Will Rising Food Costs Make You Fat?

"Unfortunately, those are a lot of the same food items that we're seeing tremendous price increases on," said Eric Peterson, a spokesman for the School Nutrition Association. "It's definitely creating a strain."

Peterson said many cafeterias are finding creative solutions to cope with the rising costs.

Some are eschewing expensive grape tomatoes in favor of slicing larger tomatoes. Baby carrots, too, are out, because long carrots that cafeteria workers cut themselves are the better buy.

But a handful of schools are making tougher choices.

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In Florida, for instance, schools in Broward County recently started using white buns instead of wheat. School officials there told ABC News that the move would save the district $200,000 a year.

"Nutritionally, of course, we would prefer whole wheat," said Barbara Leslie, the director of food and nutrition services for Broward schools. "But we evaluated it and decided that we would only be sacrificing about a gram of fiber, and we really needed to do that for financial reasons for now."

Other school districts are swapping out fresh produce with frozen or canned fare. The latter, Peterson said, are "nutritionally equivalent" to fresh fruits and vegetables, but students might be less likely to eat them.

"A canned or a frozen green been is going to be the same nutrition as a fresh green bean -- the difference is students tend to prefer fresh because they taste better," he said. "You obviously want students to consume the product."

School districts are also raising lunch prices. On average, Peterson said, schools seem to be raising prices between 15 to 20 cents per student meal.

The suburban New York school district of North Rockland is considering a price increase, but school superintendent Brian Monahan says he worries that more expensive school lunches might prompt parents and students to turn to less healthful alternatives.

"For many families, it takes time as well as money to prepare a lunch. In this day and age, both are in short supply," Monahan said. "We know the school lunches are healthy. We don't know that what students would bring would be healthy."