Caitlin Tagner, a high school sophomore from North Carolina, is very clear about who she blames for her school's "nasty" lunches: "I blame Michelle Obama." It's great that schools are trying to make lunches better, they're not doing a very good job of it. "Starving kids at school isn't exactly a way to (get) kids' obesity down," Tagner added. "I feel like it's just been taken too far." On Monday, the Associated Press reported that some school nutrition directors want the Department of Agriculture of loosen up the new-ish lunch requirements so students will stop throwing away their food. 
 
 Anthony Gallimore, a high school senior from Georgia, was more willing to acknowledge others might be at fault. "It's gotta be a combination of Michelle and the servers at the school. No one person could take all the blame," he DM'd The Wire. "Though, the servers are probably just doing what they're told." 
 
 At Gallimore's school, most people "put up with" the lunch, but several have started bringing their own. "Health-wise, I'd say it's an illusion of benefit. The food even LOOKED more presentable before," he wrote. "And if nobody chooses to eat the gross food, then it can't possibly be helping anyone. It's just being thrown out anyway." 
 
 Tagner and Gallimore are two of millions of students across the country adjusting to the new (as of the 2012-2013 school year) lunch standards mandated by the Healthy and Hunger-Free Kids Act, a law Michelle Obama championed. Some kids like the lunches, but the ones who don't have school cafeterias are concerned. 
 
 The right-leaning Twitchy, and several other sites, recently rounded up tweets from disgruntled high schoolers who blamed their lunches on Michelle Obama's health standards. But it turns out that the lunches, specifically the bad ones, aren't her fault — Congress and the Department of Agriculture approved the standards, and some school cafeteria's aren't adapting as well as others. 
 
 The Healthy and Hunger-Free Kids Act 
 
 New meals are required to offer a whole grain, protein, fat free or low-fat milk, fruits and vegetables. Student can turn down two of the five options, but they have to take either a fruit or a vegetable. So for instance this school lunch is not in compliance: 
 
 All we get for lunch today. Thank you Michelle Obama pic.twitter.com/1rACNXM9aP — . (@BradyJustice2) March 12, 2014 
 
 ...because there are no fruits or vegetables. Brady Justice, the Oklahoma sophomore who ordered that lunch, acknowledged that his school has a salad bar ever day, "which is nice, but I don't like salad :/," he said over DM. Justice said that while the food is a little bit healthier, "I am in athletics and every day I am hungry by the end of school." Schools and students are now worried about the sodium limits that are set to take effect by 2017, according to the AP, and want to drop the requirement that every kid take a fruit or a vegetable. 
 
 Every student The Wire interviewed saw and/or tasted the decline in their lunch options over the last few years. Justice replied, "In the past we always had an option for chicken nuggets or something else that was generally tasty, but this year we get a little sandwich or pizza made with wheat bread." (The pizza is not good.) Sarah Vongphachanh, a junior from Alabama, said the changes started with reduced calorie snacks. "There was a noticeable shift," Gallimore said. "The milk brands changed and the bread changed from white to a much smaller portion of wheat bread." Tagner gave up. "I started bringing my lunch now," she wrote. "The milk is usually warm also." 
 
 Two things. First, it's worth noting that some kids like Justice don't eat the healthy part of the healthy school lunches. Second, as child nutrition advocate Ann Cooper told The Wire, "Michelle Obama has absolutely nothing to do with the national school lunch program." Cooper, aka the Renegade Lunch Lady, is a trained chef and the director of nutrition for the Boulder Valley School District in Colorado. "She's certainly a cheerleader for it and she certainly has made her personal views apparent," but the Department of Agriculture is in charge of the actual regulations, Cooper said. 
 
 @MichelleObama thanks for ruining lunch lol bye 😒👊 — allison (@Allie_40_5) April 3, 2014 
 
 The National School Lunch Program designates federal dollars towards paying for a percentage of the cost of free, reduced price and regular priced school lunches. In return, the schools have to follow certain guidelines, including nutritional guidelines. In 2010, Congress passed the Healthy and Hunger-Free Kids Act, which calls for healthier foods and portion sizes. 
 
 "I think they're just disingenuous," Cooper said of the kids protesting their lunches. "Because what I think they would like, instead of having fruits and vegetables... they'd like to have four pieces of pizza ... There's plenty of schools that are not serving good food, but that has nothing to do with the guidelines." 
 
 In addition to cracking down on junk food, the law reauthorized several child nutrition programs, expanded children's access to free and reduced price lunches, increased the government's contribution to lunches by six cents a meal and marked the largest investment in the programs in their history, as ABC News reported that August. But it's the food everyone is upset about. 
 
 Schools Cafeterias 
 
 Cooper acknowledged that not all school lunches are good — not all schools have a lunch program overseen by a trained chef and nutrition advocate — but thinks kids just miss junk food and aren't used to choosing better options. "If a high school student in one of our schools chose ... let's just say they had a quesadilla, and the quesadilla is the grain and the protein. They could end up with a quesadilla and an apple, and that's it," she said. "And that's not enough food for most high school kids, but that's because they didn't choose to take the rest of the food." 
 
 The USDA has been open to at least temporarily adjusting some of the guidelines. Last June the Government Accountability Office recommended that the USDA loosen its restrictions on grains and meats after speaking with school food authorities from 17 schools in eight school districts. 
 
 Thanks Michelle Obama I'm going to be so full after this $2.30 lunch pic.twitter.com/l7JV6Jb35i — Ciarra ☮ (@Lawsonmonster) April 25, 2014 
 
 "The school districts had problems implementing some of this," the GAO's Director of Education, Workforce and Income Security Kay E. Brown, told The Wire. In February, Brown's department released a report detailing how schools handled the implementation of the new healthy food standards. Conservative outlets latched on to the fact that 1 million students — 3.7 percent — were projected to leave the school lunch this year because of the new standers, but Brown said it was more complicated than that. 
 
 "The vendors weren't necessarily ready to give them some of the right types of food in the right serving sizes that they needed. They didn't necessarily have the right kitchen equipment on hand, they had to retrain their staff to be cutting up vegetables and fruit, rather than making baked goods," Brown said. 
 
 While schools across the country experienced problems with issues specific to both the health standards like plate waste, food costs for healthier meals, portion sizes and calorie ranges, schools that started implementing the standards earlier had an easier time. Studies have shown that hyper-palatable foods (junk food) can be addictive — it takes time to develop a taste for healthy foods. "We also talked to school districts that had started serving more nutritious foods earlier than what's required and we're starting to see acceptance improve among the kids," Brown said. 
 
 Cooper noted that her school, which started serving the new health standards five years ago, experienced a 4 percent drop in sales their first year, followed by three years of 6 to 7 percent increases. Switching from "chicken nuggets and tater tots" to fresh salad bars isn't an easy process. "The idea that we're going to change kids palettes in just a couple of months from high fat, high salt, high sugar to fresh fruits and vegetables for older kids is unreasonable." 
 
 Teens, who are in high school for about four years, aren't thinking long-term. Tagner says she regularly throws away the fruit or vegetable that comes with her school lunch. "I don't like doing it, but I'm hoping it's a lesson learned that they're not providing students nutritious meals by forcing them to get stuff." ||||| ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — Becky Domokos-Bays of Alexandria City Public Schools has served her students whole-grain pasta 20 times. Each time, she said, they rejected it. 
 
 Fruit and vegetables are served during lunch service at the Patrick Henry Elementary School in Alexandria, Va., Tuesday, April 29, 2014. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) (Associated Press) 
 
 Brianna Delcid-Gomez, 7, right, sitting with Ruth Gebregiorgis, 8, left, and Amina Sharif, 7, center, eat lunch at the Patrick Henry Elementary School in Alexandria, Va., Tuesday, April 29, 2014. (AP... (Associated Press) 
 
 Biden Arias-Romers, 5, left, and Nathaniel Cossio-Boatwright, 6, right, eat lunch at the Patrick Henry Elementary School in Alexandria, Va., Tuesday, April 29, 2014. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) (Associated Press) 
 
 Becky Domokos-Bays, the Director of Food and Nutrition Services at Alexandria City Public Schools, holds up a tray of food during lunch service at the Patrick Henry Elementary School in Alexandria, Va.,... (Associated Press) 
 
 Starting next school year, pasta and other grain products in schools will have to be whole-grain rich, or more than half whole grain. That includes rolls, biscuits, pizza crust, tortillas and even grits. 
 
 The requirement is part of a government effort to make school lunches and breakfasts healthier. Championed by first lady Michelle Obama, the new standards have been phased in over the last two school years, with more changes coming in 2014. 
 
 Some schools say the changes have been expensive and difficult to put in place, and school officials are asking Congress and the Agriculture Department to roll back some of the requirements. Their main concerns: finding enough whole grain-rich foods that kids like, lowering sodium levels and keeping fruits and vegetables from ending up in the trash. 
 
 In interviews, school nutrition directors across the country mostly agreed that healthy changes were needed in school lunches — long famous for daily servings of greasy fries and pizza. Kids have adapted easily to many of the changes, are getting more variety in the lunch line and are eating healthier. 
 
 But Domokos-Bays and other school nutrition directors say the standards were put in place too quickly as kids get used to new tastes and school lunch vendors rush to reformulate their foods. When kids don't buy lunch, or throw it away, it costs the schools precious dollars. 
 
 "The regulations are so prescriptive, so it's difficult to manage not only the nutrition side of your businesses but the business side of your business," Domokos-Bays said. 
 
 Some of the main challenges reported by school nutrition directors: 
 
 —Whole grains. While many kids have adapted to whole grain rolls, breads and even pizza crusts, some schools are having problems with whole grain-rich pastas, which can cook differently. USDA's Janey Thornton, a former school nutrition director, says the government is working with the food industry to develop better pastas. 
 
 Whole grains have also proved a hard sell for some popular regional items, like biscuits and grits in the South. Lyman Graham of the Roswell, New Mexico, school district says tortillas are one of the most popular foods in his area, but the whole wheat flour versions are "going in the trash." 
 
 —Sodium. Schools will have to lower the total sodium levels in school meals next school year and then will have to lower them even further by 2017. 
 
 School lunch directors say the 2017 target — 640 milligrams total in an elementary school lunch and 740 milligrams in a high school lunch — isn't feasible and say kids will reject the foods. USDA's Thornton acknowledges the food industry isn't there yet but encourages frustrated school lunch directors to "worry about today first before we imagine the worst down the road." 
 
 —Fruits and vegetables. The standards require every student to take a fruit or vegetable to create a balanced plate. The reaction among students has been mixed. "If the kids don't eat the food, then all I have is healthy trash cans," said Peggy Lawrence, director of nutrition at the Rockdale County Public Schools in Georgia. 
 
 —Healthier snacks. Schools will for the first time this year have to make sure that all foods, including vending machines and a la carte lines, meet healthier standards. While many schools have already moved to make snacks healthier, others depend on snack money to help operate their lunchrooms and are worried about a sales dip. 
 
 The School Nutrition Association has asked Congress and USDA to only require that 50 percent of foods be whole grain-rich, to suspend the 2017 sodium requirements and to stop requiring students to take a fruit or vegetable. 
 
 Margo Wootan, a nutrition lobbyist for the Center for Science in the Public Interest who has pushed for healthier meals, says relaxing those standards could gut the program. "You can't call a meal a meal without a fruit or vegetable," she said. 
 
 USDA has shown some flexibility already: In 2012, the department scrapped maximums on proteins and grains after students complained they were hungry. 
 
 USDA's Thornton says problems will lessen as the food industry creates healthier products. "I'll bet that five or seven years down the road, we'll see kids eating healthy food and we'll see acceptance," she said. 
 
 Republicans say they may intervene before then. Alabama Rep. Robert Aderholt, the Republican in charge of the House spending committee overseeing USDA, has said school districts need a "pause" while problems are worked out. 
 
 Aderholt's panel is expected to release a new spending bill this month that may propose changes. Republicans also are eying the next five-year renewal of the school foods policy, due in 2015. 
 
 Sam Kass, senior policy adviser for nutrition at the White House, said last month that there have been "tremendous gains" in school foods and said he finds efforts to undermine that disappointing. "First and foremost, the key is not going back," he said. 
 
 At Alexandria's Patrick Henry Elementary last Tuesday, students said they loved their lunches and gobbled up plump strawberries. Kindergartner Jade Kennedy said she recently tried kiwi at school for the first time. 
 
 But Domokos-Bays said she will serve white pasta to the students until she has to make the change this summer. Tuesday was pasta day, and several children said it was their favorite lunch — "better than my mom made," first-grader Ruth Gebregiorgis said.
– Schools are struggling to adhere to new government rules on healthy lunches, and school officials are asking Washington to step back. "The regulations are so prescriptive, so it's difficult to manage not only the nutrition side of your businesses but the business side of your business," a school nutrition director says. Among the concerns are a requirement that grain products like pasta be whole-grain rich by next school year—a rule kids don't find particularly appetizing, officials say. The School Nutrition Association is asking Congress and the USDA to lower the whole-grain requirement so that it only applies to 50% of offerings, the AP reports. The association would also like to suspend new sodium limits and ditch the requirement that all meals come with a fruit or vegetable. "If the kids don't eat the food, then all I have is healthy trash cans," says another nutrition director. Teenagers, the Wire reports, have found a target for their food frustration: "I blame Michelle Obama," says one, while another says "it's gotta be a combination of Michelle and the servers at the school." Obama did back the law that implemented the changes. But according to a nutrition advocate, Obama is a "cheerleader" for the program, while the USDA actually makes the rules.