WASHINGTON, D.C. – A Government Accountability Office report commissioned by Congress to examine trends in the National School Lunch Program shows participation continues to decline.

The report, released as part of a study requested by the Education and Workforce Committee Chairman John Kline and South Dakota U.S. Rep. Kristi Noem shows total participation in the federal lunch program plummeted by 1.4 million students since the Michelle Obama-inspired Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act was enacted in 2010.

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The GAO found “the participation rate of enrolled students also declined, from 62 to 58 percent. Seven of eight states that GAO interviewed reported that challenges with student acceptance of changes bade to comply with new federal nutrition requirements contributed to the decrease,” according to the report, issued last month.

The report notes that school food authorities – otherwise known as school nutrition departments – “reported some ongoing challenges with plate waste, that is, students taking required foods and then not eating them” as well as “difficulty serving certain required food items in ways that appeal to students …”

“My husband and I work hard to make sure healthy food goes on our kids’ plates at home, but we understand that if it doesn’t taste good, our kids aren’t going to eat it,” Noem said in a statement about the GAO report. “I think that’s something most parents have experienced.

“This report once again shows that if families can afford it, more and more are sending their kids to school with a sack lunch, but if finances are tight, kids are forced to stay in the program,” she continued. “I remain very concerned that the new regulations scheduled to take effect in the coming years will only make this phenomena worse.”

That’s certainly what the GAO report suggests.

“Nationwide, participation in the National School Lunch Program has declined in recent years after having increased steadily for more than a decade. In our January 2014 report, we found that total student participation in the National School Lunch Program – the total number of students who ate school lunches – dropped by a cumulative 1.2 million students (or 3.7 percent) from school years 2010-2011 through 2012-2013, with most of the decrease occurring during school year 2012-2013” when the bulk of the federal regulations took effect, according to the report.

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“According to our recent analysis of USDA data, school lunch participation continued to decline during school year 2013-14, reaching a cumulative decline of 1.4 million students (or 4.5 percent) since school year 2010-2011. …

“The decrease in total number of students eating school lunches during the last three school years was driven primarily by a decrease in students paying full price for meals. Based on family income, children who participate in school meals programs either pay full price or qualify to receive free or reduced-price meals. The number of students paying full price for meals declined by two million, a decrease that could be caused by students choosing to no longer purchase lunch at school or by students becoming eligible for free or reduced-price meals.

“The decline in students paying full price for lunch exceeded the increase in the number of students eating free lunches during the same time period.”

The report backs problems with the increased “healthy” school food regulations the School Nutrition Association has been harping about for years. The group, which represents more than 50,000 school food service managers across the country, has continuously lobbied Congress to loosen or roll back some of the restrictions since they were implemented.

First lady Michelle Obama, however, remains committed to fixing the nation’s childhood obesity epidemic through bureaucracy, had vowed to fight “until the bitter end” for her pet project, and continues to champion “healthy” foods in schools through a variety of government-funded promotions.

Congress has yet to act on renewing the Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act as required, which essentially means the federal regulations remain in place indefinitely.

Schools struggling to meet the requirements, meanwhile, continue to drop out of the federal program, and forego federal funding, to serve students lunches they’ll actually buy and eat to pull their food programs from the red.

And every day students across the country continue to complain online by posting pictures of their gruesome Obama lunches with the hashtag #ThanksMichelleObama.