A lot of the high school faculty got the school lunches--we paid full price--if we just didn't want to pack a lunch for that day or forgot to. Suddenly, that cup of coffee from the dept. office was all they needed for lunch on such days. Or maybe a can of soda. (Until it was determined that students could access the faculty lounges too easily, then the faculty lounges became 'centers of healthy beverages.'
In fact, a lot of kids did, too.
I suddenly had kids in my class that, come the class period before lunch, discretely opened their backpack-based 'business' of selling chips, donuts, cookies, crackers, cans of soda (the kids could get free ice in the cafeteria), gummy worms and candy bars--a whole crapload of high-salt, high-fat, ultra processed and low-fiber 'foods'. The kids getting free lunches would take them, eat some of the things--perhaps the french fries, perhaps whatever passed for dessert--but the 'nutritional' part of the meal, whether breakfast or lunch--was just tossed in the trash or, often, just abandoned wherever the kids had wandered to eat.
When the Obama-era guidance vanished, you know, so did the backpack-as-convenience-store model of doing business.
Worse, a couple of pizza chains near my high school had free raffles. If a teacher had a class period that s/he wanted to reward--it aced a test, improved its behavior, whatever--there were weekly or monthly raffles. Say the class period, time of day, number of students, dietary issues, on your ticket for the free drawing and if you won you'd get a phone call to say when the free pizza party + soft drinks, plates, napkins, etc., would be delivered to your classroom. Suddenly the district banned this--as well as teachers buying a "class set" of donuts or whatever for their students. Why? They'd constitute a meal and would cause the district to run afoul of the nutritional 'guidance', compliance with which was required for continuation of the free/reduced meal funding.
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