They want to make the buns tasty but don't want too many calories. Makes sense to me.
It an educational establishment, perhaps it should start with some basic nutrition education.
Anyone who has kids and have insisted on a healthy diet knows this is false. Kids won’t eat for a while but then, like everyone else, they will eat most anything when hunger is strong enough.
When cookies were removed from schools, some parents even protested (literally protested, as in with signs and petitioning outside of the school marching back and forth -> i saw it on the news) for the cookies to be put back in !!!! My jaw nearly dropped to the floor and rolled out the door. It's just clear, that there's a lot of really really misinformed people in the world.
Also, not all healthy food is expensive. Organic Beans are super low cost and make an excellent staple. Personally, I also love oat meal. both are super high in nutrients, fiber and protein and very low cost.
I guess they need to put the splenda in so that they screw up all the kids' metabolism + gut microbes, but they also need to make sure the food isn't accidentally diabetic safe?
Maybe I shouldn't be surprised. This is the same bureaucracy that defunded science and art education, and attempted to defund calculus (so that only rich districts with educational foundations would have those things). I kind of suspect it's some sort of intentional long-game eugenics program. I wonder if there is some way for rich Californian parents to band together to pay extra for non-malicious school lunches (as with science and art education).
(Or, better, force the state government to stop sucking so much!)