For those who’ve been skirting the cafeteria’s nutrition guidelines by stocking up on brownies and chips, listen up–favorites like french fries may soon disappear from under the heat lamps. Michelle Obama and her “Let’s Move” initiative promote revitalization of school lunches.

The initiative aims to decrease the high American childhood obesity rate and ties into President Obama’s reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act, which would provide $10 billion in federal funding to help supply students with nutritious school lunches.

“Without effective intervention, many more children will endure serious illnesses that will put a strain on our healthcare system,” the President said in a press release. “We must act now to improve the health of our nation’s children and avoid spending billions of dollars treating preventable diseases.”

MCPS Food and Nutrition supervisor Marla Caplon said the changes to MCPS will be minimal because the school system already meets all of the federal standards.  But, she said a nutritional obstacle MCPS will have to overcome is meeting new sodium standards, which may be lowered this year.

Cafeteria manager Karen Phillips explained that everything Whitman offers is both low fat and trans-fat free, excluding Little Debbie snacks. She also said that Whitman is able to offer healthier options than other county schools that have more students on the Free and Reduced Meal program. This is because the FARM program only allows students to purchase the basic lunch package, which does not include a-la-carté items like from the salad bar.

FARM students have limited choices because the county is only reimbursed on meals that contain at least two ounces of meat or meat substitute and a cup of fruit or vegetables from at least two different sources. In cases where a student purchases a-la-carté items, the federal government won’t pay the bill.

“If a student is making the meal themselves, there is no way to tell if they are actually meeting these guidelines,” Caplon  said.

There are some students who choose to eat badly, avoiding the healthy options offered at the cafeteria in favor of unhealthy alternatives, Phillips said.

An informal lunchtime survey of 30 students revealed that even if healthier foods were offered in the cafeteria, 78 percent of students would still pick unhealthy favorites. 

“I would pick a brownie over a banana any day,” one sophomore said. “I don’t think that’s ever going to change, no matter what the cafeteria offers.”