A cafeteria is a food service location within a school where students are usually required to go to eat lunch. There is no table service and students go in a line and, depending on the school, either pick whichever food they want that's available or have all types of food already available on their trays.
Paying[]
In all schools the students have to pay for the food, although if they pay a large amount they won't need to for a while. They can also sometimes get away without paying for a certain period of time, depending on the school. Some governments have programs to subsidize the lunch costs for the poorest students.
Food[]
In American schools, cafeterias commonly serve food such as hamburgers, sloppy joes, apples, cookies, peas, etc.
Drinks are usually milk, chocolate milk, strawberry milk, juices, water, etc.
In Popular Culture[]
Cafeterias are comonly shown in American children comedy series. In them, luches are commonly stereotyped to have bad food, ugly, possibly foreign, cafeteria ladies who where white clothestables and tables reserved for "popular" students.