As I posted previously...I am a teacher. Most of the students in the high school line up for the cafeteria lunches. In many, if not most schools, most of the students in that school qualify for a free or reduced price lunch. In the days of yore, the cafeteria workers used to actually cook food and serve it up hot for the students. For the past decade, all they do is nuke or bake frozen portions of whatever. I always say that the NYC Bored of Ed must have special chicken farms to raise the scrawniest chickens I've ever seen. You would never see that bony kind of chicken in a grocery store. Must be the 4F grade of chicken. The school lunches are heavy on the carbs, because it's a cheap way to fill up teenagers. So they might get a piece of pizza/mac & cheese/breaded fish/chicken/bologna sandwiches/peanut butter & jelly sandwiches/ham sandwiches, some salad or a sadly overcooked vegetable, a bag of chips and fruit of 4th quality. I never saw such tiny plums or apples in a grocery store either. I always wonder who is pocketing the money given to buy food for the kids.
Meanwhile, the students usually pick out only the most carby of the foods to eat, especially the boys. The girls are much more prone to eat the salads and veggies. Fruits are often used as missiles through the air and other foods are used for non-eating purposes as well. The waste tossed into the garbage cans (and picked up off the floor) is enormous.
Here is a sample lunch menu. Never mind the high-falutin' descriptions of the food. It still looks like crud on a shingle:
Heh, the summer lunch program lists "chilled honey mustard" as a menu item.
What do they think they are? Some "mean republican" listing ketchup as a vegetable?
At least Ronald Reagan didn't claim ketchup as the main entrée.