I love being a kid-and-food blogger because I’ll never, ever run out of topics to write about (as evidenced by the fact that this is my 1,178th post to date). If anything, it’s a real challenge to stay on top of all the latest developments, and I’m indebted to the many friends, family members and TLT readers who regularly take the time to email me news items.
But in the past few weeks, I’ve been just inundated by people sending me this link showing “school lunches around the world” and how poorly America’s lunches fare by comparison. I created a slide show of three of the photos to give you an idea:
Each time someone sends me this link, I thank them politely — and then grit my teeth. Here’s why:
First, most people understandably but mistakenly believe these photos depict actual lunches served in actual schools. Even some news outlets seem to have made this error. Instead, all of these lunches are mock-ups created by Sweetgreen, a “fast casual” restaurant chain which also offers wellness workshops to children in various schools in the Northeast.
Sweetgreen says it based its photos on “some typical school meals around the world,” but it doesn’t tell us how it obtained the information underlying the photos. Were the meals modeled on public school menus? Private school menus? Are the meals depicted typical of what’s served in a given country, or did Sweetgreen cherry-pick the most appealing items? And on what basis were the elements chosen for America’s school meal?
I don’t have answers to those questions but here are some things I do know. Let’s start with this mouth-watering “school meal” from Greece:
According to a 2013 New York Times piece – notably entitled “More Children in Greece Are Going Hungry” — Greek schools actually “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.” So I’m not sure who’s getting the lunch above, replete with fresh pomegranate seeds and just-picked citrus. But I do know that while Greek school kids were reportedly going hungry in 2013, over 20 million economically distressed kids in this country were being fed nutritious, federally subsidized meals every single school day.
Kinda makes you proud to be an American, doesn’t it?
Then there’s France. . . . I’ve been blogging about school food for five years and if I had a franc for every time someone’s told me about the superior school meals in that country, I’d have enough money to buy every TLT reader this lunch:
French school meals are superior to ours – quelle suprise! According to this report, the amount spent on the food in French school meals can exceed two dollars — twice what American districts are left with after overhead. And I actually suspect that the money available to schools for food may be much higher, given this post by Karen Le Billon which indicates that parents are assessed a price on a sliding scale, with the wealthiest parents paying a whopping $7 per meal. More importantly, as Le Billon so well documented in French Kids Eat Everything, almost every aspect of French food culture, including widespread nutrition education and early “taste training,” supports better school meals, both their provision by schools and their acceptance by children.
We should learn what we can from France, of course, yet it hardly seems fair to compare its school food to our own when so many factors in this country which thwart better meals aren’t nearly as problematic there: chronic underfunding; the financial competition districts face from home-packed lunches (which are strongly discouraged in France), competitive food, junk food fundraising and open campuses; the $2 billion spent each year on the advertising of junk food to American children; and an American food culture which celebrates junk food instead of actively discouraging its consumption as France does (including by requiring warning messages on junk food ads).
And by the way, apparently not every meal served in French schools is worthy of a Michelin star. On the What’s For School Lunch? blog, where real people around the world submit their actual photos of school meals, I spotted this French school lunch:
And that leads to another point. How can any one meal accurately represent an entire nation’s school meal program? For example, let’s assume that some Ukrainian kids really are eating what Sweetgreen depicts:
That’s great, but other Ukrainian kids, according to What’s For School Lunch?, are getting this dismal meal of hot dog slices, white pasta, broth and bread:
So which is the “real” Ukrainian school meal?
By the same token, look at some of the American school meals in this slideshow, which I compiled from the School Meals That Rock Facebook page. They’re all a far cry from the pallid chicken nugget meal depicted by Sweetgreen.
As Dayle Hayes, the registered dietitian who runs the School Meals That Rock Facebook page told me, “Thousands of schools are balancing complex regulations, limited budgets and picky eating habits to serve delicious, healthful real school food that real students eat and enjoy.”
Of course, I’m not suggesting that we ignore the fact that many American school districts are churning out truly terrible school food. Here’s a photo sent to me just this week by a Lunch Tray reader of her child’s lunch:
But if Sweetgreen’s goal was to raise awareness about school nutrition (and not just garner a lot of publicity for its restaurants, which it did in spades), I fail to see what it accomplished by holding American schools up to an unrealistic international standard –whether the standard is unrealistic because it’s inaccurate (Greece) or because the country in question invests far more time, money and effort than the United States in feeding its children (France.)
If Sweetgreen really wants to improve school food in this country, I wish it had given the many thousands of people who’ve now seen its mocked-up photos a meaningful call to action. Why not ask everyone who cares about this issue to sign this school food petition from the Pew Charitable Trusts, or to urge their Congressional representatives to adequately fund school meals in the upcoming Child Nutrition Reauthorization? That’s how we get from chicken nuggets to Greek lemon chicken on orzo.
Or, as Dayle Hayes put it to me, “If you want school meals that rock in all U.S. schools, staged trays that ‘resemble’ school meals are not the way to get there.”
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Mark says
Thanks for this. There is so much that Americans don’t understand about their OWN school systems and local school districts. It’s too bad that they are now getting misinformation about foreign schools as well! Germany, for instance, does not offer cafeteria food in all schools – most schools let students out in time to go home for lunch, on most days. When they don’t, students bring lunches, or buy simple sandwiches, or eat fast food. Cafeterias, in schools that have them, are still just cafeterias. While exceeding the “Grade D, but edible” standard of American school cafeterias, they still aren’t anything to write home about.
Bettina Elias Siegel says
Mark – that’s so interesting. I’m hearing from quite a few people on Facebook that meals in some of these countries (Spain, e.g) are actually not all they’re cracked up to be. Which actually makes me sad. I’d like to think someone, somewhere is getting it right!
Colleen Dietz says
We feel we are, and we are right here in the good ol’ USA. I don’t feel we are the only ones either!
Thank you for this post! I was thrilled to see one of our photos used from ITSMeals.
D says
No
Kelly says
I was one of those people that sent you links to these photos, and I was also aware that they were mockups. I will also mention that even the New York Times has done a similar piece on what kids around the world eat for breakfast. http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/10/08/magazine/eaters-all-over.html?_r=0 Granted the photographer actually visited families in each country to obtain her photographs, but I think it’s fair to say that in all of those countries there are many kids eating breakfasts that are far worse or even going without.
I think the benefit of images like these is to show people alternatives to what their kids could eat in schools and, perhaps even more importantly, to what they could be eating in their homes. One of the biggest hurdles school lunch advocates face is the quality of food everywhere. When food you get at a chain restaurant or from a microwave at home is only marginally better than what kids get in schools, then it’s not surprising that so many people are resistant to efforts to mandate changes to school lunches.
I also don’t have a problem with a company like Sweetgreen offering up these photos as a marketing ploy. There is no way that the U.S. is going to turn around its nutrition problems without the participation of Big Food – the U.S. market is simply too large and diverse. I’ve never eaten at Sweetgreen but from what I can see from their website, they are a far cry from McDonalds. In my view, the key is to educate consumers, who can then demand better from all companies, including Sweetgreen (for example, I can’t tell from its website how much salt and sugar and the types of fats that are in its food).
I agree with you that Sweetgreen could have gone further by issuing a meaningful call to action of the type you mention, but then again, why would they since their goal in these photos is to drive consumers to purchase their products. If that means that someone who is going to eat out anyway chooses Sweetgreen over McDonald’s, then that’s a baby step I can live with.
Ironically, the fact that so many people sent you links to these images prompted you to remind people of petition from the Pew Charitable Trust suggest these images did do some good, just not necessarily the way that Sweetgreen intended.
KL says
Why is everyone saying that school meals are so bad?
“When food you get at a chain restaurant or from a microwave at home is only marginally better than what kids get in schools…” The foods most kids are getting at home or at restaurants are FAR worse than what we’re allowed to serve at school. People don’t realize that we can only serve 51% or greater whole wheat and we have limits on sodium. Also, we have to stick to tight calorie restrictions. Grocery stores and certainly restaurants do not have to stick to our regulations. Our menus are driven by student wants. You have to remember that we’re also a business – in the end, our budgets have to balance. You’re completely right about the marketing in this country. One goal is to get Americans healthier to drive down the cost of insurance, but the majority of things we advertise for is junk food.
Casey says
I had the same reaction when I saw the photos and thanks for putting it into words.
Emily says
I really, really appreciate your addressing this “news” story. One would have to live under a rock to be even mildly interested in the goings-on in the American school cafeterias and have not been exposed to this slideshow. While I also shook my head and clucked a few times, my big takeaway from the photos was that our kids shouldn’t be “doomed” to kid-foods. We should focus on expanding their palates to accept different tastes and textures. My son’s lunch menu reflects an ideology that kids will only accept (or maybe it’s that they only have time to eat) pre-chewed foods (think processed chicken nuggets, pasta, things you can basically get away with swallowing whole). How wonderful would it be if they chose to or could introduce one real food a week? Wouldn’t it be lovely to expand our repertoire to include what would now be considered “unconventional” to the kid’s menu? I’d be so happy if my son could be confident bringing his lunch from home and not be teased mercilessly for opening his completely innocuous thermos of homemade chicken noodle soup, or his ham & cheese wrapped in a pita.
Bettina Elias Siegel says
Emily, I couldn’t agree more. The whole “kid food” myth is a self-fulfilling prophecy that does our kids a terrible disservice! But I also know that if a forward-thinking cafeteria just springs something unconventional on kids used to nuggets, the kids may rebel. We all know that they might try it after repeated exposures, but districts have to watch their bottom lines, so if a new item gets rejected right off the bat, they may not be able to stick it out. That’s why nutrition education, tastings/samplings, on-site encouragement and other support is also needed. It’s such a tall order – especially in a society which seems determined to feed children only nuggets, mac-n-cheese and pizza. 🙁 Thanks for your comment here.
Michelle says
I’m from Australia and as a kid I always watched American shows and was so jealous of your cafeteria meals. We have always had to bring our own packed lunches. When I was a kid and we were poor we actually ate sugar sandwiches or sultana sandwiches. And I never took fruit to school because it was annoying to have to peel and it was messy to eat. So we usually took biscuits or potato chips. Of course this was in the 1980’s.
Now kids (under the age of 12) have to take a piece of fruit to school. But once you reach 7th grade no one cares what you are eating lol
So chicken nuggets and mashed potato and a serving of fruit is heaps more nutritious than a Vegemite sandwich and a bag of potato chips!!!
Bettina Elias Siegel says
Hi Michelle – thanks for this comment! I’m always really interested in hearing about the schools meal programs (or lack thereof) in other countries. And yes, while our highly processed lunches leave a lot to be desired, they’re required by law to be nutritionally balanced; studies have even shown they are, on average, more nutritious than packed lunches parents send in. I hope we can move American school meals toward more scratch-cooking in the future, but I’m still proud of the fact that our program feeds 31 million kids a day, 2/3 of whom are in economic need. Thanks again for coming by and for being a Lunch Tray reader!
Wendy Garman says
I just really want to thank you for putting in to words all the thoughts currently swirling in my head. I appreciate this article soo much! Thank you.
Bettina Elias Siegel says
Thank you, Wendy! I’m glad I was able to express what you were thinking, too.
ACVA says
Thanks for the article, my kids went to school in the US and in France. The meals were more expensive in France (food is subtantially more expensive in France) and the menus much better. The downside for us is that we were not allowed to make lunch meals for our kids, which would have been very helpful on days when peas were on the menu (my daughter hates peas). Also, snacks were not allowed and my youngest daughter had to wait until 4:45 to get her afternoon snack (that’s usually almost our dinner time in the US).
All in all, I still prefer the French way because my kids got such a better meal, back in the US I was a packing lunches because the meals at school were not the food I wanted my kids to eat on a regular basis. I think the US have a lot of room for improvement.
Justin Gagnon says
If you weren’t able to make meals from home, that’s basically universal lunch – 100% participation in the program at a higher price point. If we could do that in the US, it would dramatically change the game.
Bettina Elias Siegel says
Absolutely. I mentioned that in the parenthetical but a whole piece could be written on why a “no lunch from home” policy would radically change school food here.
Bettina Elias Siegel says
ACVA: Thanks for this real-world info on your experiences in French schools. Much of what you report (the delayed snack, the no-lunch-from-home policy) is consistent with what I learned in Karen Le Billon’s French Kids Eat Everything. Here in the U.S., we take such a different approach. If anything, kids are “snacked to death” (to coin a phrase used by my friend and colleague Sally Kuzemchak of Real Mom Nutrition), and if we dared tell American parents that they couldn’t bring lunch from home, there’d be an armed uprising. (Here in Texas, I mean that quite literally.) But in France, parents understand and support the higher values that are imbued from communal eating: cultural education, food education, etc. Thanks again for commenting here!
Allison says
I certainly hope that we never get to the point that we are unable to send lunches to school. Who wants the government in control of one more thing they can mess up? I don’t think the food is bad at my kids school in SC, but I am glad I have the option to send what I can afford and what I know my kids will eat. I don’t want to pay $7 a meal. And, quite frankly, those lunches don’t look all that appetizing to me and they were set up for a photo. I can only imagine what they would look like when dipped onto a tray in a lunch line.
Sarah says
Just a quick note to say that out kids’ lunches in France cost closer to $3.50 a meal (and we’re paying full fare) and are never served on a tray like in the States. Kids (at least in elementary school) sit with a plate at the table and are served their food in 4 courses on the plate, family style. Salad is served first, and when everyone is done the main course is served (meat, sauce and veg.) Then comes a piece of cheese or yogurt, and lastly comes a piece of fruit. I grew up in the U.S. and am amazed at the school lunches my kids eat. Nothing is plopped on a tray, and everyone sits for a good hour to eat the meal. Pretty nuts compared to Mac n cheese and milk in a carton.
Justin Gagnon says
What Sweetgreen SHOULD have done to really call attention to this is to do a costing analysis on all of those plates to really illustrate the problem. It would be really fun to see the straight ingredient costing of all of those entrees, as well as a labor cost for preparation. And as a reference point, throw in any capital expenditure assumptions for the lunches, including the kitchen equipment required to prepare those beautiful protein portions.
And for extra credit, bring in a large sample size of American elementary school students and serve them all of the meals, and measure the amount of food waste generated by each meal both in terms of weight and dollars.
These lunches look incredible to us – as adults. But when it comes to lunches, it doesn’t matter what’s in it if the kids aren’t going to eat it.
Bettina Elias Siegel says
Excellent points, Justin! And you can see in my post that I did my best to ascertain, at least for France, how much schools are actually spending on food. In her post to which I linked above, Karen Le Billon makes it sound like the funding is equivalent between the U.S. and France. But I am absolutely certain that can’t be the case. One need only look at their meals versus ours to know that the costs must certainly be far higher, without even taking into account the fact that food in general is more costly in France than here. But my online sleuthing didn’t yield a definitive figure. If anyone out there has info to share, I’d love to see it.
And you’re right to also point out the “food acceptance/waste: side of the equation. Again just looking at France, there are SO many reasons why French kids are more likely to dive into entrees that here in the US would be spurned. In that regard, I highly recommend that interested readers pick up a copy of Karen Le Billon’s French Kids Eat Everything. It’s truly fascinating to read the many ways in which France fosters healthy, measured eating habits in its youngest citizens.
Justin Gagnon says
I think what would be interesting it to not see what the French are paying, but rather see each of these meals and their associated cost structures ($/entree) if they were served by schools in the US. Instead of a top-down look at funding by country, it would be a bottom up look at what it would cost in the US to put out meals like that. It would be an apples to apples comparison to look at the ingredients they’re using, assume US ingredients, labor costs and overhead structures, and compare in US dollars the various menus presented so beautifully in pictures.
My experience tells me the difference would be equally as striking as the photos themselves.
Anne says
Good article but you should know that France hasn’t used the franc since 1 January 2002…13 years ago! 😉
Bettina Elias Siegel says
I did know this, Anne! But come on, “franc” is just funnier than “euro,” no? 🙂
Silly Rabbit says
I worked in a school cafeteria for 15 years in Oregon. That last lunch plate is correct in a way, but basically wrong. That is the plate of a student who goes through a lunch line and declines healthy selections that are offered. In order for a school to serve free and reduced meals, healthy selections must be offered. Some schools insist that students take all of the offerings on the federally funded program’s menu for the day. However, you can stand and watch students throw away those healthy items that they refuse to eat. The long and the short of it is that good nutrition begins at home, where adults model good nutrition by eating well themselves. Most children choose the foods that are offered at home and familiar.
Maggie says
Silly Rabbit, I agree.
The school I work at follows the Offer vs Serve regulation. That means we offer/menu, at minimum, all the required components, in the required quantities, and so on. The students are allowed to select (be served) – while still following additional regulations – the components they want.
I witness meals that might look a bit like the example picture. A plain bun (they decline the item that was menued to be served…perhaps the meat on a sub), half cup of fruit (I’m at an elementary) and a carton of milk…adding up to the required minimum of 3 items, including a half cup of fruit or vegetable.
Previous comments have mentioned scenarios that might require participation in meal programs, while knowing that’s not really possible. The further exaggerated scenario would suggest closing all restaurants and clearing out the center aisles of grocery stores.
Karen says
I also work in a school cafeteria in southern New England that uses the offer/serve program. One day last week, our menu consisted of: a chicken patty on a whole wheat bun with optional lettuce and tomato topper, cooked broccoli, baked beans, milk, and a choice of 5 fruits: apple, sliced orange, cut melon cup, canned peaches, or fresh grapes. The optional entree was a PBJ sandwich and a cheese stick, or a low-fat yogurt served with banana bread and sunflower seeds. Both optional meals can come with any/all of the fruit and vegetable sides.
The kids just need 3 items to make a “reimbursable” meal for federal guidelines, and most kids just take the chicken sandwich (protein and 2 grains for the bun), pass on the lettuce and tomato and opt for ketchup, one milk carton, plus an apple. The apple generally goes straight into the garbage. The kids are terrified of vegetables and fruit, and this behavior is learned at home and fast food outlets. Every time, they could all have a filling, nutritionally complete meal, but we can’t force them to make good choices, and we can’t force them to eat what we offer.
P.S. I pack my child’s lunch almost every day, because she follows a vegetarian diet. It is filled with grain salads, homemade bread, sliced fresh veggies and fruits, cheese, vegetable sushi, pasta salad, or a hot miso soup, with a cookie or fruit snack packet thrown in as a treat. I would certainly hope that the option of home made meals was never taken from us, as we prefer to use local, fresh foods in our own diet, hopefully impressing the need to eat in a healthy manner upon our child.
sandy says
I am glad about this article My 7 year old granddaughter comes home everyday hungry because of how lunches are here and it upsets me. She even got yelled at for taking a cup of ranch dressing because she likes to dip almost everything in it she was told that was for salads only I went to the same school as a child and their lunches have always been horrible
Melany says
Thank you for posting this. I was one of the ignorant staring at these plates being so angry at our country’s lack of awareness when it comes to school lunches.
I graduated in 2003 from a psuedo inner city town that was mostly Portuguese and Irish. Our lunches were abysmal. We had sweets, soda, cookies, chips, etc. And of course we had the requisite “school lunch” that was hardly even distinguishable from the plate it sat on. What do you think the kids ate? Yup they went to the “other” line and got chips and a brownie for lunch.
We really need to start investing time and yes, even money, into our children’s food programs.
Emily says
Bettina, CBS Sunday Morning did this story on the french school lunch system about five years ago. A great piece that really demonstrates just how seriously they take their food: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovO18E-hgew
Bettina Elias Siegel says
I wrote about that story back in 2010! https://thelunchtray.com/le-sigh-watch-this-video-about-school-lunch-in-france-then-weep/ Thank you for reminding me of it, Emily.
Emily says
I am SO HORRIFICALLY JEALOUS of these toddlers. It’s unbelievable. Though at that age I ate peanut butter and jelly exclusively, so it’s quite possible that even the French would have given me up as a lost cause.
Anonymous says
Thank you for compiling this. I particularly appreciate your repeated emphasis on the restrains American school food service professionals face. From increasing the federal reimbursable rates to eliminating junk food marketing to children to supporting families’ access to fresh, healthy food (to encourage youths’ taste preferences), we need to be doing a lot more to ensure all kids are getting proper nutrition. Disparaging the current system’s outputs without recognizing its origins is dangerous and wrong.
Thank you for putting this out there (as well as many of your other posts).
Torrie says
As a Canadian, I still find the concept of school lunches and cafeterias so strange, haha. It likely varies across the country, but I went through all of my school years packing lunches from home or going off campus for lunch as none of my schools had cafeterias. Elementary school we ate lunch at our desks, and junior/high school we had common areas to eat our packed lunches. The few high schools I knew that had cafeterias were a part of the home ec program where students prepared food during a previous class right before lunch, and it was usually fresh healthy items.
It’s super interesting to read about the US school system & their lunch programs. Great article 🙂
Jim Wilson says
Lived in Taiwan for a couple of years. Kids went to a small elementary school (about 400 students) which was unusual as some elementary schools can have up to 5000 students!
Every day a lunch was cooked in the kitchen and then kids from each class came down to get the food on trolleys and bring it to the classroom where the kids ate together. The meal was typically a soup, rice/noodles and two dishes, usually a meat or fish and a vegetable, and a dessert (usually fruit). I ate the food several times when helping at school and it was actually quite good. No one brought food from home for lunch. Parents had to pay a fee each semester for the lunches, and it was subsidized fro low income families (about 1/3 of the school). The great thing is that kids had a hot meal for lunch (not just sandwiches) and the food was home cooked from scratch, not just heated and reserved. It was all in all a great process. Then there was a period of a nap (head on the desk) after eating, then some outside play.
On top of that the kids (yes in elementary school) also had chores like sweeping up the schoolyard at recess and also washing the classroom floors and cleaning the toilets! Taught everyone how to clean and that they all had to do their part. All kids also had a toothbrush at school to brush their teeth after lunch. In comparison, I would say that generally North American kids are spoiled and poorly fed, and under exericised. What passes for nutrition is laughable (our district instituted “nutrition breaks” and cut the lunch time in half. Kids have to gulp down their lunch and few actually bring anything remotely nutritious for either lunch or breaks.
Sheogorath says
I live in the UK, and from what I remember of school dinners, they’re just the same quality as those in the US before they became nutritious-but-unappetising-mush (I know, I’ve seen them). That’s why I reckon the ad agency for Sweetgreen said, “Let’s just take some of the best foods from each of those countries, put them on a tray and photograph them, then present them as being representative of international school meals.” Fraud by any other name smells just as rank, no?
Sara Smith says
Sounds like there’s an underlying issue of lack of education/awareness in general about what “healthy” food is (in America and elsewhere). Kids should be getting the healthiest food possible, and this means different things in different locations (from neighborhoods to international borders). Your experience and the other comments indicate that many U.S. school lunches are far healthier than what many kids get at home; I can attest to this from my own childhood, although looking back the lunch I CHOSE (there’s that missing education about food) was pretty deficient. I hope the many recent and expanding nutrition awareness movements continue to change the way kids and adults view food. I also hope that, although many countries posses qualities I am envious of as an American, people research or do some critical thinking before they assume one image is representative of an entire population. Thanks for this post, it was informative.
sillysam says
lmfao! at these comments. don’t be gullible.
do your research, all these pictures are of american lunches.
stop tripping over bogosity.
(wow, please, next time get your footnotes in BEFORE you blog an article.)
Laresa says
I’d like to comment on the picture submitted by a Lunch Tray reader of her child’s lunch. Children are required to take three components on their tray to make it an allowable school lunch. The picture does show three different items that the student chose for their lunch. What it doesn’t show is all the other items that may have been offered but the child turned them down. This picture isn’t necessarily showing the whole picture.
Munhahareka says
In Indonesia we usually have full Carbo lunch meal for elementary school like fried rice with egg and noodle, turmeric rice with egg noodle and Tempe, uduk rice with bihhun. For junior and high school lunch meal usually instant noodles with instant meat ball… All buy from canteen $0.50 – $1… Rarely kids in school age bring lunch from home..