Georgia Sparks’ children were coming home from school so hungry, they sometimes were doubled over, holding their stomachs.

So, she started packing their lunches to provide them with a bigger meal each day, and she filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Agriculture over its new lunch guidelines for public schools.

“I don’t know whether that will ever make a difference,” she said. “But maybe if lots of parents complain, they’ll make some changes.”

Norwood is limiting portions, as the USDA now requires of every school, and serving more fruits and vegetables.

Schools can only serve elementary students 650 calories or less a day; middle school, 700 calories or less; and high school students, 850 calories or less.

Nutrition Director Tammy Hutchins at Norwood said the biggest problem is for the kids who don’t like fruits and vegetables.

“It’s really an adjustment they are having a hard time getting through,” Hutchins said. “They have less variety because of the calorie restriction, and they have to take a fruit or vegetable with every meal.”

Whether the child eats the fruits and vegetables or throws them in the trash probably has a lot to do with their hunger, she said.

“It’s just going to take some getting used to,” she said.

Hutchins said she “plugs in” the food choices and portion sizes for the menu for each day of the week into a computer program. The program tells her if she has to adjust calories or fat in the menu for the day.

Older students generally get larger portions, Hutchins said.

“My son got a half a sloppy Joe one day,” Sparks said. “And they took out the salad bar where he could eat all the vegetables he wanted — and he ate salad every day.”

The school also must limit the amount of sweets, sugary drinks and snacks students bring to school now, she said — and it’s too much government control.

“I believe I can decide what to feed my children every day just fine,” she said.

Sparks packs a lunch for her children now that typically includes a ham and cheese sandwich, cheese crackers, juice and broccoli with ranch dip.

That lunch amounts to about 679 calories — even using white bread instead of whole wheat, mayonnaise on a sandwich and no low-fat products, according to the calculator www.caloriecount.com.

“It fills them up but they do miss getting a hot meal,” Sparks said. “I told them all they can do is choose a hot meal or a full belly every day.”

In a recent interview with ABC News, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack responded to complaints about the new food portions for school lunches — he said to let kids eat afternoon snacks.

The Obama administration is working on a plan to provide afternoon snacks at school, Vilsack said during the interview.

But he also encouraged parents to start packing extra food from home for their children to eat in the afternoon.

Mary Huntly of Okay, who helps run the local food pantry, said that isn’t going to work for everybody. In fact, in a school district where more than 60 percent of students meet free and reduced lunch guidelines, it’s an unattainable goal for many families.

“We have a hard time meeting the needs of families already,” Huntly said. “I have kids come in here that see a jar of peanut butter, and their eyes light up like it’s Christmas.”

Huntly doesn’t want to see kids whose biggest meal of the day is lunch go hungry, she said.

“And it seems to me like it’s the elementary kids that really suffer the most — fifth- and sixth-graders who don’t feel like they’re getting enough to eat,” Huntly said.

Muskogee Public Schools have also made the changes to lunch menus, but Lisa Wade Raasch of the Muskogee Wellness Initiative said some elementary schools have an advantage in a grant program that provides fruits and vegetables for students to snack on in the afternoon.

“That’s an innovative program,” she said. “They’re trying new fruits and vegetables. So, going through the lunch line if they see a fruit or vegetable they don’t really recognize but if they’ve tried it in class, they are more likely to put it on their tray. It really complements the new standards.”

Raasch said she understands the menu changes are difficult to adjust to, but they are necessary and will benefit children in the long run.

“School lunches were not meant to be biggie-sized,” Raasch said. “And what is scary is this is the first generation of children expected to have a shorter life span than their parents — and it’s due primarily to poor nutrition and lack of exercise.”

Reach Wendy Burton at (918) 684-2926 or wburton@muskogeephoenix.com.