Schools across New York are hard at work every day making sure kids are eating healthy meals.

Protein, fruits and vegetables are a few staples of a healthy meal. Food service directors like Anne Rich are juggling meal requirements.

“Its really important for me to serve the students and to make sure that they have good quality food to come in and enjoy at lunch," said Rich, who works in the Frontier Central School District in Hamburg.

According to the CDC, most kids in the U.S. eat half of their daily calories at school.

The New York School Nutrition Association hosts schools statewide each year to provide new options in the cafeteria. Rich and others attend the statewide events to find new ideas, balancing state and national regulations, with what is delicious.

“I like to taste everything, and if I don’t like it I'm not going to serve it. If I love it, I take it home and test it on my kids," said Rich.

Rich said she has been working in child nutrition for 30 years, and the biggest myth she fights, is that school meals aren’t good.

“People have it in their mind that we serve subpar food because we get government commodities and government support and they think its subpar and its not," said Rich. “The quality, the nutrition, everything you're getting in a school meal versus what you're getting in a brown bag from home— it doesn’t compare.”