There are some flaws in your suppositions about school lunch programs, genuinegirly. Yes, what you suggest would meet about half of their dietary requirements. My workplace participates in the USDA's Child and Adult Care Food Program (
http://www.fns.usda.gov/cnd/care/ChildCare.htm), and thus we have to follow the USDA's guidelines when it comes to serving food. They parallel what is required for schools closely (
http://www.fns.usda.gov/cnd/lunch/), as we are both required to meet federal nutrition standards. A child of school age must receive food in five categories at lunch: bread/grains, protein/meat, vegetable, fruit, and dairy. Any substitutions must be accompanied by a medical waiver stating why the child needs that substitution. For breakfast, a school age child is required to receive a serving of bread/grains and a serving of fruit or vegetable, along with their serving of dairy. Other components may be added, but that is the bare minimum. We have to serve food this way, or we do not get reimbursed.
The problem is with reimbursement. Schools are expected to feed children quality food on a shoestring budget. The federal government has set a great many requirements about the food to be served, but they have not provided the money to support those requirements. Further, on your comment about pizza and ice cream: schools are not allowed to serve foods of minimal nutritional value in competition with foods of nutritional value:
http://www.fns.usda.gov/cnd/lunch/_p...Foods/fmnv.pdf This is something that has come about since you and I were in school.
Generally, the whole thing is a money problem. Health classes and physical education classes are being cut these days. We're spending money subsidizing unhealthy foods instead of healthy ones, and therefore, when schools look to spend their dollar on a lunch, the calories aren't as high of quality as they could be. Prepping healthy foods takes more labor in the kitchen, and schools need to cut labor costs, too.
I've spent a great deal of time researching this problem. I wrote a practice grant last year for a class that laid the groundwork for a program I called Lunch 101. It is aimed at teaching middle school students nutrition while they learn the skills to prepare a healthy lunch on their own. I had to do a comprehensive literature review as part of writing the practice grant. During my research, I found that there are many issues that contribute to the childhood obesity epidemic. For instance, many parents do not know how to read a nutritional label themselves. They don't know what healthy means. Additionally, the rate of fast-food consumption--outside of school--has rocketed in the last twenty years. Finally, most parents underestimate the weight of their children.
I don't think the solution is taking these kids away. Doctors know about as much about nutrition as many parents do! I think the real solution is referring families to good resources--registered dieticians, for example.