this post was submitted on 19 May 2026
325 points (97.9% liked)

me_irl

7703 readers
2907 users here now

All posts need to have the same title: me_irl it is allowed to use an emoji instead of the underscore _

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 
top 39 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] AlecSadler@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 2 hours ago

My school received discount food from places like McDonald's...taco bell...little caesars...

So that's what we were fed, with a little milk carton.

And those companies hooked tons of us on fast food early on and have made their money back in spades, I'm sure.

[–] southsamurai@sh.itjust.works 7 points 5 hours ago

You know, the recipes for that kind of pizza are adaptable. A lot of how they come out is in the ingredients used. And not every school was/is supplied by the same distributors.

Our district was kinda mid. I had pizza at other schools for one reason or another both as a kid and as an adult. One district maybe two counties over (depending on how you define over) used the exact same recipe, but had a different food distribution contract and their shit was yummy rather than just better than nothing. But I also had some that was barely edible enough to choke down.

Seriously, go take a look at the recipes. There's nothing in them that has to give unpleasant results.

[–] Feathercrown@lemmy.world 9 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

"pizza" with "chocolate" "milk"

[–] HerbalGamer@sh.itjust.works 6 points 5 hours ago

Austrian prison will give you a full meal at 11 am.

[–] InvalidName2@lemmy.zip 11 points 8 hours ago

I love that some of the comments in here brought back some fun memories.

Yes, this was the pizza served in my grade school years almost every Friday. There was usually at least one alternative entree item available for those who didn't want pizza, but pretty much the only kids who'd get something other than pizza were the ones with food allergies.

My favorite side item to go with it was the healthy in name only side salad that was basically iceberg lettuce, grated government cheese, and a wedge of pale tomato all smothered in an inch thick layer of ranch dressing.

I know Lemmy's more of an international crowd than most social media I'm exposed to and that by the standards of the rest of the world, our school food is bottom tier. I'm still surprised to see so much disdain for the square pizza. Even the picky eaters and rich kids loved the cafeteria square pizza, back in the day. Maybe my poor rural school district just had a better than average quality square pizza or something? I doubt it, though. I mean, they certainly weren't great, but there were orders of magnitude worse pizzas in the world, like those wafer-thin formerly $1.00 USD frozen pizzas from the grocery store.

[–] TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world 74 points 12 hours ago

Ok now go run around in 110 degree direct sunlight

[–] EditsHisComments@lemmy.world 61 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

And then the teachers were upset because the class was falling asleep after lunch. Nevermind the fact we weren't receiving the appropriate nutrients needed to stay awake and function properly

[–] crunchy@lemmy.dbzer0.com 59 points 12 hours ago (3 children)

Starting school at 7am didn't help, either.

[–] Horsey@lemmy.world 19 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago)

My high school had us off the bus at the school at like 6h45. I was on the corner at 6h23 every day in high school. In the winter, I was out there before the sun came up. It was ludicrous.

[–] lobut@lemmy.ca 6 points 8 hours ago

I remember in highschool, a bunch of kids complained to our homeroom teacher and the teacher said: "it doesn't matter, the same students who show up on time will be here on time and the late ones will be late". I didn't say it but I thought to myself, that doesn't have anything to do with efficiency though ...

[–] Drusas@fedia.io 6 points 12 hours ago (2 children)

Elementary schools typically start after 8, but yeah, that's still early.

[–] Dhs92@piefed.social 5 points 8 hours ago

When I was in grade school it was around 7:30 am, we didn't start after 8 am until middle school.

[–] pennomi@lemmy.world 14 points 12 hours ago

Oof not around here

[–] prostatitis@lemmy.world 20 points 11 hours ago
[–] rethnor@lemmy.zip 1 points 5 hours ago

Oh no, I remember eating one of those in middle school then throwing it up in the lunch area because it was soggy...

[–] ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de 11 points 10 hours ago (2 children)

I really miss those pizza squares from 30+ years ago.

[–] CaptPretentious@lemmy.world 2 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Me too. I honestly think those pizzas were better than say, modern day Pizza Hut. For some reason, I really remember the cheese.

[–] ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 6 hours ago

1980s Pizza Hut was fantastic. Then they started cheaping out to compete on price from places like dominoes. They shot themselves in the foot.

But yeah. The lunch pizza had good cheese and a pretty nice sauce on a floppy thin crust.

[–] mycodesucks@lemmy.world 4 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Just put ketchup and plaster on a dried out pita.

[–] ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 6 hours ago

I think we were fed different pizza. Maybe your lunch lady sucked.

[–] farmgineer@nord.pub 4 points 8 hours ago

Calling that "pizza" is generous. I always hated that cardboard.

[–] Etterra@discuss.online 4 points 8 hours ago

Oh yeah, school "pizza." Man I hated my childhood.

[–] PlanchetteGhost@lemmy.world 6 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago)

Is this prison food? Pizza actually looks and tastes like pizza where I come from. As a matter of fact, I once even went to a school that offered barbecue chicken pizza for those who wanted it. Though, we paid for school lunches directly out-of-pocket.

[–] Fluffy_Ruffs@lemmy.world 9 points 12 hours ago (2 children)

Plastic cheese on stale bread with ketchup sauce. The chocolate milk on the other hand was always on point.

There would always be a sad piece of fruit on the side which never got eaten. If only we were taught a little bit about nutrition. Sure we knew what the food pyramid was but no adults every reinforced it.

[–] Serinus@lemmy.world 5 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

There's only so much you can do on $1.13 per student.

[–] idiomaddict@lemmy.world 3 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

You can do way more with it if you start from scratch though

[–] ShankShill@sh.itjust.works 4 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

The square school pizza used to be made from scratch. Now it's all made in a factory.

ITT is a bunch of people that ate the old recipe I think.

[–] idiomaddict@lemmy.world 1 points 4 hours ago

It could be people that ate the old recipes, but in-house cooking was mostly phased out (podcast, but there’s a transcript) by the early 80s, so it would be one of the earliest school memories for a 50 year old.

I know Lemmy skews older than other social media, but I don’t know if that checks out.

[–] FireRetardant@lemmy.world 7 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Pretty sure an enforced diet by the school would be highly controversial and opposed by many parents, despite the possible health benefits.

[–] happydoors@lemmy.world 7 points 9 hours ago

There’s actually a fascinating history(conspiracy?) of how American public schools which used to make their own lunches slowly got pinched by changing nutrition standards and swept into Gordon Food Service (?) frozen food hell because it was cheaper at the time. Super glad I got live through it all! /s

[–] Natanox@discuss.tchncs.de 11 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Damm, that sounds like a good time.

[–] Sprinks@lemmy.world 7 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago) (1 children)

On paper, yes. In flavor....no....just...oh god no... at least in my school district (u.s) because they used this nasty white sauce instead of tomato.

[–] Drusas@fedia.io 19 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

This meme is referencing a very specific type of pizza which was almost universally served by American elementary schools in the '90s (maybe also late '80s?). It was basically knock-off Ellio's--rectangular with red sauce and cheese, relatively bland but palatable enough.

[–] spamfajitas@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 10 hours ago

Really good YouTube video going into the history of that specific pizza including how to recreate it:

https://youtu.be/40MvjFaTVzE

[–] ummthatguy@lemmy.world 6 points 12 hours ago

That shit over a PBJ or a ham 'n cheese all day every day.

[–] starman2112@sh.itjust.works 4 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

I miss my Monday hot dogs, Tuesday tacos, Wednesday hamburgers and chocolate milk, Thursday sloppy joes and burritos in a bag. Friday was pizza day, the best day of the week. It always came with salad and a side of cold green beans

Hooray for pizza day, hooray for pizza day, I miss pizza day... the best day of the week

[–] Starduster75@lemmy.world 1 points 4 hours ago

The world needs more Aquabats

[–] Boozilla@sh.itjust.works 3 points 12 hours ago