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Schools pulling healthy lunches because students won't eat them

WASHINGTON, Aug. 28 (UPI) -- School systems across the United States say students aren't eating the federally funded lunches served under a program touted by first lady Michelle Obama.

Saying they are losing money throwing out uneaten food, a number of school districts are revising the menus designed to fight childhood obesity, CBS News reported Wednesday.

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The program requires that lunches include fresh fruit, vegetable and whole grains. Calories must be limited to 850 for high school students, 700 for middle school and 650 for elementary.

The healthy food choices have drawn complaints by school districts from California to New York. One official in Kentucky said students told him the food tasted like "vomit."

About 100,000 school districts signed up for the program, fewer than expected.

The Laguna Beach, Calif., school district says it's not dropping out of the program, as others have done. Instead, it has instituted monthly taste tests and will sell sandwiches.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which administers the program, said it didn't expect a widespread defection from the lunch plan because most school districts already met the program's guidelines.

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