I can still remember when I was a kid eating lunch in the cafeteria.
The food was not very good. Some days there was a main course that was good, but usually not. But it was very cheap food. Hotdogs. Mac&cheese. Tacos. Deep fried bean burrito. Plain hamburgers that were not real meat. Hoagies(sub sandwich) that had balogne, lettuce, pickle, and kraft cheese in them.
At that time you could get a hamburger at burger king for 49cents. If you bought a hamburger at the school cafeteria a la carte(not part of the whole meal), it cost 55cents and was not made of real meat, did not have lettuce or onion, and came on a plain stale bun.
Keep in mind that ALL school lunches are subsidized. Even the kids that pay full price for their school lunch are eating food that is partly paid for via tax dollars. This was the case even when I was a kid. Someone is making money off of taxpayers and not giving the students a good deal. There is no reason why a subsidized meal should be lower quality than a meal at burger king which not only is NOT subsidized, it is a private enterprise that must earn a profit.
I don’t blame people for trying to get school lunches at a discount. They are cheap crappy meals and are overpriced. They are a scam. It might be time to do away with them and require all kids to bring their own food.
I remember the food at the school cafeteria not being half bad, and they had the best yeast rolls. Had to go to a really GOOD restaurant to get rolls as good as the ones they made at the school cafeteria. The rest of the food was mediocre institutional food - bland, but pretty tasty. Except for the sausage patties, which stank on ice. Sure, we made fun of it, but we ate it.
Nowadays, I swear they have gourmet meals at the cafeteria. They practically have a menu to pick from. When I was kid the choices were “Whole, skim, or chocolate milk or orange drink?”