A school has been slammed for serving up "depressing" dinners that consist of "carbs, carbs and more carbs". Photos of the measly-looking meals given to students at a high school in northern New York have been shared online, with Reddit users commenting on how "unappealing" they look.
The dad explained how he asked his children to start sending him pictures of their free school meals after hearing them complain about them on an almost daily basis. While he expected their portion size to be lacking, he didn't think their nutritional value would be so low. He said: "The kids said that as soon as it became free, the portion sizes got even smaller. Also, because now they give them 'healthy' food, they can get away with giving them less too.
"I started keeping these photos so I could make a complaint when I had enough. This is not enough food to sustain growing high school kids."
"If you want to eat enough to make it through the day, especially to sustain you if you play any sports after school, you need to bring extra food or money to buy extra food.
"My kids generally bring other things as well and once in a while will just buy extra lunches."
While his children still enjoy the school's pizza, they claim most of the other meals taste like "prison food".
When describing what's on their plate, he added: "[The red stuff is] maranara for the breadstick - really it's just bland canned pizza sauce.
"[The last photo] is some kind of buffalo mac and cheese - they just add red hot to it or something to make it spicier."
Commenting on the meals, one user said: "School lunches sure have gone downhill in the last 20 years. I never thought my school lunches when I was a kid were all that great. but they were sure as hell better than these! I guess we figure that schools aren't enough like prisons, so..."
Another user added: "Those noodles are disgusting, Jesus. At a glance, they looked like actual worms."
A third user said: "A lot of times in school I just couldn't eat the main part of the 'dish'. This is coming from a kid who grew up regularly not having food in the house.
"The most insulting part - they made us pay for this garbage. We're the most powerful country in the world yet it's controversial to feed children decent food free of charge.
"I know 'nothing is free' and tax dollars will have to pay for it - that is the point of taxes and social services. But if the money is not being spent right then it is probably due to failure/corruption of the ones who allocate it and they should be called out or punished."
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