BISMARCK, N.D. – “I know it is hard, but students need to be patient,” is one message a school is delivering to unhappy students in the face of criticism over skimpy lunches.

“I have samples coming in this week or next week, such as soup with lower sodium and chicken noodle being whole grain,” Bismarck High School kitchen manager Julie Nelson tells the Bismarck Tribune.

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“Just be patient. You will be seeing these items as soon as we find them.”

After implementing the school lunch rules championed by First Lady Michelle Obama, the high school is no longer serving “cookies, soup or chips that are not baked.”

“I personally think it is dumb because, if they are not going to sell food at the school, we are just going to go somewhere even more unhealthy,” sophomore Sam Wech says. “All the food I liked got taken away because it was not ’healthy,’ so now I have to go out to eat every day so I can get something I like.”

Proponents of controlling what children eat has specifically targeted school lunches.

“School lunches are a good place to implement changes,” Joan Knol, a Bismarck Public Schools registered dietitian, tells the paper. “School lunch feeds a lot of kids. It gives them a healthy meal and even teaches them about healthy nutrition, balance and to pick from the five food groups.”

But it’s hard to see the five food groups represented on the trays at Minnesota’s Austin High School.

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Student Maya Wuertz tweeted a photo of her skimpy lunch – a chicken patty on a bun, a scoop of apple sauce and a carton of low-fat milk.

“I think the picture that’s on social media is a misrepresentation of what is currently offered in in our schools,” says Jen Haugen of the Austin School District’s food service office.

“On this tray (pictured right) we have a chicken patty with a whole wheat bun, frozen blueberries that are thawed, Green beans, carrot sticks and low-fat milk,” Haugen tells KAAL.

“If a student chose [what Wuertz tweeted], it’s their own personal choice,” Haugen says. “All of this is available to students, but it’s a student’s choice of whether they want to choose a healthy option.”

While the regulations may have made sense when they were cooked up in a government office somewhere in Washington, D.C., their practical application is another matter.

The Tribune reports:

One thing that has captured the attention of not only the students at BHS but also the staff: Why can caramel rolls be served but not cookies? The reason is caramel rolls are whole grain so they count towards the grains and they are a main entree so the calorie amount can be higher than an add-on, such as a cookie.

 “The broccoli and cheese and the breaded cheese sticks were eliminated because the cheese was too high in saturated fat” in Florida’s Sebring High School.

“A student asked what happened to the big chocolate chip cookie, which Brown explained was replaced by a cookie half the size,” according to Highlands Today.