PONCA CITY, Okla. – It’s not school leaders’ desire to feed students unhealthy lunches.

That’s the message they left Congressman Frank Lucas with at a recent meeting.

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“This is where cause met reality,” Jeff Denton, Ponca City schools’ director of child nutrition programs, said about the changes to the National School Lunch Program championed by First Lady Michelle Obama, Ponca City Now reports.

“We have never been against serving more fruits and vegetable and limiting an over-abundance of sodium in the foods we served. What has been the issue is the lack of research, testing, piloting and consideration made prior to the implementation of the new regulations. This is where a good cause met a real reality on the serving line.”

The school employees showed Lucas examples of what they’re not required to serve in order to be in compliance with the federal regulations.

“Not only is it difficult for students to physically consume a cup of fruit and 3/4 cups of vegetable in one meal, it is very unlikely they will be able to do in the allocated time schedule for lunch,” Denton said.

Denton held up a turkey and cheese sandwich and remarked that it alone nearly exceeds the current sodium level for an entire meal, the news site reports.

Kristen Miller from the State Department of Education claimed the upcoming sodium targets are “more stringent than renal patients in hospitals,” according to Ponca City Now.

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“I can understand the USDA setting requirements for meals they reimburse, but I am baffled with their involvement on the local level where there is no Federal Funding by the USDA,” Ponca City superintendent Dr. Pennington – and current president of the national School Superintendents Association – said at the meeting.

He added his group is supporting “waivers” to the federal regulations that “are neither conditional nor limited in availability.”

While Pennington’s Oklahoma doesn’t seem to be doing much, South Carolina is the latest to take action and offer its school waivers to the snack rules.

“South Carolina school leaders believe the decision about what kind of foods can be sold to raise money for school groups should not be left up to federal regulators alone,” WPDE reports.

The state would allow schools to conduct fundraisers during 90 school days. The typical school year is about 180 days.

“The federal government is once again intervening in things that should be left up to principals, to teachers, to the moms and dads that work hard in those PTAs, and I think we should trust them to make the right choice,” says Natasha Hanna, a parent active in Palmetto Bays Elementary School.