I certainly understand having to follow federal guidelines but day after day I see kids get the "required" food and then throw the entire tray of food away. There must be a way to meet the guidelines and have kids enjoy eating healthy foods. We lived in Oklahoma for a couple of years and the elementary school piloted a program that involved local chefs. My understanding is a local chef developed several meals that were fresh and healthy. He tried them out on the kids at our school and during lunch time would go talk to the kids about what they liked and what they didn't like. He took that information and developed his longterm "meal plan." Once completed, he trained staff and turned the program over to them. It worked!!! The kids loved it! They were excited to give their input and see it put into action. One side note - this was a larger student body (about 800 students) and it worked. I have no idea how this came about and the costs involved but it seems incredibly wasteful and costly to throw out so much food each day!!!