Prison food vs. school lunches: any difference?

we anit got great food but you get use to it well most of it

My school said they were starting a salad bar. They didn't. They have healthy sandwiches. But they have almost NO options for people who don't eat meat.
And they have pizza(VERY greasy pizza) 3 times a week and two times a week they have really greasy bosco sticks. It tastes good, but it's unhealthy.
Most of the time a bring my lunch from home. I'd like to bring home lunch everyday but mornings are hectic and I have to settle for $2.75 lunches. They are unhealthy, and a lot of the drinks(Milk, orange juice on ocasion) are expired(not all of them but some). And then they have a bunch of sweets at the condiments area.

yet the goverment is always trying to make school lunches "healthier"
their not getting "healthier" their getting nastier!!!
most kids at my school would rather sneak off campus than eat the nasty stuff
that their trying to feed us.

Let me say that our school district has a great choice of foods! The children have a choice of entres a the very least 2veggies and 2 canned friuts and to 2 fresh fruits along with a choice of milk or juice. The adults eat our school lunches they are really good. Please don't assume all school lunches are the same!

I hate paying 2.25 for a meal and looking down, and it's only a sandwich and a pack of raisins and a milk. Pitiful. At least cut the price if it's a small meal for the day, or if what you were serving was so unappetizing I couldn't bear to order it.

I went to Attica (NY) school for two years and the teachers told us the prisoners get fresh steaks,and they grow their own veggies. The school btw is right next to the prison, and they have had people escape. They lock down the whole school.

I remember taking my lunch to school most of the time. The best school lunches I had was when I lived in a small town in Wisconsin. There were several older ladies of the town who cooked the lunches. They were wonderful! There was even a small table with a variety of desserts we could chose from once we had finished our food, all homemade. I even remember one school where you could buy a bowl of soup for the same price as a carton of milk to go with your sandwich you brought from home. I rarely bought school lunch because my parents thought they were too expensive and at that time it was about 25 to 50 cents a day! The last time I was in a school, about 5 years ago, lunches were almost $2 a day. Not very appetizing either!

Has anyone considered that prisons don't have to pay their cooks? Schools do.

School meals are supposed to provide the calories children need for 1/4th of the RDA for breakfast and 1/3rd of the RDA for lunch. For elementary children this number is around 650-850 calories.

As a Child Nutrition Director for a school district, I would encourage parents to get involved, but to also see what the finacial reality is for schools programs. Lunch programs in most districts have to pay for themselves, and if we aren't serving what the kids want to eat, they will go elsewhere.

Prison food wasn't that bad. I liked the oatmeal in the mornings.

Schools should provide healthy lunches. period. There is no way around it. Yes, it would be nice if people could bring their own lunch. But many can't (or won't) pack lunches for their children for many different reasons. School children should not be made to suffer. They may enjoy the starchy, fatty calorie-laden, ultra-processed food because they have been conditioned to do so. But it is killing them. This is why we have an obesity problem in this country. Eating habits start in childhood. Let's feed our children some vegetables, whole grains, fruits, etc. They deserve better, and we CAN do something about it.

very sad we as a nation can do better for our people.

Hey I totally disagree with the school lunch part of this conversation. I have worked in school nutrition for the last 15 years. We serve the kids what the nutritionists find is healthiest for them. The problem is these kids are so used to eating junk food that they dont know what good food taste like. As far as the amount they are fed...well most of the children are at least alittle over weight to obese. They feel they dont get enough because they are used to eating more than their bodies need....and it shows. The kids are offered fresh fruit on a daily basis, and you wouldn't believe how many of them dont know what they are....and yes including high school children. Our society as a whole has to address this problem....our kids are growing up very unhealthy. As for the prison food....well people that do bad things have no right to complain about anything they are getting for free...or should I say out of the good person's taxes.....

I remember school lunch in the 80s, it was gross by todays standards but I loved it as a kid... square pizza that was floppy, spam sandwich-rubbery, spagetti, mushy noodles with tomato sauce and ground up tiny meat... Thats the stuff thats now considered gross, and I wouldnt want to eat it as an adult every day, but I remember loving it as a kid. Ha

1400 calories in a school lunch... for one meal??? Thats 3/4 of what they need for the day in calories. No wonder kids are fat...

i was locked-up, here in texas. inmates in othr texas prisons have there own slaughter houses where inmates work. as they butcher the meats, the prison guards will take the "good" cuts of meat, either sell it or keep for themselves. inmates get the scraps. what happens next is, the scraps get mixed with soy and other crap. basically, the box of meats that come in say, "80% soybean 20% beef"...others say, "grade d but edible". the only "real" meat that was served was chicken quarters...maybe once a month, and then they would be the size of a baby chicken compared to the ones i see today in, h.e.b. then if u want to eat something thats more filling and taste better, theres commisary, but u have to have money in order to do that, so...either way...u will lose weight...just not by choice. so....i would gladly take a school lunch than prison food, anyday.

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This is idiotic and barbaric mentality. A LARGE number of people in prison are not bad people, they've just done stupid things. Being caught with pot or trying to get away with screwing the IRS for example. A lot of people like Martha Steward for example. Non-violent criminals who will be released into society again. If you treat them worse than animals, then that's exactly what they'll become. The prison system in the US is already deplorable and MAKING criminals. We live in the real world, just in case you weren't sure, not some fantasy medieval fiefdom you've created in your own head where people are disposable. Sorry to burst your bubble, but even people who have made mistakes are still entitled to basic human rights.

THANK YOU! weve been telling people this for years! high school may have a little more to offer than an elementary-sized lunch but the same basic make-up is still there. the only difference is that we get more of the slop than little kids do. its an ongoing joke(thats slightly more than a joke) that by the time you graduate youll have a stomach made of cast-iron from the food.

all i remember is that they usually ordered Domino's for us, and if you were last in line you got some semi frozen chicken nuggets, it was a joke. i mean if thats what 2.50 got you i would have rather gotten fruits and veggie cups. but middle school was way better you got local businesses that catered and you got decent portions and better selection. i think its time parents, that can, should pack their child's lunches

I slave in a hospital, they serve the worst food to the employees on the planet! Mushy, over-salted, greasy, and leftover from the lunch time crowd! It is disgusting! What gets me is how they get by with this & its overpriced too!

Hmm... Sounds like Aramark is the problem...