Again, back in my day, if a student did not like the school lunch, they would go across the street to the malt shop and get a hot dog or hamburger, soda or malt and ice cream, IF they had the money. Some kids had credit privileges and could sign for their food and daddy would later pay. No one was forced to eat in the cafeteria.
Today, with “Closed Campus” rules, the local malt shops near schools have closed down.
Not long ago, a neighbor woman sent her Kindergarden student to school with a home packed lunch. The school confiscated it and forced the kid to eat the government mandated slop.
It seemed that the more kids forced to eat the slop, the more money the school got from the government, to serve more slop.
Ruy, when I was a kid, I went to a Catholic school for several years in a wonderful Italian-American neighborhood. All the children (except this doleful Irish-American) spanned out onto the main street to the wonderful Italian delis where they gorged on antipasto and well-made heroes. I sat on the steps of the church eating my meager natural peanut butter sandwich!
None of those children were fat.