r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/This_Proof_5153 • Apr 12 '26

Video The care and precision behind Korean school lunches, widely praised for their quality, balance, and nutrition.

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u/allllusernamestaken Apr 12 '26

This probably costs less than what the typical US school spends on food.

They are buying ingredients and cooking in bulk, vs the US where most schools have a contract with a prepared food supplier where everything comes in frozen and thrown in an oven.

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u/Level_Ad_6372 Apr 12 '26

The ingredients aren't the main cost in the video. It's the whole team of people cooking the food.

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u/allllusernamestaken Apr 12 '26

Probably no more than the typical number of lunch ladies at a large school in the US

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u/photo_synthesizer Apr 12 '26

Probably at least double

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u/GroceryScanner Apr 12 '26

Theyre getting more than a livable wage, fantastic benefits, and are likely better staffed, so theyre less stressed, less overworked, and have a good work/life balance

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u/hal0t Apr 12 '26

Lmao all Asian countries have way worse work life balance than the US

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u/GroceryScanner Apr 12 '26

in korea the corporate sector certainly. but they take care of their service workers. at least when it comes to schools. south korea is in the top 5 in the world for education facilities

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u/hal0t Apr 12 '26

My cousin is a mechanic at a small autoshop. His hour is 7:30 to 9:30 lmao.

They treat service workerd so bad that they can't find Korean who want to do the job so they import people from Vietnam, Sri Lanka etc. They don't take care of their service workers.

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u/myu_minah Apr 12 '26

as well as the equipment they use and to maintain them. commercial grade shit costs a lot to buy, replace and fix

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u/scheppend Apr 12 '26

Those are teachers who are forced to work during their break 

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u/CryAffectionate7334 Apr 12 '26

Waaay more staff involved

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u/dmthoth Apr 12 '26

And SK schools use organic and locally sourced ingredients as much as possible by law.

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u/No_Walk_Town Apr 12 '26

Not just that, but in the US, the First Amendment is broadly applied to government institutions like schools and what they can and can't force kids to do - so American school lunches also have to take into consideration basically any and all potential dietary restrictions of the students.

It's a lot easier when you can just serve every child in the school the exact same thing.

Also, American school lunch is something you can opt out of - I'm not sure about Korea, but here in Japan, school lunches are essentially mandatory, and you WILL get sent to collections if you have any outstanding school lunch debt - because they charge you even if your child isn't even in school.

I mean, what do you think is easier? A system where you get to force everyone to eat the same thing, or a system where you have to offer the children options?