When I write about the slimy chicken and tasteless rice and vegetables, some teachers always look mystified. They eat their school lunches. Those lunches will never win culinary awards, but the food tastes O.K. In some schools, the food even tastes pretty good, as kids choose between sandwich bars and the pizza stand.

But financially-challenged districts face budgetary hurdles that other districts do not, and the food contract goes to the lowest bidder, who then has to try to produce lunches that will make that bidder a profit. Those bidders make elaborate promises, but in the end, the food will not be produced with love or with an eye to getting back a repeat customer. Those student-customers are like citizens in the old Soviet Union in search of shoes. You have your choice of the brown, brown or brown or you can go buy the same brown shoe down the block.

In the absence of love, cooking can still taste fine when the right ingredients are thrown into the process. But in lowest of the low-bidder cooking, these ingredients are the cheapest ingredients available. Eat one of the apples, if you doubt me.

The new, healthy school lunch menu: A great idea in districts with money.