The free milk was horrible exactly as Pavian describes
We had that too. Even after the milk-snatcher stopped it, we still had it in South Yorkshire. It was always on the point of going off. I can't stand milk to this day. Nevertheless, it was vitamins and calcium which some kids didn't get much of elsewhere.
Its nothing to do with communism just the bean counters undervaluing the country's potential and future.
I think you could say that about most of the developed world and places less-developed too. And cynicism creeps into bureaucracies and is pervasive.
School meals (like hospital and prison food) have a tiny budget. It's a miracle really that they served what they did, and with Poland's kleptocracy meaning that not all the budget/food got to the kids an even bigger miracle.