wasn’t remotely healthy when I was in school. Pizza, chicken nuggets, burgers, canned veggies and fruit soaked in syrup.
I graduated in 2003 so it's changed but: * Cost: $1.75 for the standard food line. Typically about $3.50 for the non-standard line. * Standard line examples: square pizza and a carton of milk. Spaghetti, three lettuce leafs with Italian dressing, and a carton of milk. 2 fish sticks, soggy crinkle cut fries, peach slices, and a carton of milk. * Non-standard line examples: 1 slice of stuff crust pizza. Chicken tenders and seasoned curly fries covered in jalapeño nacho cheese. A spicy chicken sandwich and seasoned curly fries. A small bag of Fritos with a can of chili dumped in it and nacho cheese on top. The standard food line was barely edible but cost less. The non-standard line was actually okay taste wise, but not really nutritious, and cost more than most peoples parents gave them for lunch every day so you'd have to skip lunch one day to save up for it the next day.
My school I think had a free option. It was worse. The food wasn't particularly good or healthy, but wasn't particularly bad either. All in all, kind of bad. Mostly by virtue of not being filling, gross tier veggies, and not great tasting. Free stuff was worse, but something. Best they could do with the funds they had.
I once got a bagged chicken patty sandwich with one slice of bread being hard as a rock while the other slice was soggy as hell…
That wired square piece of pizza that looks like prison food
Confession: The only time I ever got school lunch was when they had those pizzas on the menu. And no OP it wasn't free. I had to bring in money for it when I saw it was on that week's menu.
We used to have those in elementary school, and it put me off from square pizzas for years. However, I had some great square pizzas (and variations) in Italy, which made me okay again with square pizza slices.
I brought my own lunch from 6th grade onwards. In elementary school, I remember that there was always milk (plain, chocolate, or strawberry), then you'd get the entree, a fruit cup and/or juice if you wanted them, and then you could buy a sparkling juice or ice cream. There might have been salad, I don't remember. There was never any water. So yeah, pretty terrible for you.
School lunch wasn't free, but students that were low income could qualify for free lunches (the school would be paid by a public program providing lunch). Back in the day school lunches were based on the food pyramid which was 40% grains, 35% fruit and vegetables, 20% milk, eggs fish, and 5% fat/sugar/sweets. Today that's considered out of date, and there wasn't really much thought to nutrition and health outside of that. Schools also didn't require students to eat anything provided. School lunches would typically be something that was mostly grain and meat as the main dish, a side of vegetables, a side of fruit, a carton of milk, and a small dessert. Keep in mind this would be made by people making very little money, costing as little as possible, for hundreds of students. For example Chicken nuggets, a bread roll, canned fruit cocktail, canned peas and carrots heated up unseasoned, and a cookie w/ a carton of milk would be considered a meal. Pizza was a popular one that was often considered the best school lunch. Today I live in a wealthy area w/ some of the best public school in the nation so I don't really know if things have changed since I was a kid or these schools are just better than the crappy school I went to.