Ever wonder why no one brings packed lunch to school?

School cafeteria food has been notorious for being “disgusting” in high schools around the world. Movies, TV shows, books and media that we consume daily always downgrade school food. But is it really as bad as they make it out to be? 

A recent study showed that around 76% of students didn’t like the food. However, is our school food really that bad?

Students from the class of 2027 have said that “only the burrito bowl and the sandwich are good everyday”, “the food is fine”, and “looking at the food that public schools serve, ours is a lot better, and if you think about it, it’s only 4 US dollars average for a meal.” These comments are much more positive in comparison to previous statistics shown, and, indeed, the burrito bowls are always consistent in terms of taste. 

What the school needs to improve on is the quality and accuracy of certain foods—the so-called “Korean chicken” doesn’t always taste like Korean chicken, and the same can be said about the “Korean bibimbap”, which is far from the taste of traditional bibimbap. 

In addition, changes are encouraged to be made to the prices of the food. A meal at the Noodle place is 29 RMB, yet a single sandwich is also close to 30 RMB. The new watered-down hot chocolate they sell at the cafe is 21 RMB, and drinks like Oatly’s cost 12 RMB, which is significantly higher than its price at a supermarket (6.8 RMB). Assuming that a student spends around 35 RMB every day for lunch, they’ll spend a total of 1050 RMB in a month. Keep in mind, that this does not include the extra snacks bought at the cafe!

Despite the negative factors that make buying school lunch a bit more unpleasant, I think that the lunch overall is still better compared to other international schools. I mean, there is a reason that no one brings a packed lunch: some of the food may be questionable, but there’s always a variety of foods and seasonal specials available at any time of the day.