Lunch Lady Ordered to Cook Less Tasty Meals

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A child eats a cafeteria lunch.

While recent adjustments to school lunches in America have prompted student complaints, pupils and parents at an elementary school in central Sweden are also protesting changes to their cafeteria’s cuisine.

Annica Eriksson, the head cook at the Falun school, received an order from the municipality to decrease the quality of her cooking after it discovered she served a variety of 15 vegetables and freshly baked bread to students each day. The municipality claims that these offerings are “unfair” to students at other local schools, who consume meals of a lesser quality, The Local reported.

(MORE: Kids Create Parody Video to Protest School Lunches)

The meals at Eriksson’s school do not fit the requirements of the local diet plan started in 2011. Katarina Lindberg, head of the team responsible for the school diet scheme, told a local newspaper that the group’s goal was to streamline cafeteria food, according to The Local.

“A menu has been developed… It is about making a collective effort on quality, to improve school meals overall and to try and ensure everyone does the same,” Lindberg said.

The Local reported that the municipality forced Eriksson to swap her bread for a store-bought type, and she now offers only half of the old vegetable assortment as before. The chef has also prepared Easter and Christmas feasts in the past, but those may no longer occur.

“It has been claimed that we have been spoiled and that it’s about time we do as everyone else,” Eriksson told The Local.

Eriksson told The Local that she believes it’s her duty to provide a variety of options for lunch because not all students enjoy the same foods. This duty spurred her to provide an assortment of vegetables and selections of protein, such as beef patties, chicken and shrimp, which she said has not increased the municipality’s expenses.

Parents and students are upset about the degradation of the school lunches. The school’s fourth graders have even reportedly started a petition to protest the decision.

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