<story><title>The Real Problem with Lunch</title><url>http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/16/opinion/the-real-problem-with-lunch.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>adekok</author><text>I spent years living in France, and my daughter went to kindergarten and grade one there.&lt;p&gt;The lunches were &lt;i&gt;insane&lt;/i&gt;.  A 3 year-old can expect a five course meal every day.  Prepared fresh on-site.  Different every day of the month.&lt;p&gt;The school district would mail a calendar of lunches to the parents every month.  I still have some.&lt;p&gt;The parents &lt;i&gt;care&lt;/i&gt; about the food their children eat.  They&amp;#x27;re willing to pay a little more for good food at school.  As a computer programmer, I earned an above average salary, and paid small amounts every semester for better food.  IIRC, it was about $200.  And definitely way below $1K.&lt;p&gt;My daughter loved her lunches, and I was happy to not have to make something with the French parents would then laugh at. ;)&lt;p&gt;The French attitude is &amp;quot;we live to eat&amp;quot;.  They say every other country &amp;quot;eats to live&amp;quot;.  That definitely shows in the different attitude towards the school lunches.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>crdb</author><text>I would caution against extrapolating from your experience. You must have been living in a good district with a decent school (and if you&amp;#x27;ve been in France for any period of time you&amp;#x27;ll know that fighting for the right school is almost the most important thing in parents&amp;#x27; lives and can even decide elections). Crucially, as there are much fewer private schools in France than say the UK or the US, the elite will instead make public superschools and then use connections and districts to put their kids in them (and get the taxpayer to foot the bill), the most famous being Henri IV and Louis le Grand in Paris, but this system applies to all regions (AFAIK).&lt;p&gt;Anecdotal evidence: my &amp;quot;college&amp;quot; or middle school equivalent (which I won&amp;#x27;t name and shame) in Grenoble had a much less interesting canteen. For example, the fries (served with every meal) were undercooked, sometimes still frozen inside, and we occasionally found worms. The queue for food could be as long as 45 minutes, forcing everybody to gulp down their food as fast as they could so as not to be late to the next class. The food was always deep fried meat or equivalents. A decent part of the student population was quite fat, although not to US or UK levels of obesity.&lt;p&gt;France is like the US. You have areas like Manhattan or Santa Monica, and you have areas like North Virginia or Ohio, all with their own history, local funding, civil servants providing wildly differing levels of service. Paris is almost another country (and its residents definitely see &amp;quot;provinciaux&amp;quot; as foreigners), maybe even more so than with London and the UK.&lt;p&gt;For a deep dive down the other end, I recommend the movie &amp;quot;Journee de la Jupe&amp;quot; which gives you a taste of the ZEP schools (arguably the worst in France), it&amp;#x27;s a bit more realistic than &amp;quot;Banlieue 13&amp;quot;.</text></comment>
<story><title>The Real Problem with Lunch</title><url>http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/16/opinion/the-real-problem-with-lunch.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>adekok</author><text>I spent years living in France, and my daughter went to kindergarten and grade one there.&lt;p&gt;The lunches were &lt;i&gt;insane&lt;/i&gt;.  A 3 year-old can expect a five course meal every day.  Prepared fresh on-site.  Different every day of the month.&lt;p&gt;The school district would mail a calendar of lunches to the parents every month.  I still have some.&lt;p&gt;The parents &lt;i&gt;care&lt;/i&gt; about the food their children eat.  They&amp;#x27;re willing to pay a little more for good food at school.  As a computer programmer, I earned an above average salary, and paid small amounts every semester for better food.  IIRC, it was about $200.  And definitely way below $1K.&lt;p&gt;My daughter loved her lunches, and I was happy to not have to make something with the French parents would then laugh at. ;)&lt;p&gt;The French attitude is &amp;quot;we live to eat&amp;quot;.  They say every other country &amp;quot;eats to live&amp;quot;.  That definitely shows in the different attitude towards the school lunches.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>alain94040</author><text>Looking at random &amp;quot;menu cantine&amp;quot; on Google, getting hungry already. For instance: &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;dumezil-lyc.spip.ac-rouen.fr&amp;#x2F;IMG&amp;#x2F;pdf&amp;#x2F;menu_du_14_au_18_decembre_2015.pdf.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;dumezil-lyc.spip.ac-rouen.fr&amp;#x2F;IMG&amp;#x2F;pdf&amp;#x2F;menu_du_14_au_18...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;On Tuesday, chicken curry (with white wine sauce). Wednesday, salmon with potato gratin. And lots of vegetables.&lt;p&gt;I can tell you some US cafeterias are not quite up to speed yet.</text></comment>