HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – Some nutrition experts believe the National School Lunch Program is “a scheme to make money” using foods “that cause cancer.”

WOWK TV reviewed a recent national doctor’s study that lays out the link between large food producers and the National School Lunch Program, including the companies’ advertisements for nuggets, corn dogs and pizza in school trade magazines.

The news site consulted with Cabell Huntington Hospital Clinical dietitian Daniel Jarvis to get his take on the types of foods promoted to school administrators as compliant with federal food guidelines, and the millions corporations are profiting from their products.

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“I see pepperoni and processed meats that cause cancer,” Jarvis told WOWK TV, “it’s like a scheme to make money.”

Dustin Lambert, a parent in one West Virginia school district, said his children are served the supposedly cancer causing foods for school lunch regularly.

“Almost every day we have one line dedicated to pizza, corn dogs and nuggets served two or three times a month at least,” he said.

A U.S. News and World Report health story this spring highlighted the risk of cancer associated with processed meats often served in schools that participate in the National School Lunch Program. Those meats technically meet USDA “healthy” food regulations for schools championed by first lady Michelle Obama, but they could be slowly eroding students’ health.

“Consuming even small amounts of red meat (such as beef, pork, lamb and veal) and processed meat (such as bacon, sausage, chicken and turkey sandwich meats, hot dogs, packaged ham and pepperoni) substantially ups the risk of developing” colorectal cancer, according to the Report.

“In fact, eating just 50 grams of processed meat daily, equivalent to two slices of bacon or one sausage link, increases colorectal cancer risk by 21 percent. Because the risk of cancer is so high, the American Institute of Cancer Research has warned that no amount of processed meat is safe to eat.”

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Put more directly: “All the lunch line classics – pepperoni pizza, chicken nuggets, cheeseburgers, hot dogs, ham sandwiches and meatballs – are carcinogenic. As a result, cases of colorectal cancer are rising sharply in young adults,” according to the news site.

Despite the evidence, however, some school officials seem oblivious to the risks, and remain convinced that USDA regulations are improving student health.

“Students still get pizza and chicken nuggets, but they have whole grain breading,” Cabell County food service director Rhonda McCoy told WOWK TV.

It’s the same sort of half-hearted justification school officials in Hawkins County, Tennessee gave parents this spring when they complained about students receiving meat that had been sitting in a school freezer since 2009, WBIR reports.

“There were some meats with dates of 2009, 10, 11 in the freezer. Our child nutrition supervisor had the cafeteria managers look at the meat, do the tests, and see if it was OK. The decision was made to serve it,” director of schools Steve Starnes told the news site.

The old meat technically met USDA guidelines for school lunches, though some schools opted against serving the years-old meat, according to The Daily Beast.

“USDA guidelines for uncooked roasts indicate the meat can be stored from 4 to 12 months and still retain taste and quality. The agency says frozen meats are safe indefinitely,” according to the site.

Cherokee Comprehensive High School, for one, doled out a questionable pork roast, and a school food employee took a picture of the food and sent it to the news station, Hawkins County Commissioner Michael Herrell and parents.

“The actual woman making a stink about it said it smelled so bad they made gravy to put over the meat to fi e it a smell and give it a better taste,” Herrell said.

“These high-schoolers – they understand if they see something they are not going to like they don’t eat it. But when you get to these kindergartners, first- and second-graders, do they really know if the meat is bad or not?” he questioned.