By Victor Skinner
EAGnews.org

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Less than four months after the federal government set new, restrictive limitations on public school lunches, rebellious students have convinced bureaucrats to dial back their requirements.

Last month, officials with the U.S. Department of Agriculture lifted weekly limitations on meat and grain portions in the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, which was reauthorized last year with new guidelines and promoted by First Lady Michelle Obama, NewsTimes.com reports.

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“The revisions to the law are significant,” Sodexo Food Services nutritionist Ava McGlew told the news site. “We had to put a lot of work into making the meals compliant. I feel that if they didn’t have the maximum (meat and grain portion limits) in place at the start, the transition would have been more acceptable to the students.”

Across the country, public school students rebelled against the federal dietary restrictions, which limited meat and grain portions and nearly doubled fruit and vegetable servings.

Students wouldn’t bite. The new rules resulted in massive amounts of wasted food in school cafeterias across the country as students tossed their greens and went without rather than comply. With portions limited – two ounces per day of meat and 12 ounces per week of grains – many students reportedly got physically ill from not eating or gorged themselves then they got home, according to media reports.

The debacle also spawned a little creativity: A Kansas high school shot a music video titled “We Are Hungry” which went viral on YouTube, while kiddy capitalists in some elementary schools smuggled in chocolate and sold it by the squeeze.

“Other protests came from school food officials, who had trouble planning meals based on the new guidelines, and from schools that saw reduced participation in their lunch programs,” NewsTimes.com reports.

The embarrassing blowback prompted federal officials to rethink their strategy. In December they removed the weekly restriction on grains entirely, and upped the meat portion to three ounces per day with no weekly restriction, the news site reports.

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Nutritionists are welcoming the changes.

“I like the increase in protein because that aids in satiety. It makes you feel you have eaten,” Connie Marcy, a nutritionist in Brookfield, told NewsTimes.com.

Jill Patterson, dietician in Newtown, Connecticut, said the 9-ounce weekly grain limit for elementary students was too restrictive, and she’s glad to see it go.

The changes, however, may only be temporary, according to Maura O’Malley, director of food services for Bridgeport, Connecticut schools.

“My understanding is that it’s only for the rest of the year, until the industry can provide new products in the right sizes,” she said.