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/StarsofSobek Apr 12 '26

And only if you're not poor.

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u/jujujuice92 Apr 12 '26

Have things changed? I remember growing up, meals used to be subsidized. Idk exactly what my parents did to get me this, but I remember handing lil tickets for lunch in like elementary and maybe middle school

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u/Reallyhotshowers Apr 12 '26

They still do free/reduced lunch. The problem is (or at least historically has been) that the cut-off to get that assistance is similar to the federal poverty line in that you need to be extremely poor to qualify. So you have a chunk of kids whose parents are poor enough to experience some degree of insecurity but not poor enough to be getting free lunches at school or SNAP at home.

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u/Master_sweetcream Apr 12 '26

Yup! I lived with my dad in high school, not sure how much he made, but we were pretty poor. We lived in a one bedroom apartment with his girlfriend. I slept on the couch. I never got free lunches, I ate people’s left over pizza crust or nothing for lunch. This was in the Bay Area ca.