In my country, there’s no US style cafeteria (instead it’s a canteen where it’s up to the student if they want to buy anything) some bring their own lunches (home or leftovers) to school, so why do American kids rely on cafeteria food instead of bringing their own?
I mean, is cafeteria food across American schools that bad? It depends on where one resides or if they attend a public or private school. In my case I went to a private (Catholic) high school and the food there is actually good (& cheap when converted to USD).
Late 90’s, early 2k’s, it was far more disgusting that just “trash”. It hasn’t changed any since then, either. The food is all microwaved, deep fried or baked; all from frozen. And you might be inclined to think baked stuff wouldn’t be so bad. But the only thing that came out of an oven was the pizza - and I’m pretty sure they’d have fried that too, if they could.
The closest any of that came to decent food is when the delivery truck passed by the grocery store.
One time, a friend had grabbed strawberry milk, and ended up gagging on a gelatinous rope that some how came out his nose. (You know the pasta trick? In the mouth? Out the nose?)
It came out to jiggle on his tray like pink snotty jello from hell.
The only reason people ate that crap is largely because they didn’t have a choice.