Back when we were still married, and even afterwards, I would go into the schools and try the food and say howdy to the staff. It is not gourmet by any means, but not that bad. Even elementary schools have salad bars and the like. Of note, the most popular menu is the one that has chicken nuggets, tater tots, corn an apple and a cookie. The schools no longer have deep fryers, so the nuggets and tots are baked, the corn is a frozen USDA commodity and the cookie is high fiber and has prune puree in it to reduce fats and sugar. And I have to say that the cooks and staff that I knew took pride in producing as good food as possible consistent with the financial and equipment limitations. Because of the mandate to reduce labor costs as much as possible, they could not do as much scratch cooking as they would have liked.
It was amazing to me how politicized the program was. Primarily at the national level, where the USDA is lobbied to include or require various foods to be on the commodity program. If you are Tyson or Archer Daniels Midland, you want the government to be buying your products for the school lunch program and other institutional use. And boy, do they spend the money on lobbyists and members of Congress to ensure this happens.
