Another point worth mentioning - the School Nutritionist's Association is asking that the "reduced" lunch category be eliminated and rolled into "free." I think they are right - many lower-middle-class parents are struggling to pay for school lunch. Even $.40 per kid adds up when you've got several kids at school - we heard at the meeting that principals at different schools sometimes subsidize children out of their own pockets, most often in this category.
I wonder what would happen if we eliminated the reimbursement for full-price lunches. After all, why are we paying anything towards lunches for those who are demonstrably able to afford it? I understand that this must be an incentive to address the privacy issues above, but it in large part is the reason why so many of the foods pander to a kid's palate: districts get more money per meal for full-price lunches, and the full-price kids are most likely to bring a lunch on the days when school lunch doesn't please them. At the very least, the school lunch prices should be the same, regardless of category.