Not in the Netherlands, most older kids (>12) bring a lunch box, usually filled with 4 slices of bread with cheese, meat, "hagelslag" or peanut butter (we call it peanut cheese and it is almost only peanuts). Children until 12 often eat at home during the afternoon although that is rapidly changing. Many children now spend lunch time at school, I think the cost is ~1 euro for some slices of bread with topping as mentioned before, they are helped by volunteer parents.

My 4y/o brings a box to school with 1 piece of fruit (some bring a cookie/oat bar or something but the school encourages fruit) and a bottle of water which is eaten around 10:15 I believe. I think this is only for young children.

By the way, if a kid forgets his or her fruit they make it point to share, I like that policy. Also I hear from colleagues more and more schools are switching to water only to battle weight increase in children, although this leads to some discussion :)

Edit: see below, the Netherlands is waking up I guess :)

In Portugal, school lunches are subsidized (it's currently $1.6 per meal), but poor families pay only 50%, or zero if their income is low enough. So it sounds similar to the US.

On the other hand, there's no lunch bill, as kids have to purchase the lunch tickets upfront. I'm actually not sure what happens if the kid says he has no money; I'm pretty sure my classmates would be too embarrassed to do so. The few times one of them didn't have money, we either knew beforehand (and pooled money ourselves) or the kid just went hungry.

In the Netherlands lunch is usually sandwiches (with cold cheese) that children being themselves. A proper meal follows at 1730 at home. Some schools do school milk or school fruit, but usually it's bring your own. In high school cafeterias exist but do not come near what I see that US/UK schools feed their kids in not very nutritional food. Schools do not last all day, so most kids eat some more after school before going to sports or other hobbies. Many smaller kids go to after school care when both parent work.

In Australia, we provide lunches for our kids to take to school with them. Most schools have a 'tuckshop' where kids can buy treats (icecream, chips) by paying cash on the spot, or parents can order and pay for meals (typically online) beforehand. But that's usually on occasion as a treat and not a regular, daily, lunch provision.

In Sweden it's illegal to charge parents for anything as a school. We can do bake sales and such to fund a field trip for example (and if the money isn't raised, they save what was raised and push back the event until next time), but the school cannot base it's budget on parents paying or students paying for things.

Yes it is (at least in France, Sweden and Finland), and it is much, much better than the stuff the US kids are fed.

In India, government run schools offer free mid-day meals, as an incentive to attend.

> Others argue that school meals should be offered free to all children, regardless of income, as is the case in Sweden and Brazil.