In my early twenties I managed a group home facility for “Developmentally Disabled” (the now impolitic term was “educable mentally retarded”) adults and the agency would occasionally have access to federal surplus foods for the residents. The quality was actually excellent. I particularly remember the American style cheese and peanut butter. In bulk slabs and cardboard gallon tubs respectively and the best I ever tasted.
When I was in grade school the schools received a lot of the stockpiled cheese and peanut butter. We ate a lot of cheese and peanut butter items. Soooooo good. But that’s when we still had lunch ladies who actually came in at 5 am every day to cook everything from scratch.