Barry Gutierrez / AP

Officials from the Lake County, Fla., school district say $75,000 worth fresh fruits and vegetables like these provided to students during lunch ended up in the trash.

Cafeteria trash cans in some Florida schools may soon be getting a high-tech makeover. 

After finding out that most of the fruits and vegetables on the school lunch menu ended up in the trash, school board members in the Lake County school district in central Florida are considering attaching cameras to school cafeteria trash cans to study what students are tossing out. 

"I said, how about we put cameras in the trash cans so we can document the concrete data of what students are throwing out," School Board member Tod Howard told NBC News. "That way we can not only show what the students are not eating, but we can also look at how presentation affects consumption and present that data to the federal government if we need to."

Howard said he made the suggestion as a 2010 federal law on child nutrition, vigorously promoted by first lady Michelle Obama, went into effect in schools across the nation.

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Among other things, the law requires schools across the county to serve an increased number of vegetables, including weekly servings of leafy greens, red or orange vegetables, and legumes. Students must take at least one serving, but according to officials from the Lake County Food Services Department, Howard said, that led students last year to toss about $75,000 worth of produce in the garbage.

"The ultimate goal is to work within the mandate and actually provide food they want to eat," Howard said. "An elementary student might eat sliced apples but not a whole apple, for example. They might not eat hummus but might eat a falafel. If most of the squash is being thrown out, and we can’t find a way for kids to eat squash, we probably shouldn't serve it. What we need to do is find out what’s not being eaten and why.”

“They have to take it, and then it ends up in the trash can. And that’s a waste of taxpayer money, and it’s also not giving students the nutrition that they need. "

Howard said the idea is still in its early stages, and he and other school board members are still working out logistics. While he says the actual cost of the initiative for the 40,000-student district has not yet been quantified, he suspected it would be low because he proposed re-purposing old security cameras that the school already owns for the trash can monitoring. 

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"It’s really just using equipment we already have," Howard said. "The technology would provide a cost savings to do those sort of things."

No decisions have been made on the cameras. School officials say the cameras wouldn't capture the student’s faces, just what they’re throwing away.

“This is probably in my mind the best option we have that will provide us with the best information at the least cost, but we do need to look at other options to make sure this mandate will be effective for us.”

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An Ohio school district has hired a collection agency to prove to students and their parents that there’s no such thing as a free lunch.

The Columbus City Schools hope to recover an estimated $900,000 in unpaid lunch money from almost 6,000 students. The district loses roughly $2,622 every school day in unpaid lunches, according to a report on NBC4i.com. Most of the delinquent accounts average between $150 and $170, according to Meade and Associates, the collection agency in Westerville hired by the district to collect the money.

 “Our goal is to recover the balance in full,” Sean Meade, client relations manager, told msnbc.com. But he added, “we’re here to help,” so if “payment arrangements are needed, we’ll work with the family.”

Columbus City Schools did not return a call from msnbc.com. Unpaid-for lunches are not unique to Columbus. Across the country, districts are struggling as the ailing economy brings more students to school without lunch money.

“It’s one of those issues that we’re seeing more of,” Diane Pratt-Heavner of the Maryland-based School Nutrition Association told msnbc.com. The group recently surveyed 964 of its members. Fifty-three percent said they had seen increases in the number of students unable to pay for lunch.

Schools have been trying to balance budget cuts with new federal nutrition standards that are expected to increase the cost of meal preparation.  In response, Pratt-Heavner said her group would like Congress to require the U.S. Department of Agriculture to spell out how schools should respond to requests for unpaid lunches and how to manage the debt.

“The people working in our school cafeterias are not in this line of work for the money – they want to serve all their kids – but at the end of the day, the new nutrition standards for school meals are raising the cost of serving school meals, and school nutrition programs simply cannot afford to allow unpaid meal charges go unchecked,” Pratt-Heavner told msnbc.com.

Until then, school districts continue to make accommodations for students who can’t pay. Some offer alternative meals of cheese or peanut butter sandwiches. Districts also try various methods of collecting debts, such as phone calls and letters to parents.

Pratt-Heavner said more districts are turning to collection agencies.

Meade told msnbc.com his agency will start contacting parents by early April, using phone calls and letters. Of every dollar collected, the company will earn 26 cents in commission.

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KSDK-TV

Treating scrap meat with ammonium hydroxide creates a pink goo that is used to extend meat products like chicken and beef and to kill bacteria.

McDonald's confirmed that it has eliminated the use of ammonium hydroxide — an ingredient in fertilizers, household cleaners and some roll-your-own explosives —  in its hamburger meat.

The company denied that its decision was influenced by a months-long campaign by celebrity chef Jamie Oliver to get ammonium-hydroxide-treated meats like chicken and beef out of the U.S. food supply. But it acknowledged this week that it had stopped using the unappetizing pink goo — made from treating otherwise inedible scrap meat with the chemical — several months ago.

Besides being used as a household cleaner and in fertilizers, the compound releases flammable vapors, and with the addition of certain acids, it can be turned into ammonium nitrate, a common component in homemade bombs. It's also widely used in the food industry as an anti-microbial agent in meats and as a leavener in bread and cake products. It's regulated by the U.S. Agriculture Department, which classifies it as "generally recognized as safe."

McDonald's decision was first reported this week by the Daily Mail, a blaring British tabloid, which trumpeted it as a victory for fellow Brit Oliver against the monolithic U.S. food industry. 

Oliver's campaign began in April, when he included a segment on what he called "pink slime" on his TV show, "Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution" (warning: some readers may find this video distasteful):

The use of treated scrap meat "to me as a chef and a food lover is shocking," Oliver said. "... Basically we're taking a product that would be sold in the cheapest form for dogs and making it 'fit' for humans."

Todd Bacon, McDonald's senior supply chain officer, told the Daily Mail that the decision "was not related to any particular event, but rather to support our effort to align our global beef raw material standards." 

In a statement, McDonald's clarified that it stopped using "select lean beef trimmings" — its preferred term for scrap meat soaked in ammonium hydroxide and ground into a pink meatlike paste — at the beginning of last year.

"This product has been out of our supply chain since August of last year," it said.

Sarah Prochaska, a registered dietitian at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, said that ammonium hydroxide is widely used in the U.S. food industry but that consumers may not be able to know what products include it because the USDA considers it a component in a production procedure — separating scrap meat — and not an ingredient that must be listed on food labels.

"It's a process, from what I understand, called 'mechanically separated meat' or 'meat product,'" Prochaska told NBC station KSDK of St. Louis.

While the government considers it safe, it certainly "does not look anything like ground beef," she said. And since it's not on nutrition labels, the only way to avoid it "would be to choose fresher products, cook your meat at home, cook more meals at home," she said.

NBC station KSDK of St. Louis contributed to this report.

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Millions of schoolchildren in the United States will see more fruit and vegetables and less fat on their lunch plates under new U.S. Department of Agriculture standards unveiled Wednesday aimed at improving child nutrition and reducing childhood obesity.

"Improving the quality of the school meals is a critical step in building a healthy future for our kids," said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. "When it comes to our children, we must do everything possible to provide them the nutrition they need to be healthy, active and ready to face the future – today we take an important step towards that goal."

The changes mark the first overhaul of the school lunch program in more than 15 years and will affect the nearly 32 million children who eat at school. The new regulations will be phased in over the next three years, starting in the fall.

“We strongly support the regulations,” said Diane Pratt-Heavner, spokeswoman for the Maryland-based School Nutrition Association. “The new nutrition standards for school meals are great news for kids.”

Under the new regulations, schools will be required to offer fruits and vegetables every day, increase the amount of whole-grain foods and reduce the sodium and fats in the foods served. Schools will also be required to offer only fat-free or low-fat milk. In addition, the menus will pay attention to portion sizes to make sure children receive calories appropriate to their age, according to Kevin Concannon, USDA under secretary for food, nutrition and consumer services.

Read more: Trans fat ban proposed for Colorado schools

The new requirements are part of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act signed into law last year by President Barack Obama and championed by the First Lady Michelle Obama as part of her Let's Move! campaign.

"As parents, we try to prepare decent meals, limit how much junk food our kids eat, and ensure they have a reasonably balanced diet," said Michelle Obama. "And when we're putting in all that effort the last thing we want is for our hard work to be undone each day in the school cafeteria.

Read more: Blogger eats school lunch every day

Statistics show that about 17 percent of U.S. children and teenagers are obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

But whether the kids will choose to eat the new, healthier foods remains to be seen. The new menus won't entirely eliminate favorite food choices among kids, like pizza and french fries, but they will provide alternatives. For example, instead of cheese pizza, students will receive whole wheat cheese pizza. Rather than tater tots, students will get baked sweet potato fries.   

"We know if it’s not delicious, kids aren’t going to eat it," said White House Chef Sam Kass. But he added that thousands of schools have already implemented many of the required changes and their chefs are making progress in designing appealing menus. "We're working very hard on that," he said.

Wendy Weyer, director of nutrition services for Seattle Public Schools, said her district is already complying with many of the new USDA standards, and taking other steps, such as having partnerships with local farmers and planting school gardens. "Seattle has been very progressive with changing the way we offer meals, offering fruits and vegetables every day, as well as whole grain-rich foods," she said.

Weyer said the biggest challenge will be reducing sodium content, "while keeping the meals palatable for our students."

Pratt-Heavner said parents will play an important role in supporting the new standards.  ”We all have to work to get the kids to make these healthier choices,” she said. “Students are more apt to pick up a fruit or vegetable in the lunch line if they have been introduced to those foods at home.” 

To support the changes, schools will receive another 6 cents per meal in federal funding, and the overall cost of implementing the new requirements is projected at $3.2 billion. To help minimize costs, schools will also have more flexibility in designing the school lunch line to reduce waste, Concannon said. Students, for example, will be allowed to pick and choose more items as they move through the line, rather than getting a plate served to them.

Weyer said the Seattle school district still needs to determine how far the additional money will go to cover the new requirements.

"It's not going to cover all the cost, but it's definitely going to help," Pratt-Heavner said.

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Ed Andrieski / AP

Maria Salas prepares salads for lunch in the kitchen at Kepner Middle School in Denver on Wednesday,

Colorado lawmakers are considering whether to require school districts to do away with margarine, vegetable shortening and other trans fats in what would be the nation’s toughest ban on unhealthy fats in school foods.

The proposal comes as federal authorities are already taking steps to minimize the amount of trans fat in schools as part of an overall plan to improve the health and nutrition of school lunches. Health experts have long warned that the consumption of trans fat, also known as partially hydrogenated oil, increases the risk of coronary heart disease. The American Heart Association, for example, recommends limiting the intake of trans fat to no more than 2 grams per day, about the amount found naturally in milk and meat.

“This would put Colorado one step of what’s going to happen,” said Margo Wootan, director of nutrition policy at the Center for Science in the Public Interest. “The USDA is going to do this nationally.”

But sponsors of the bill in Colorado say they don’t want to wait. The state, despite its reputation for being one of the healthiest in the nation, has one of the higher rates of childhood obesity, with 14.2 percent of children and adolescents considered obese.

“We’re trying to address that,” said state Rep. Tom Massey, R-Poncha Springs.

Many school districts are already limiting the amount of trans fat in their school lunches by baking instead of frying potatoes or serving non-breaded meat products and increasing the amount of vegetables and whole grains on the menu.

But Colorado’s ban would go one step further than other states by applying the law to breakfasts and after-school snacks served in schools.  California, for example, bans trans fats during the school day but not during after-school events. Delaware also has a ban, but it doesn’t apply to school breakfasts or snacks.

State Sen. Lucia Guzman, D-Denver, said she was glad to hear that the federal government was taking steps to remove trans fat from school lunches but that a new state law would protect the health of Colorado youngsters even sooner, particularly since many children eat breakfast and lunch at school, and then go to district-sponsored programs at the end of the school day where they are served a snack.

“They’re eating more of their meals in a school setting than they are at home,” she said.

Neither Guzman nor Massey say they’ve seen any organized opposition to the proposal so far, but the track record for such legislation is not encouraging. Six other states last year considered but did not approve school trans fat bans, according to a recent report by the Associated Press, citing the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Regardless of what happens this spring in Colorado, school districts across the country should anticipate major changes in the school lunch program this fall under new rules expected soon from the USDA. The result will be twice as many fruits and vegetables, more whole grains, all low-fat milk and less salt on the menu.

“Under the new standard, school meals will get much better,” Wootan said.  

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U.S. Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion

The government issued a consumer brochure spelling out what the new guidelines mean. Click the cover for a full pdf version.

Federal guidelines meant to help Americans eat healthier foods are straining Meals on Wheels and other nonprofits already laboring to make sure the elderly get enough to eat at all.

Lanakila Meals on Wheels in Honolulu, Hawaii, already has a waiting list of 90 people, most of them elderly, who have asked for food the organization can't afford to provide.

The program can always use more volunteers, but what it really needs now is money.

"We're looking for $120,000 just to maintain our existing programs and another $170,000 to meet the needs of the 90 people who are on our wait list," Lyn Moku, the program's director, told NBC station KHNL of Honolulu.

"It's a real time of uncertainty," Moku said, because "everyone is having a hard time just with the way the economy is and unemployment."

Some Meals on Wheels programs in the U.S. support themselves solely through donations and fundraisers, but many — like Lanakila Meals on Wheels — also rely on government funding. The Hawaii program says it gets about 60 percent of its funding from government sources.

That government funding is also in question, for Lanakila Meals on Wheels and many other local chapters of the national nonprofit.

The Health Trust, a charitable foundation in Campbell, Calif., reported that it has lost more $100,000 for its Meals on Wheels program. Most of that loss has come from government sources, and small corporate sponsorships haven't made up the difference.

"It's tough. Times are very, very tough," said Enid A. Borden, president and chief executive of the Meals on Wheels Association of America.

Last week, Meals on Wheels volunteers abandoned the traditional delivery of hot Thanksgiving meals to homes across Silicon Valley in Northern California. Instead, needy individuals — most of them elderly — received a frozen meal two days in advance that they had to thaw and heat themselves, NBC station KTVU of San Francisco/Oakland reported.

Cut the salt; crunch the veggies
It's not just the economy that's squeezing government outlays for community programs in general. Some are also being restricted by new federal nutrition guidelines that set standards for assistance programs.

That means that when government agencies sit down to hand out community service grants, they have to consider the new guidelines when it comes to food programs like school lunches and Meals on Wheels.

The guidelines drew a lot of attention for calling for a drastic reduction in salt consumption, especially among those 51 and older. But they also significantly changed the recommended ratio of proteins to fresh fruits and vegetables — putting much more emphasis on the latter.

• Dietary Guidelines for Americans (.pdf)

That requires new menus, new storage facilities to keep all that produce fresh and new ways to cook and deliver meals.

Meeting the new requirements could be cost-prohibitive for Meals on Wheels in Bailey County, Texas, which could lose its funding from the regional association of governments, NBC station KCBD of Lubbock reported.

Meals on Wheels for Lubbock itself isn't affected, said Lisa Gilliland, the program's assistant director, because it relies solely on donations and fundraisers. But in Bailey County, northwest of the city, and in many other areas across the country, funding could be at risk because "most of the smaller programs are government funded," she said.

Borden told msnbc.com she is confident that Meals on Wheels will figure out a way to keep handing out the 1.7 million meals it delivers every day.

"There are always things that are going to happen," she acknowledged. "We are always impacted when the price of anything goes up."

But "one of the things I know is that our program will do whatever it needs to do to feed those seniors who are hungry," she said.

"We are a resilient organization."

Alex Johnson is a news and technology reporter for msnbc.com. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook.