Is mystery meat on the menu?

It’s hard not to take a pot shot at cafeteria food, but the folks cooking up meals for the Chandler Unified School District in Chandler, Ariz., must be doing a better job than most. Good enough to run a little side business, anyway.

The district has a central kitchen that prepares meals daily for its 29,000 students. “But the kitchen operation also includes a little-known catering business — one that’s available for the public to hire,” according to a story in today’s Arizona Republic.

The district doesn’t try to compete with private catering businesses, and . . . offers only full on-site catering services for events held on district or city property. However, the public can make direct food orders and then pick up the items themselves at the central kitchen.

And the story actually quotes people who used the catering service and liked the food!