I remember seeing a brief documentary on Youtube, detailing how school lunches were made in Japan. They just followed the lunch production for a single day, but it was enlightening. The menu that day was teriyaki yellowtail tuna, with roasted burdock root, apple slices, tonjiru miso soup with pork, tofu, wok-fried vegetables and dashi, with Koshikihari rice from the Nagano province.

Everything was prepared fresh in the morning, placed into bento boxes, and delivered by lunch for consumption. The per-student cost of all of this was ~$35 American -- edit -- $35 for the entire month. Roughly $1.70 a day to feed a student an amazing meal.

I was frankly dumbfounded at how delicious everything looked, and especially for how cheaply everything had been prepared. I would have been delighted to pay $15 or more for this meal.