School Lunches in France

[Chris Ward]

I thought this might amuse some of you - it's what my children eat at school. The rules for constructing the menus are quite strict, with norms for the types of protein and vegetables being set down for all menu planners. This menu is produced for my children's school and several others in the region by a local 'traiteur' - a catering company. They have to offer 'bio' - organic - items four or five times a week, for example. The kids love it, too.

Many years ago I covered a strike by pupils in a private school in Paris because their school menu - the horror! - had a choice of only TWO cheeses! 

Ours is a state school so there's no choice. Oh how they suffer. They do get a starter/main/cheese/dessert every day, though.

CCPS-Restaurants_Scolaires-Menu-Juin-2016.pdf

[Tere]

Wow! Definitely looks like real food to me. 

 

Japanese school dinners were similarly multicourse and made of real food when I tried them.

 

Bit better than jam fritters when I was growing up at breaktimes (although I guess they wouldn't do that now). My girls private school was better in terms of balance but terribly dull, lots of tapioca. We used to dread salads because clearly the idea of making sure that we had enough calories hadn't gotten through and that would be ham, wilted lettuce, a couple of slices of tomato and some cucumber. Plus the dreaded salad cream. With a token slice of bread to wash it down. Sad really.