As I recall from my Jersey City days, my parents paid for the school lunches.
Nothing was free.
In HS we had approx. 300 in the entire school
But we had an award winning basketball team, all on scholarship
My parents directly paid for those scholarships.......and my tuition....and my lunch!
When I was in HS, in Brooklyn, if I wanted cafeteria lunch it came out of my allowance.
We had an award winning basketball team as well, none of them were on scholarship, as it was a totally academic school and still ranks in the top 100 college prep high schools in the nation when all are considered and in the top 10 in New York.
I’m class of ‘78 and tuition was $660 a year ($60 a month) now tuition is $9,500 ($950 a month) and yes, there are scholarships now because they still want the best, even if they can’t afford it.