Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

All praise to the lunch ladies

bittersoutherner.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 203 posts

Re: All praise to the lunch ladies

#51

Post by pxc »

HeinzStuckeIt wrote: post #40
jimbokun wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Today, libraries are more amazing and more necessary than ever. With online services constantly changing what is or isn't available, having a library with physical media, books, and even their own services for borrowing audio books and other online media, can be a real asset when trying to watch a specific movie or TV show or listen to a particular song the streamers decided to stop offering, or moved to a different…

For getting media made inaccessible, you could just do what all those many countries around the world without good public libraries do: pirate it. Talk to anyone serious about cinema as an art form in Eastern Europe or the developing world, and Bittorrent was their school, not a library or a paid streaming platform. In any event, I agree that public libraries are good, but it is easy to see that momentum in the USA f…

The university I went to did start restricting hours (requiring student IDs for more of them than it used to) during my time there, apparently to try to divert some homeless people away at night.

But I've never actually been to a library that didn't feel safe, clean, and comfortable when I was there, including that one. I certainly never saw any signs of drug use, or anyone browsing pornography.

Re: All praise to the lunch ladies

#52

Post by Aeolun »

Animats wrote: post #7
jimbokun wrote: post #4

Indeed. Occasionally I will see posted the beautiful school lunches given to children in many European countries. Nutritious, appetizing, made from scratch. These lunch ladies are the ones fighting to be allowed to do the same things for the children in their communities in the USA. But getting ham strung by the whims of federal politics and the crippling fear that someone somewhere might be given something for free…

The view from the other side: NeverSeconds.[1] Each day in 2012-2014, a middle school girl in Scotland took a picture of her school lunch and wrote a review on her blog, including number of hairs and insects. The headmaster of the school told her to stop taking pictures of her lunches. So she published a note, "Goodbye". That got some small publicity. Then the local town council backed up the headmaster. More publici…

Hah, this is great to read even now. It’s nice that these little bits of the internet are still up 11 years later for me to enjoy.

Re: All praise to the lunch ladies

#53

Post by mrguyorama »

jplrssn wrote: post #28
klooney wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can't afford to have people cook food here, just reheat it.

"can't afford" in this case is a choice to spend the absolute minimum possible on school lunches.

And despite spending basically nothing on that lunch, we still charge kids for it

The public blamed the "lazy" lunch ladies of course but the public was the one voting down the school budget to actually pay them to cook. The actual people doing food service have as much agency over the menu as the teen behind the counter at mcdonalds. Those exact same women WERE cooking real food a decade ago. That's how long they had been doing that job.

Re: All praise to the lunch ladies

#54

Post by somerandomqaguy »

Spivak wrote: post #24
michaelrpeskin wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We did "free" lunch for all here a couple of years ago. The idea is great, execution is terrible. You can't get a la carte free, only the full "FDA approved" lunch is free. So if you forget a drink, or just want to add a snack to your own packed lunch, you go get the whole thing and throw everything else away. The elementary school tried adding the "share table" where you can put anything you don't want so that someo…

I mean this is the nanny state at its best. Getting in the way of progress because you refuse to meet people, in this case kids, where they actually are. The challenge should be minimizing the amount of waste—cook literally anything where the kids will clean their plates then try to nudge toward healthier options while keeping your waste % low. Let them take any subset of the lunch as they please, prune dishes kids e…

Not exactly easy. The US military (hell just about every army on the planet) spends a lot of money and effort into developing field rations that are palatable enough for infantry sections on the move to eat in it's entirety. I can't imagine developing it for far more numerous school children is going to be any easier.

Re: All praise to the lunch ladies

#55

Post by onecommentman »

Embarrassed by the HN comments here. Lunch ladies, along with other low-status government workers, are as close to an Absolute Good as you can get. Co-opting the warranted praise for these heroes to attempt to score political points for any side is pathetic. Such commenters should be forced to prepare and serve lunches for hundreds of hungry children while also being forced to listen to screaming political rants through taped-on headphones. The lower middle class, my native land, gets too little applause for their contributions.

Re: All praise to the lunch ladies

#56

Post by jandrewrogers »

It varies so widely across the US.

I went to school in several States, and it ran the gamut from unhealthy corporate slop (e.g. multiple schools in California) to delicious food prepared daily from fresh ingredients by local grannies (Nebraska).

The latter was amazing and wasn't even generic American food, it reflected the predominant ethnicity of the people that lived in that locale (because grannies doing home-cooking). This was decades ago and the area has hollowed out, so I don't know if it is still a thing there.

Re: All praise to the lunch ladies

#57

Post by thaumasiotes »

somerandomqaguy wrote: post #54
Spivak wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean this is the nanny state at its best. Getting in the way of progress because you refuse to meet people, in this case kids, where they actually are. The challenge should be minimizing the amount of waste—cook literally anything where the kids will clean their plates then try to nudge toward healthier options while keeping your waste % low. Let them take any subset of the lunch as they please, prune dishes kids e…

Not exactly easy. The US military (hell just about every army on the planet) spends a lot of money and effort into developing field rations that are palatable enough for infantry sections on the move to eat in it's entirety. I can't imagine developing it for far more numerous school children is going to be any easier.

> The US military (hell just about every army on the planet) spends a lot of money and effort into developing field rations that are palatable enough for infantry sections on the move to eat in it's entirety.

Why? That's not even a real concept. If you want everyone to like everything they have, you can't do that without letting them trade away the stuff they hate.

Re: All praise to the lunch ladies

#58

Post by no_wizard »

jimbokun wrote: post #4

Indeed. Occasionally I will see posted the beautiful school lunches given to children in many European countries. Nutritious, appetizing, made from scratch. These lunch ladies are the ones fighting to be allowed to do the same things for the children in their communities in the USA. But getting ham strung by the whims of federal politics and the crippling fear that someone somewhere might be given something for free…

Truly American affliction, a crippling fear that the government does something for its citizens that doesn’t have any strings attached

Re: All praise to the lunch ladies

#60

Post by thunky »

jimbokun wrote: post #4

Indeed. Occasionally I will see posted the beautiful school lunches given to children in many European countries. Nutritious, appetizing, made from scratch. These lunch ladies are the ones fighting to be allowed to do the same things for the children in their communities in the USA. But getting ham strung by the whims of federal politics and the crippling fear that someone somewhere might be given something for free…

> These lunch ladies are the ones > getting ham strung

Nice.

Post reply on HN