There are important distinctions to make. First, federal guidelines are just that. They are NOT a blueprint that MUST be followed to the letter. Even though the worst districts treat them like they are. Second, school lunches are controlled by the district, individual schools have little input. Third, some districts do very good jobs providing good food for their kids but, they're in the minority.
Finally, the worst school lunch programs out there can be fixed if parents and the community get involved. You see, the worst operations care only about the federal money and their control of it. They don't care what or, if the kids eat as long as the paperwork is processed correctly to ensure funding. If the local district is unresponsive and merely states they're complying with all federal guidelines, you complain to the National School Lunch Program directly.
umm dude these are mandates from the USDA put in place by federal law. they are by no means guidelines.
I think what Magnus is saying is that a lot of how this is implemented depends entirely on the district, and the people involved. Talk of the Nation, yesterday, discussed this topic at length. You can go from one district to the next--students complaining left and right about the food, because it sucks. In Boulder, CO, and other places, however, the students and parents are completely enamored with their system--same recipes, same guidelines, but they have real chefs and cooks that
actually know how to cook.
In some communities, you would have unhappy kids and parents that would invite a local person to come in and start preparing the food, that knows even a little bit about how to prepare recipes, that noticed a drastic increase in the kids' happiness.
These are very much guidelines--the various districts will have their own way of implementing them, to widely ranging degrees of success, that swing very closely around the attention that parents and administration devote towards quality.
Also, one strong correlation seems to be that the age of the student matters, quite significantly. Kids that have been through the system up until high school are going to be less receptive and obviously receive far less benefits from the new program (having pumped the horrible food through themselves for over a decade now). Young kids who know only this of school food, will simply come to accept that as standard nutrition, and will be less likely to complain
This truly is the type of program whose benefits can not be accurately quantified within a decade's time.