You’ve got to check this out: click here to see school lunches from all over the world.

One look at this stuff and I’m swept back in time to my high school cafeteria, standing in line behind Bruce Jarchow (my cute boyfriend/football star). The smell of the room is always the same, regardless of what the day’s entrée is, and it’s not an odor that stimulates the appetite. I’m watching volunteer moms slap those burgers on our plates, adding a few overcooked green beans and a wad of mashed potatoes before we move on to the pyramid of milk cartons and the triangles of pie.

The food sucked. My guess is, it still does. My younger daughter’s high school’s food sucks. My older daughter’s fancy pants college’s food sucks. What’s up with this? Isn’t it just as easy to spend money on decent food as on suck-o food?

I complain about this a fair amount, which is why I found this site, with snapshots of what the world’s kids are eating, so interesting. I scrolled down the page, noting that some of the lunches look pretty darn good, featuring foods that have retained some color and fiber, while others, uh, don’t. My eyes came to rest on a particular lunch tray that looked like the bottom of my pet hamster’s cage, it’s contents all beige and pellet-like. To me it was the worst one, punishment food, food that would assure a student’s failure in the classroom and dismal future.

Scroll down to the thirteenth tray. That was my pick for worst lunch on the page. Now note which country it is that’s serving it up. Now weep.