We're hungry! Students revolt over Michelle Obama's 850-calorie school meals with online video as First Lady faces growing anger

Mrs Obama promoted new rules on nutrition in schools to combat obesity

Students complain 850 calories is not enough for teenagers and athletes

Many schoolchildren refuse to eat vegetables, reducing meal size further

Kansas high school posts comic video called 'We Are Hungry' to YouTube



New rules on school meals inspired by Michelle Obama were intended to wipe out hunger and malnutrition among American students - but some are complaining they have had the opposite effect.



High schools are now forbidden from giving pupils more than 850 calories for their lunch - even if they are fast-growing teenagers or even student athletes.



One enterprising group of adolescents channelled their anger at the policy into a parody YouTube video promoting their cause entitled 'We Are Hungry'.

Scroll down to watch the video

Healthy: Michelle Obama visited a school in Virginia in January to promote new rules about students' meals, but now many are speaking out against the restrictions which have just come into force

Rebel: 16-year-old student athlete Callahan Grun stars in a YouTube video satirising the new rules

The new restrictions were mandated by the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, signed into law during the lame-duck period of the last Congress in December 2010.



As well as the calorie limits, the law requires students to be given more fruit and vegetables and cuts down on sweet and fatty foods.

Now that the rules have come into effect for the new school year, many are concerned that some adolescents are being denied the quantities of food they need.



Student athletes can burn through as many as 5,000 calories a day - but they are still entitled to no more than 850 calories for their lunch.



Even though recommended calorie intake is different for males and females, the restrictions are the same for both boys and girls.



Exhausted: As illustrated by this clip from 'We Are Hungry', many students do not have the energy for sports

Stash: Some are bringing in junk food from outside school and keeping it hidden away

In addition, because many children refuse to eat the fruit and veg they are required to accept, some are eating significantly less than the mandated 850 calories for high-schoolers, which goes to 650 for those in elementary school.



One middle-schooler in South Dakota told KELOland : 'I know a lot of my friends who are just drinking a jug of milk for their lunch. And they are not getting a proper meal.'

A school principal estimated that his cafeteria 'threw away four boxes of peaches' at the beginning of the year after seeing most students refuse to eat the fruit even when it was placed on their trays.



The situation inspired Kansas high-school teacher Linda O'Connor to pen 'We Are Hungry', a video featuring her students complaining about the restrictions to the tune of hit single We Are Young by fun.



Starring 16-year-old football player Callahan Grun, the video humorously portrays students' struggles to eat enough during the day to fuel them through a busy schedule of class and after-school sports.

It shows them passing out in the classroom, on the football field and in the gym, and documents the length they go to to feel full - for example, sneaking out of school during break and stashing snacks in their lockers.

Passed out: The video humorously exaggerates the effects smaller portion sizes have on student athletes

Obsessed: In the video, Callahan dreams of being given a filling meal by his mother

Brenda Kirkham, a colleague of Ms O'Connor at Wallace County High School in the farming town of Sharon Springs, told the Wichita Eagle she was outraged at seeing students go hungry thanks to government rules.



'Think of a high-school boy who works out at least three hours a day, not including farm work,' she said. 'I'm furious.'

Some pupils have turned to radical solutions to get round the ban on sugary snacks - at one school, a black market has sprung up in chocolate syrup.



Students at a high school in New Bedford, Massachusetts are bringing syrup into school and selling it to friends so they can make their own contraband chocolate milk, according to the Standard-Times .

'Flavored milk... I don't understand why we can't have that,' said 17-year-old Paige Lame.

Another unintended consequence of the rule is that charity groups are unable to sell cookies or candy to raise money for good causes and student activities, thanks to a crackdown on the availability of junk food on school property.



Put your back into it! Physical exercise is another cornerstone of the First Lady's fitness agenda

The government has defended the reforms, saying that students who are under-nourished should be encouraged to eat vegetables at home as well as in school.



'Many children aren't used to eating fruits and vegetables at home, much less at school,' said a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. 'So it's a change in what they are eating.



'If they are still hungry, it's that they are not eating all the food that's being offered.'

Even as the country as a whole becomes more health-conscious, the nutrition of school meals has long been a sore point for both children and their parents.

When British chef Jamie Oliver went to Los Angeles in an attempt to repeat the success he had in the UK in reforming childhood nutrition, he was met with firm resistance by families reluctant to make any changes to their culinary routine.

