My Response to "Why do school canteens serve the worst, cheapest food to the young, aspiring future generations?"

I used to be in the restaurant business for years before I was a student, so I thought I could add some insight to the post.

As many of you posted, it definitely does have to do with money. However, that lack of money manifests itself in many ways:

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• Unlike the days when I attended public school, cafeterias are often short of staff and poorly equipped. Even if they wanted to prepare fresh food, the staff often don't have the preparation tools, space, and available man-hours. This is also a result of the low per-meal rate that my state provides, since that's how their department is funded.
• Lunch has to be served in an extremely short time. This means that the cafeteria has to prepare meals in a package that students can grab as quickly as possible. In a school with thousands of students, this has a very dramatic impact on how their facilities are run.
• Keeping costs down drives most schools to purchase pre-made products, often frozen. This not only cuts down on food preparation time (labor), but also with packaging costs.
• Packaged foods are also made to conform to very strict nutritional guidelines. Buying from a company that has taken on the responsibility of saying their food meets those guidelines lifts that burden.
• Any schools that are overpopulated typically have Cafeterias that have not been expanded to meet demand. Case in point, many of the schools in my area have hundreds of students more than they were designed for (my school was built for a population of 800-900, but we have nearly twice that much). A lot of "portable" (i.e. mobile home-type buildings) classrooms were put in, but the food facilities weren't expanded.
• Many students won't eat healthy food. You can offer salads, vegetables, and other healthy options, but if they toss it and only eat the pizza slice there's not much you can do.

Submitted September 06, 2020 at 05:44PM by KillYourTV https://ift.tt/2DB6gMD