LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Two Arkansas school districts estimate students throw away more than $1 million in food annually, mostly because of federal school food regulations championed by first lady Michelle Obama.

The problem is among a host of issues tied to the Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act and the National School Lunch Program that are plaguing school districts across the country, driving down lunchroom sales by convincing students bring food from home.

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“Depending on the item that we’re having, a lot of kids haven’t quite gone to the whole grain yet, and so a lot of times the whole grain items will go into the trash, salad, but if it’s spaghetti, fresh fruits, stuff like that they tend to eat it all,” Pulaski County student nutrition director Regina English told KATV.

English estimates the district spends about $4 million each year on school food, and about $1 million worth goes in the garbage. The nearby Little Rock School District reportedly spends roughly $1.5 million each year on school food and students trash about $35,000 worth, officials told the news site.

National estimates peg increased school food waste tied to the federal regulations at more than $1 billion. The staggering sum is all the more eye opening considering the fact that more than 1.4 million public school students have dropped out of the National School Lunch Program since the regulations were imposed on schools in 2012.

In Arkansas, some of the biggest issues have been the tight thresholds for salt and whole grains.

“Whole grain is a problem … you know we’ve done it for about three to four years now, and we have kind of tried to jump above the curve and start it early, but the kids just don’t take the brown bread …. Is what they call it … we don’t like the brown bread,” English said.

“The salt, you know, we have so many sodium restrictions right now that we can’t put salt in anything,” she added.

“Every time I have lunch at school with my son, I am amazed at how much food is wasted,” parent Angela Pittman Arrowwood posted to the KATV site. “Some of the lunches are UNTOUCHED.”

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“Mine ‘eats’ it but says it’s awful,” Janie Forga Childress wrote. “So most goes in the trash.”

It’s pretty much the same story in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, where district officials are scrambling to address a 10 percent decrease in lunchroom sales since Michelle Obama’s food regulations went into effect, Wauwatosa Now reports.

“Our participation has been decreasing,” said Deanna Gitzlaff, general manager for Sodexo, the Wauwatosa School District’s food service provider. “Some of it is because of the regulation. That’s truly what we feel.”

Gitzlaff said lunch staff must force fruits or vegetables on students who don’t select them themselves.

“We have baskets of fruit by the registers” workers plop on students’ plates as they cash out to comply with the government regulations, she said. “That’s kind of the process – they have to have that minimum.”

The districts business services director, John Mack, pointed out other issues.

“If you serve a hot dog, you have to put it on a whole wheat bun,” he told Wauwatosa Now. “Kids don’t want that stuff.”

And it’s not just Wauwatosa kids who aren’t having it.

“Elmbrook School District high schools dropped out of the federal lunch program earlier this year after the district saw a decline of about 4 percent in its lunch participation. The high schools planned to follow nutritional guidelines provided by the USDA, but without the federal program, the high schools have more flexibility in their dining options,” the news site reports.

“A broader look at Wisconsin shows the Muskego-Norway School District, the Waterford Graded School District, Waterford Union High School and the Central High School District of Wetosha also decided to leave the lunch program, according to a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article published in July 2014.”

Meanwhile, students are pleading their case for better school lunches online through the #ThanksMichelleObama hashtag on Twitter. Bryan Buer, a student in Sunset Hills, Missouri made a compelling case recently with truly disturbing picture of some sort of turkey soup slop.

“Butchering a traditional thanksgiving meal #TurkeySoup #thanksmichelleobama,” Buer wrote.