A school has been slammed for serving up a Christmas dinner consisting of a slab of "mystery meat", a single scoop of mashed potato and a few lettuce leaves. Photos of the measly-looking meal given to students at a high school in western America have been shared online, with Reddit users commenting on how "disgusting" it looks.
The student explained how the servers at his school proudly scooped the meal on to his tray while wishing him a merry Christmas. Taking to Reddit, he said: "My school's Christmas dinner. It's hard to tell from the picture but the 'ham' is bright red. The other option was chicken strips which actually looked good but of course they had to run out right before I got in line."
He says the toxic-looking ham and mash potatoes tasted "horrible" - but the rest of the meal wasn't all that bad.
"The ham was not warm, it was sitting in a pool of opaque liquid before they served it", he added.
"I ate a piece and it tastes kind of metallic and not like meat. I'm just concerned that it is unnaturally red. Even though I'm starving, I'm going to leave the mystery slab alone.
"The gravy tastes like someone put dirt in a bucket of dollar store vegetable oil. The potatoes sucked, but the other stuff was fine, probably because it was fruit and vegetables."
While the vast majority of users shamed the school for serving up "disappointment on a plate", others thought it looked "quite tasty" and is a lot better than what they're usually given.
One user said: "Why does this look illegal? The gravy looks demonic, the ham looks dyed red, is the ham even warm?"
Another user added: "You're lucky - that doesn't look bad. My school gave us a cold sandwich with two slices of deli-style turkey but worse on a hamburger bun and an orange."
A third user said: "Which prison system are you in? This is disgusting."
One more user added: "My school gave me two chicken wings and a reheated slice of garlic bread and then charged me for it."
Do you have a Christmas story to share? Email paige.freshwater@reachplc.com.
