In my country, there’s no US style cafeteria (instead it’s a canteen where it’s up to the student if they want to buy anything) some bring their own lunches (home or leftovers) to school, so why do American kids rely on cafeteria food instead of bringing their own?
I mean, is cafeteria food across American schools that bad? It depends on where one resides or if they attend a public or private school. In my case I went to a private (Catholic) high school and the food there is actually good (& cheap when converted to USD).
Or my personal favorite, when my son was getting a full lunch packed every day and also getting a school lunch on credit and when his mother and I said “uh, the kid has a lunch and we do not want him getting school lunch on top of his packed lunch because DUH” they straight up said they will not disallow him from getting a school lunch on top of it because he must be hungry.
Except plot twist! He admitted he was only getting the school lunch for the treat and the chocolate milk and throwing the rest away. Kid got cookies or a brownie or something sweet in every packed lunch, and ate them every day, ate his whole packed lunch, as he didn’t even like 90% of the food on the school menu.
Mentioned that to the school and was told that they couldn’t control what he does or does not eat. “But you can control him not racking up debt that we have to pay that we didn’t expect, can’t you?!”
NO.
And that’s how my wife and I together paid roughly $200 over the course of his first grade year for lunches that he largely threw out.