MacKenzie Chung Fegan, Cesar Hernandez

What’s at stake? If the food is gross, students don’t eat it. With two-thirds of SFUSD studentsdepending on daily breakfasts and lunches for their nutritional needs, the quality, tastiness and, dare we say, presentation of the food matters. It’s no easy task: All school meals must abide by SFUSD nutrition standards, which meet or exceed federal and state guidelines, and the district has about $1.25 to spend for the food and milk per meal after labor and other costs, compared with about $2.50 per meal paid to Revolution Foods, which includes delivery. Since 2021, meals have been free to all 48,000 students regardless of family income.

So we, the Chronicle’s restaurant critics, grabbed our Jansport backpacks, put on our cleanest pairs of sneakers and went back to school, where we sampled the two options and weighed in with our own extremely professional opinions. After an early Revolution Foods lunch at Sloat Elementary, we headed north to Marina Middle School, a Refresh campus. (Two lunches in one day? We call that Thursday.) Below, you’ll find our real-time reactions, and check out our colleague Jill Tucker’s reporting for more information on the two school lunch programs.