School lunch & lunchbox ideas for a kindergartener?

[Spareoom]

I'd eat France, but only if it were a third of the size. The amount of food they put on the tray as is is ridiculous.

[KikiSashaFan]

When I was in middle/high school the schools made a deal with the local college that the culinary arts students would do their practical restaurant experience in the public school cafeterias. They got their course credit and we got restaurant quality meals for super cheap. It was win win.

[nerdycool]

So if you HAD to choose one of these, which one would you eat?

Italy's for sure, France's if the portions were cut down. Chile's & Brazil's looked pretty good, too.

I'll say one thing for the school food in the US though... it certainly looks about 100x better than it did when I went to school! Not saying it's any healthier, but at least it looks edible.

[marbri]

I thought Italy's was the most interesting for my tastes. Accounting for cultural differences I didn't think any of the meals were bad aside from France meal #1 (random menu to my mind) and the US meals (looks like they trays are filled according to a formula with no concern whether it's crap or whether the combinations actually compliment each other). Would probably be better off throwing them the lone avocado or bowl of rice some kids were getting.

Photography can also be deceiving so I'm not convinced some of the trays were as loaded as they seemed.

[IceAlisa]

Italy's sounds good and the picture looks good but it's not clear. The Czech one seemed to be the least appealing to me and the US ones, especially the one where I am having trouble identifying the food.

[Spareoom]

Haha, yeah, it's never a good sign when you can't quite figure out what the meal is supposed to BE.

Italy's lunch looked good too, until I clicked on the source link and read a little more. Apparently it's real Italian style food, every day, and it's not healthy at all. I think it would be awesome but every day might be a bit much, unless you were INCREDIBLY active and fit.

[Lanie]

If I had to choose, Italian. Pasta. Yum. A huge portion, I'd probably eat half or less, but yummy. France's looked okay, but mostly because of bread. I like carbs.

[shan]

US School lunches were revolting, but fortunatley I only experienced them in the 4th grade while in boston. I recall the pizza being similar to a piece of cardboard with something resembling cheese slathered over it.

Oh yeah I remember the pizza. We had 2 days a week of that pizza. Well one day was the rectangular cardboard w/ pepperoni and cheese slathered on it. Another day we had Fiesta pizza which was hexagon shaped and was supposed to be taco flavored. Those were the days!

[Angelskates]

I'd eat Italy's, Sweden's, the UK's, the porridge (Honduras), avocados (Kenya), or the rice (Ghana). I'd also easily eat China's, Slovakia's, and Chile's without the meat since I'm vegetarian. In fact I've pretty much eaten a week or more of all of the above for lunch at one stage or another.

[DAngel]

The Japanese lunches looks best to me I would also eat the ones from Singapore, Taiwan, China, Italy and Brazil

The French lunch makes me though... is that a plate of french fries and a plate of cheesecake? And what are the mains in the second and third picture?

To be honest, I've eaten a lot of school lunches that were alot worse than the american lunches...

[barbk]

I'd eat France, but only if it were a third of the size. The amount of food they put on the tray as is is ridiculous.

French fries (with mustard and ketchup?), a whole artichoke, yogurt (Dannon?), a bowl of mussels, half a grapefruit, and a slice of lemon tart, with a container of milk?

That is truly a stomach-curdling luncheon combination.

When my niece was in french pre-school, they had cheese appreciation and Brest chicken, which sounds a whole lot better to me.

[Spareoom]

To be fair, when I mentioned France, somehow I forgot the plate of fries. :p I was thinking more the meat/potatoes dish.

[Ajax]

French fries (with mustard and ketchup?), a whole artichoke, yogurt (Dannon?), a bowl of mussels, half a grapefruit, and a slice of lemon tart, with a container of milk?

Yeah, I'm kinda horrified by that one.... Artichoke and mussels?? I applaud serving veggies to kids but a whole artichoke takes ages to eat, it's messy and hard work! It'd be one thing if they were serving trimmed artichoke bottoms or those canned artichoke hearts or something... Same with the mussels, I imagine the cafeteria floor is covered with mussel shells and artichoke leaves by the end of this meal. The plate of fries is huge! Who'd have thought that France would have the worst lunches. They need to nix the dessert from all the trays (I'm totally against serving sugar to kids)

Not loving the carbo-loading in Japan, with rice & noodles (or spaghetti & fries!) often in the same plate. At least they serve some vegetables and fish.

Korea looks the healthiest, kimchi is very good for you and about half the meal is made up of vegetables and protein. I would eat that. Taiwan, Singapore, China etc also look pretty reasonable.

I would eat the Slovakian lunch too. Healthy fish (mackerel has a ton of omega 3), tomatoes & fruit.

UK looks horrible: Canned corn, one wedge of tomato and one slice of cucumber.

Kenya, Honduras, Ghana & Djibouti make me sad We in the West take food for granted. Avocados are nutritious, sure, but I can't believe that a single avocado is enough for a growing boy

All of a sudden I'm feeling grateful to my mother for always packing my lunch.

[millyskate]

I'd eat France, but only if it were a third of the size. The amount of food they put on the tray as is is ridiculous.

In France, traditionally the main meal is taken at noon. You have something much lighter in the evening. Remember most French lunch breaks last 2 hours.

[pingu]

I looked at that school lunches around the world and was just !!!. France in particular just stunned me; they serve ALL THAT to kids? I'm an adult and I wouldn't be able to eat all that, every day. Not to mention it looked seriously gourmet!

The mediterranean food has way less calories than the north american food. If you eat crackers with peanut butter for lunch is probably the same amount of calories than eating some pasta with a fresh tomato sauce, lettuce and a fruit. With the second meal you have low carbs, fibers, and the sugar contained in the fruit I prefer to not know what you get with the first one...

[jeffisjeff]

The mediterranean food has way less calories than the north american food. If you eat crackers with peanut butter for lunch is probably the same amount of calories than eating some pasta with a fresh tomato sauce, lettuce and a fruit. With the second meal you have low carbs, fibers, and the sugar contained in the fruit I prefer to not know what you get with the first one...

Well, except the post in question is talking specifically about the meal shown for France, which included a HUGE plate of fries.

I was amused by one of the offerings from Japan - spaghetti with meat sauce with a side of fries! Who needs fries in addition to pasta?

[michiruwater]

Any of the Japanese ones would be my first choice.

Honestly, though, I'd at least try most of them. I've never figured out how people eat whole fish though.

I wouldn't eat or try any of the USA ones, though.

[DickButtonFan]

Something about milk with the asian food seems really gross. Some kind of juice would taste better.

[IceAlisa]

An article about failed regulation of school lunches: http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/...,0,79540.story

[IceAlisa]

Just shoot me now.