I was in school in the nineties in a former eastern block country. Our school lunch usually looked really similar to the thing they eat in the Matrix movie, sometimes it was a bit more greyish.

Cool article. Wish it had been more comprehensive though, rather than just a single school from a tiny handful of countries.

Germany — School ended at 13:20 four out of five days a week so I ate at home.
On "Langtagen" (long-days) my mom would pack me bread, or we'd go to McDonalds sometimes.
The school did have a cafeteria but the food was pretty meh. I think once they served spoiled milk.

The swedish one is the only one looking healthy and delicious to me.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

An enormous vat of vegetable soup bubbles away gently, dozens of pieces of chicken sizzle on the griddle and special trays are being stacked and carefully set aside for those with food allergies and intolerances.

In the country that invented pizza, it is no surprise to find the dish on the menu at Principe di Piemonte, an infant and primary school nestled among greenery in the San Paolo area of Rome.

A carefully planned repertoire of dishes rotates between the seasons and has a strong emphasis on incorporating organic vegetables, fruits, fish, meat and poultry, along with other locally sourced products.

“If one day the soup is a little salty, the children can give us feedback and we change it,” said Sirli Kont, an art teacher at the Gustav Adolf grammar school in Tallinn, Estonia’s capital city.

One hundred and ninety-four children have registered in advance for a pasta dish and just eight for the farmer’s platter – a plate of onions, broccoli, runner beans and potatoes accompanied by a creamy herbal sauce.

At Tinto primary school on the southside of Glasgow, the bright canteen area is decorated with cartoon veg, including Lightning McPea and Captain Cosmic Carrot, and serves a full halal menu as well as a daily vegetarian option.

The original article contains 2,017 words, the summary contains 211 words. Saved 90%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

I like these articles and images but I always feel just showing one lunch from one school does not really convey anything. Range of quality of food between schools can be quite huge.