For perspective: I come from a country where “cafeteria” food at school is good and affordable (most is less than the equivalent of 5-10 USD max and it’s not slop, it’s actual food), but it’s not an obligation for everyone since it’s up to the student if they want to buy something or bring their own lunch.
The “cafeteria” in my school isn’t a typical American one, rather it’s closer to a canteen where they sell food you can purchase from cup noodles, fried stuff, sandwiches, baked goods, etc. also appliances like a kettle or microwave are available in the dining hall for students to heat up left overs if they wanted.
The thing I tend to notice from American schools (according to US movies, there’s bias whether it’s true or false) is that they tend to depict kids always heading for the cafeteria for recess or lunch picking up whats available instead of bringing their own food from home (left overs from dinner), why is that the case?
I have warm memories of shitty school and cafe pizza from my childhood, when it hasn’t yet become a fashionable food around here and we weren’t collectively spoiled by choice of proper pizza. A thick but small slab of yeasty-as-fuck dough over- and undercooked at the same time; oddly sweet red liquid called ketchup which we’re told includes tomatoes and burnt where it dripped onto the tray; obscenely cheap and suspicious sausage and a generous helping of pickles, topped with a pitiful smattering of crappy local cheese that didn’t bother melting. I have such a vivid taste of it in my memories from the days when “time felt like a thick jelly” that I’ve looked up YouTube videos with recipes and am planning to make it sometime. It’s imperative to bungle it in all the right ways.