I know at least one private school around here has pretty damn good & healthy (but not extravagant or fancy) lunches at something like $2 more per meal per day

I know at least one private school around here has pretty damn good & healthy (but not extravagant or fancy) lunches at something like $2 more per meal per day than what the public schools charge. It amounts to roughly double the cost. The public schools here don't even seem to operate real kitchens anymore like they did when I was a kid, and aren't equipped to actually cook at all, but just to heat up frozen stuff. Instead of even assembling sandwiches from ingredients, they serve those might-as-well-be-a-candy-bar "uncrustables". That's the degree to which they don't function as a real kitchen anymore. Not-coincidentally, I expect, I'm pretty sure most "kitchen" staff isn't even employed by the schools anymore, but by companies they contract to handle lunch for them.