GREENWICH, Conn. – Officials with Greenwich Public Schools recently decided to ditch the National School Lunch Program for the local high school for the second year in a row, a move they said is worth loss of federal subsidies to serve students foods they want to eat.

The Greenwich Board of Education voted unanimously last week to opt Greenwich High School out of the National School Lunch Program for a second year to avoid a loss in cafeteria revenue tied to federal restrictions on calories, fat, sugar, sodium, whole wheat and other nutritional components that render school food unappetizing, GreenwichTime.com reports.

Administrators say deli sandwiches, potato products and muffins are just some of the items that would have been found in violation of the federal rules.

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The decision will cost Greenwich schools about $149,000 in federal subsidies for students on free or reduced-price lunch plans, but board members believe the freedom to create their own school meals students are more likely to buy.

A la carte sales account for about 95 percent of food sales at Greenwich High School, and officials believe federal food restrictions championed by first lady Michelle Obama would have a much more dramatic impact on the bottom line than the $149,000 loss of federal funds, according to the news site.

“We know that we are foregoing about $149,000 in reimbursables from opting out Greenwich High School from the National School Lunch Program,” board member Laura Erickson told the Time. “But what we are doing is protecting, we believe, the unknown loss in revenue from a la carte purchases at Greenwich High.”

Students, of course, are applauding the decision.

“I am very happy that the Board of Education once again has decided to give students choices in our lunches,” senior and student government president Blake Reinken told the news site.

But others overseeing the school’s finances are concerned about the impact opting out of the federal lunch program has on the district’s $4.1 million food service budget.

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Last year, the budget came up about $220,000 short, though town officials set aside $300,000 to cover the loss this year, and another $450,000 for next school year.

“I leave that to the Board of Ed to decide whether they want to participate in the federal program,” Marc Johnson, chairman of town’s budget committee, told the Time. “They still have to figure out a way to bring that school lunch program to a self-sustaining level. They have to show some improvements.”

District officials told the news site they’re looking into partnerships with local eateries, like Chicken Joe’s and Garden Catering, to recruit more students to the lunch line.

“If we can come to some kind of partnership that is beneficial for all parties, then it’s possible we could have some of those community favorites on the menu,” food services director John Hopkins said.

Greenwich High School, however, is only one of hundreds that have ditched the federal lunch program to avoid tighter food restrictions imposed on schools through the program. Those restrictions went into effect in 2012 at the urging of Michelle Obama as a means of combating childhood obesity through bureaucracy.

The Hempfield School Board in Pennsylvania also opted to drop the program from its high school after students avoided the “healthier” lunches like the plague. Instead of 1 percent milk, brown rice and whole grain pizzas, students last year began lining up at the microwave in droves to heat meals from home, officials told Lancaster Online.

“We are seeing our lunch and breakfast counts go down,” Hempfield food services director Brian Rathgeb told board members in April, according to the news site.

Hempfield High School previously sold about 210,000 lunches to students per year, but that figure has decreased by nearly a quarter since the tightened federal regulations went into effect in 2012. A Government Accountability Office report shows a total of 1.2 million students quit eating school lunches in the first two years of the new regulations, Lancaster Online reports.

At Hempfield High School, the federal food restrictions on a la carte items alone have taken a $200,000 bite out of the food services budget, district chief operating officer Dan Forry said.

The Hempfield district expects to lose about $300,000 in federal subsidies by opting the high school out of the National School Lunch Program. Officials “look to recover this loss with increased meal participation and a la carte sales,” Forry told Lancaster Online.