Television and movies often portray school lunch as mystery meat on a plastic tray.

But with new nutrition standards and a better understanding of what kids need to eat, school system dieticians have menu planning down to a science.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, school lunches must provide one-third of the daily recommended dietary allowances of protein, vitamin A, vitamin C, iron, calcium and calories.

The nutritional profile of what's on the trays is of huge concern to school lunch programs.

"We review all of our product specs before any food is brought into Hall County to make sure it meets our standards, which is stricter than USDA," said Hillary Savage, director of school nutrition and wellness for Hall County Schools. "I proofread everything to look at the calories, the fat, the sodium, the sources of fiber and the fats."

Cookie Palmer, nutrition director for Hall schools, said school nutritionists literally sit down with manufacturers and help drive products.

"We sat down with the pizza people and said, ‘Here's what we want our pizza to look like, here's what we want on it, here's what the whole grain needs to look like. Now build us a pizza,'" she said.

In addition to the meal, students can purchase a la carte items. In Gainesville schools, these include ice cream, Powerade, juice and water, depending on the school.

"We don't sell a lot of a la carte items. It's pretty much restricted to an extra entrée, an extra side item, but some of the middle and high schools will sell bottled water and baked chips," Savage said.

"For the price of their meal, they can choose one entrée, one of each side items and a milk."

Hall County's menu revolves on three seasonal cycles and within each is a three-week rotation.

"There's certain produce in season in the fall, some foods that are more appropriate in the fall like chili and soup," Savage said.

"Changing up that cycle keeps it new and exciting for the kids so when May comes around they're not totally tired of what we're offering."

Schools reflect food trends

Hall County creates its menus on a grid system. There are lines for entrees, pure vegetables, pure fruits and starches. There is also a "flex" line.

Having a flex line on the grid menu allows for fruits and vegetables with added ingredients, such as squash casserole or breaded okra, without students having to lose a fresh cooked or raw vegetable or a fruit side dish.

"It's just limiting anything we've added bread to or added fat to so we're not serving a lot of that on the menu," Savage said.

Gainesville's elementary school menus change monthly, but the middle and high school menu is on a three-month cycle.

Tiffany Lommel, nutrition director for the school system, plans Gainesville's menus based on feedback from students and lunchroom managers.

"Everything is pre-cupped and they can pick it up. If we have four veggies and they want all four, they can have them. It's not an either-or," she said.

What goes on a tray now is influenced by nutrition trends and new restaurant foods, such as the apple yogurt salad Hall County borrowed from McDonald's.

"Just what restaurants in the area are serving kind of shapes what our kids are used to and what they want to see and we'll try to adopt that," Savage said. "If they're eating Asian chicken at Wendy's, it makes sense we might need to bring a product in like that."

Palmer said most school districts try to implement new nutrition concepts as they come out, such as darker green lettuces and red grapes, which have more antioxidants.

"Most of our bread products are whole-wheat except for Texas toast and a sub bun," Lommel said. "School nutrition has been demanding whole-wheat products. They really worked with it and improved it to be tasty stuff."

There is an even balance between cooked and prepared items on Gainesville and Hall school menus. Systems try to have food service workers make as much as possible, but some menu items are difficult to produce on such a large scale with limited time.

"It depends on the menu. A lot of the processed things are more expensive," Lommel said.

And students don't always like those versions better.

"When I first came here, the choice for (peanut butter and jelly) was the Smucker's Uncrustables. I had a taste test and they preferred the homemade PB&J," she said.

Processed products and fresh in-season produce are easy to integrate into a menu, but recipes take more time.

The different cooking equipment and different level of staff skills can sometimes produce two different items.

"The concept of, ‘You make your chili, I'll make my chili and we'll all have white chili' does not work," Palmer said.

Favorite meals vary by area

Working in a cafeteria is a labor of love for food service workers.

"Our first priority is keeping these kids fed," said Rena Harrison, a food service worker at New Holland Core Knowledge Academy. "About 98 percent of the kids eat here. Everything's good, it really is."

The students agree. Chicken nugget day is a favorite for students and employees. They're generally served with made-from-scratch rolls, green beans, fresh fruit and mashed potatoes.

The Thanksgiving-themed meal, complete with turkey and cranberry sauce, is usually a hit in both systems.

"Students tend to gravitate toward food that's similar to fast food. That's your pizza, burgers, corndogs, chicken nuggets. Especially at the high school level, kids want french fries every day," Lommel said.

Favorite meals in Hall schools are harder to pin down.

"Hall County has such a unique demographic that things that are huge hits down at the south end may not be huge hits at the north end," Savage said.

"Things that kids love at Flowery Branch High School is not what the kids at East Hall High School eat. The kids at East Hall always eat the from-scratch item, like Mama's country cooking. They'll eat that stuff like crazy, whereas Flowery Branch High School will only eat the chicken sandwiches and the cheeseburger and things like that."

Both food service workers and directors eat school meals as well, which Lommel said is a testament to the quality of today's lunches.

"I'm not going to serve them something that I wouldn't eat," she said.