“Someone in the audience made a good point,” she said. “Michelle Obama put these things into play, but her children go to private school and they don’t have to follow these standards.”

◼ The backlash against federal nutrition guidelines affecting public schools across the U.S. has increased precipitously in recent months. Not only do mandates endorsed by Michelle Obama result in cafeteria meals students find unpalatable, compliance with such regulations has been cost-prohibitive in many districts.

For these reasons, more and more schools are dropping the federal mandate despite the fact that doing so could result in the loss of significant government funding. Some of the most vehement opposition to the program came recently from school administrators in a western New York community.