LA GRANGE, N.C. – Officials at Fink Middle School believe they’re wasting a lot of tax money by attempting to force students to eat fruits and vegetables they don’t want.

Each day, cafeteria manager Penny Mattice watches as students dump their government-mandated greens and fruits in the trash on the way to their lunch table, and at an estimated 25 to 30 cents per serving, the waste is quickly adding up, The Free Press reports.

“They just don’t want it,” she said. “I have seen a lot of them take something from the line and throw it in the trash on the way to their table.”

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At a rate of 25 percent of students throwing away the mandatory fruit or vegetable, school officials estimate the cost would be roughly $50,000 per year. But Pam Smith, child nutrition director for Lenoir County Public Schools, told the news site she estimates more like half of the students are dumping their food.

“It’s like we are throwing money in the trash,” Smith said. “We try to encourage them to eat new things – and they do – but a lot of them don’t like (fruits or vegetables.)”

The reports in Lenoir County echo complaints from school lunch workers across the country, who are lobbying through the School Nutrition Association to encourage Congress to loosen dietary restrictions imposed on school food at the behest of first lady Michelle Obama.

In school across the country, students, parents, cafeteria workers, administrators and others have repeatedly raised concerns with the school food regulations – imposed through the National School Lunch Program – that are driving students away from the lunch line.

The restrictions on calories, fat, sugar, sodium, and other aspects of school food have rendered the meals unappetizing, and as a result more than 1.4 million students have dropped out of the program since the changes were imposed in 2012.

Researchers have also repeatedly pointed to an estimated $1 billion annual increase in school food waste tied to the regulations, primarily the requirement students take fruits or vegetables whether they want it or not.

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The New York Times and numerous other media outlets highlighted a study as recently as September that shows students are taking more fruits and vegetables as a result of the regulations, and they’re also throwing more of it away.

Researchers in the recent study took digital images of lunches served to 498 students before the regulations went into effect, and images of another 944 afterwards to come to their conclusions.

“After the new rules went into effect, more children selected fruits or vegetables – taking an average of .89 cups from the lunch line compared to .69 cups before the rules were in place,” the New York Times reports.

“But actual consumption dropped after the new vegetables rules were imposed,” according to the site. “Vegetable and fruit consumption dropped to .45 cups, down from .51 before, and children were throwing out the required foods at a rate 56 percent higher than before the rules were instituted.”

A different national study conducted by LabDoor.com – and highlighted by The Spectrum – showed students tossed 73 percent of their vegetables, 47 percent of their fruit, 19 percent of their entrees and 25 percent of their milk.

Paula Loveland, child nutrition supervisor for Iron County School District in Utah, told The Spectrum she’s also witnessed students dump their greens in the garbage on the way to the lunch table, which she said is “killing us financially.”

Fink Middle School cafeteria manager Mattice seems to agree with Loveland that schools are simply forced to serve more fruits or vegetables than students want, and said the situation is not only creating waste, it cuts into the staff’s cooking time.

“If we didn’t have to prep so much fruit, we could make more scratch foods like meatloaf rather than serve processed foods,” Mattice told The Free Press.