I understand this is not what is meant here... but in a sense he's right. In a normal society where everyone pay taxes and they are well spent, it should be indeed the Government that's in charge of feeding kids at school
If your kids are hurting because you stand on the moral high ground… you get your cigs stolen from, by your children no less. All for the psychological comfort of being right.
You could say he was right, just early: this is also known as very wrong in e.g. financial markets.
Also, food cost is effectively artificial. We literally pay farmers not to farm to keep prices viable for market games. Instead of doing that, the government could buy a fraction of athe excess for school systems.
And yes, I'd accept taxes on par with non-trashfire countries if they resulted in the society and services of those countries.