I remember school lunches in elementary school in Georgia. My most potent memories are of Thursdays, when we had the option of chocolate milk, and food stuffs like foot long hot dogs (which I hated then, and still will not eat hot dogs to this day), beefaroni, spaghetti, tacos, and mashed potatoes. A lot of beef, a lot of starch. I remember when we got a salad bar, too– but I also remember that every kid mostly ate toppings and dressings when we got that, not the actual lettuce (bacon bits, sunflower seeds, olives in ranch dressing, anyone?) But at least there was a pretense at health– there was always a fruit cocktail or vegetable in one of the tray slots. When I moved to Florida and encountered school lunch at the middle school, it was something of a culture shock. I was presented with two options: taco bell bean soft tacos, or square pizza, with fries as a side to both options.

Check out these pictures of school lunches around the world, and it’s absolutely fascinating to see the amount of processed food, and other garbage, that is being fed to kids. Awards of Shame go to France and the USA here. What the heck guys? Malawi, Sweden, and Korea seem to be doing well in terms of diversity on the plate.

I still can’t deal with the smell of corn and red peppers cooking together, due to the imprint of the stink of mexicorn on my sensory memory. . .