JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – As schools across the country struggle to get students to eat their government meals, Jacksonville’s Crystal Springs Elementary School is giving them one more reason to avoid the lunch line.

Principal LaShawn Russ-Porterfield sent parents an automated phone message Tuesday warning them about “pests that were found in students’ food” at the school, WJXT reports.

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“DCPS came out and said that there was critters,” said Debbie, the grandmother of a 7-year-old Crystal Springs student. “I guess in the kitchen.”

“I got there about 1:40 (p.m.) and they were hauling all this stuff out of the cafeteria. I’m talking about coolers like you see for breakfast and such as that,” the woman said. “They were hauling it all out and dumping it into the dumpsters.”

School officials told parents the cafeteria and kitchen area was closed for a deep cleaning, but did not provide details about the extent of the problem, where the pests originated, or how long the cafeteria will be closed, according to the news site.

The Duval County Public Schools’ food contractor, Chartwells, will continue to prepare lunches for students, at an off-site location.

The situation at Crystal Springs is among numerous pest problems experienced by schools in Denver, Chicago, New York, Houston, Jersey City, N.J., and numerous other places in recent years.

Last fall, KTRK uncovered numerous Houston school cafeteria inspection reports detailing rodent droppings, brown residue in ice makers, food stored improperly to prevent health hazards, and other nastiness.

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In December 2015, officials in Carrizo Springs, Texas scrambled to explain away pictures posted online of dead rats in Carrizo Springs Elementary School, where employees also found cases of “chewed” hamburger buns, EAGnews reports.

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It was a similar situation in San Francisco. Rodents there invaded school kitchens shortly after the implementation of federal “healthy” food regulations championed by first lady Michelle Obama, the San Francisco Examiner reports.

Health inspectors in New Jersey also discovered spoiled and rodent infested school lunches in cafeterias across the state in October 2015. That was the same month a student in Farmington, New Mexico threw up on the playground after eating slimy, moldy roast beef sandwiches served at Belen Family School, KRQE reports.

Those incidents followed squeals about roaches, rodents and other health hazards in Chicago Public Schools that forced officials to shut down the kitchen at Maria Saucedo Scholastic Academy, according to EAGnews.

And in Snohomish, Washington, district officials paid nearly $350,000 to eradicate a rat infestation at Snohomish High School.

The problems compound a trend of declining lunch room revenues in the wake of Michelle Obama-inspired government restrictions on calories, fat, sugar, salt, whole grains, fruits and vegetables imposed on schools participating in the National School Lunch Program.

Since the regulations went into effect in 2012, more than 1.4 million students dropped out of the National School Lunch Program, including hundreds of entire schools. A government mandate in the regulations that forces students to take a fruit or vegetable – whether they want it or not – has also increased school food waste by an estimated $1 billion a year.

Many members of Congress are now calling on President Donald Trump to help repeal the regulations and return decisions about what students eat at school to locals.