What is up with these school lunches??

Ok, today's lunch was just damn weird and pretty irresponsible if you ask me considering
how it seems like Korean school lunches are meticulously planned out for nutrition and the right balance
of everything.    Every school lunch comes with this little kit where the lunch ladies have to put a portion
of the food into the cans to send back for whatever reasons (quality control, testing, or if food poisoning outbreak
occurs they can check the samples from each day).

So what is up with serving spaghetti with rice??? That's what I had today and I'm sorry but that is just a ridiculous
combination.  It's way too carb heavy and irresponsibly bad for your health!   I feel sick to my stomach.  I wanted to have
more vegetable component to that meal or at least garlic bread on the side or a small meat serving like chicken or
beef pattie with that spaghetti but no.  Instead, someone genius at the education ministry decided that having rice loaded next
to a pasta/spaghetti with thick creamy corn soup was a healthy idea.    The combination of all those 3 is awful. 

The soup could have at least been a nice light veggie/meat based soup.  But no, they go with this artificial thickening
corn soup which isn't even real corn I bet with rice and spaghetti.    Who makes up these lunches?  Talk about incompetence!

I don't understand the days when we have noodles and obligatory rice and all the teachers will load up on both.

If there's an extra carb I'll take that and no rice and the other teachers look at me like I have two heads.

Maybe I don't want 150g of simple carbs for lunch? Has that occured to y'all. Oi vey.

I've had those days. In those particular instances I don't get rice, make spaghetti my main, and don't get the soup.  I have stopped eating school lunch (as of last year), but I would sometimes wonder about the meals. Luckily they are all tasty at my school. The days where we had like rice and the side was pizza, I would just take a couple of slices to eat later in the day  Especially when I would eat almost last (on purpose) the lunch ladies would always encourage me to take a lot with me (watermelon or pizza or whatever was left). Hell, the cleaning lady takes in a a plastic bag (I guess she still does) and loads it with banchan and takes it home, I guess so she doesn't need to cook. I was always rooting for her to take more, as I felt a bit bad for her - ya know, really old lady trying to grind out her last year or two of work to make ends meet. I typed way too much here. I think I am ready for Friday, and I have nothing to do.

Not to be too picky about things, but serving garlic bread with spaghetti is not any different than serving rice with spaghetti. Just carbs and carbs.

Stay here long enough and maybe you'll get to witness the perfect trifecta of ddeok, noodles, and rice! Maybe even with a nice piece of dessert bread (pastry) to along with it!

Not to be too picky about things, but serving garlic bread with spaghetti is not any different than serving rice with spaghetti. Just carbs and carbs.

Stay here long enough and maybe you'll get to witness the perfect trifecta of ddeok, noodles, and rice! Maybe even with a nice piece of dessert bread (pastry) to along with it!

Jesus christ, we had thick udon, rice and ddeok gochi with a brownie and kimchi towards the end of the first semester at my last school.

That was................ ..... well, it was shitty, let's call a spade a spade. haha

i've had noodles, rice, potatoes, and corn soup all in the same meal...probably with some sugary yogurt or juice

probably with some juice

I never drink the juice.

Of all the vitamins that you get in the day, vitamin C is the absolute easiest to get. You don't need juice under the guise of "Vit C."

i think a lot of (older) korean teachers expect rice at every lunch. my suggestion would be to just not take the rice. most of the teachers at my school eat only spaghetti on spaghetti days. and i wouldn't direct your ire at the education ministry for your school lunch choices. afaik it's up to the school

I suggest taking your own food to work, or requesting leave on NEIS to eat lunch at home. Registering an absence from 12.00 - 13.00 does not lead to a deduction from paid leave.

Paid leave is incremental and cumulative: after your 4th one hour leave, it can be (it may not be, depending on your school) counted as a half day from your paid leave. 

yeah, i really don't get what's going on sometimes

udon, rice, bread rolls one day
nothing but flaccid vegetables the next

it's not like these days are near the end of the semester when they are just trying to use up left over food, this is sometimes mid or beginning of the semesters. no sense to it

oh well. i get my own classroom these days and am happy to bring my own lunch and chill out by myself 

It isn’t just schools.

Factory cafeterias are no different.

Try to skip the brine-broth* station, the lady will hunt you down and give you a bowl!

*does not meet the legal definition of “soup”

Paid leave is incremental and cumulative: after your 4th one hour leave, it can be (it may not be, depending on your school) counted as a half day from your paid leave. 

NEIS doesn't regard time taken between 12.00-13.00 as paid/unpaid leave, but physically leaving work should technically be registered for liability purposes. If you use another system, I have no idea.

I did this because I felt unwell if I ate the school lunches.

NEIS doesn't regard time taken between 12.00-13.00 as paid/unpaid leave, but physically leaving work should technically be registered for liability purposes. If you use another system, I have no idea.

Yeah, this is 100% true.
I think that we are owed 30 minutes for every four hours of work, so the typical EPIK 08:30 to 4:30 gig gives us a 30 minute break (7.5 hours of work and one 30 minute break).
According to Korean labour laws, we are allowed to take that break anywhere, but yeah, it's best to let the school know for liability purposes.

Last year the meals seemed way more delicious than this year. could be because it was my first year. but this year, at both schools, it seems like they are just using up what's left in the freezer or something. They've served up some serious slop that I never ever saw, let alone ate last year. I just make sure I have enough snacks to get me through the day until I get home.  I don't eat the rice because it is making me fat. and I don't eat the kimchi anymore because it's making me bloated. I stick to the soup and the veggies when we have them and the 'main' course.

This is my fifth year in Korea. This year I finally opted out of eating in the cafeteria. My quality of life has increased exponentially. No awkward conversation, and no spaghetti-rice for me.

Ok, today's lunch was just damn weird and pretty irresponsible if you ask me considering
how it seems like Korean school lunches are meticulously planned out for nutrition and the right balance
of everything.    Every school lunch comes with this little kit where the lunch ladies have to put a portion
of the food into the cans to send back for whatever reasons (quality control, testing, or if food poisoning outbreak
occurs they can check the samples from each day).

So what is up with serving spaghetti with rice??? That's what I had today and I'm sorry but that is just a ridiculous
combination.  It's way too carb heavy and irresponsibly bad for your health!   I feel sick to my stomach.  I wanted to have
more vegetable component to that meal or at least garlic bread on the side or a small meat serving like chicken or
beef pattie with that spaghetti but no.  Instead, someone genius at the education ministry decided that having rice loaded next
to a pasta/spaghetti with thick creamy corn soup was a healthy idea.    The combination of all those 3 is awful. 

The soup could have at least been a nice light veggie/meat based soup.  But no, they go with this artificial thickening
corn soup which isn't even real corn I bet with rice and spaghetti.    Who makes up these lunches?  Talk about incompetence!

Every school is different and can also change when the head cafeteria lady changes.  One of my new schools this semester apparently served more fruit last semester.  Many schools often have a fried snack or side dish.  Far more hybrid meals Korean and something foreign (or Koreanized foreign) .  It was much more Korean years ago.  Soup with veggies and rice.  It was far more basic.  But lunches when they became free for kids definitely had to appeal to broader tastes of kids and also to  control costs.  Ironic considering I was never charged for school lunches and everyone else paid.  Yet, now most folks it's free and I have to pay.  With the price going up too.  I should go off them and even get some meal making service if I can pay almost the same and eat healthier. 

School lunches have definitely become less healthy the last few years. 

No awkward conversation, and no spaghetti-rice for me.

no talking allowed!!  seriously, no one talks during lunch now.
at my travel school there is plexiglass between folks but very little conversations.

The nutritionist does release a monthly list of what's planned on being served. Usually every homeroom teacher gets one, try to track it down if you want to know what you'll be eating on a certain day.

The nutritionist does release a monthly list of what's planned on being served. Usually every homeroom teacher gets one, try to track it down if you want to know what you'll be eating on a certain day.

It's also usually on the school website.