Ineffective?! It was positively corrosive. My growing Iowa farmboys were starved nearly senseless. We sent lunches thru elementary school (which they were stigmatized for bringing) but in middle school they had to use the provided meal service. Nearly passed out by 2PM, they struggled thru till they got home and we could put 1000 calories in them to tide them over until supper.

This program was phenomenally clueless and ill-conceived. Instead of patronizing inappropriate low-calorie choices (which drove students to hoarding dingdongs in their lockers), how about providing plentiful good food? That might have had a positive effect.

{edit: I thought they were talking about the federal school-lunch initiative, sorry}