Good news everyone! School lunches officially suck less—at least, when it comes to nutrition.

Five years ago, President Obama signed the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act (HHFKA) increasing standards on what can be served in schools. According to researchers out of the Center for Public Health Nutrition at the University of Washington, Seattle, the program has had a significant effect, reducing calories while upping nutritional adequacy.

The program, which required schools to serve meals more closely aligned with the (recently updated) Dietary Guidelines, enacted calorie restrictions and portion-size recommendations, put limits on trans-fats, and increased the amount of produce and whole grains included at lunchtime.

In a longitudinal study published in JAMA Pediatrics, researchers evaluated around 1.7 million school meals served at six schools between 2011 and 2014. Collecting data 16 months prior to implementation of HHFKA and 15 months after, they looked at calories in each meal along with six key nutrients—calcium, vitamin C, vitamin A, iron, fiber, and protein—and found HHFKA helped cause a 17 percentage point bump in nutrition.

Still, some school officials and associations have questioned the efficacy of the program because they perceive dropping rates of student participation and increased costs. As Time reports, the School Superintendents Association and the School Nutrition Association have called on federal officials to provide more money and loosen the restrictions:

In a statement sent to Time, the School Nutrition Association said the group “supports the majority of the rules, including caps on calories, saturated and trans fats; mandates to offer a wider variety of fruits and vegetables; as well as requirements to provide whole grain rich choices in schools.” But the group says other evidence like a recent U.S. Government Accountability Office report suggests fewer students are using the school lunch program.

The researchers, however, highlight that there are currently 31 million students on the National School Lunch Program and their study showed the number only dropped by 1 percent after the act was implemented.

In an editorial published with the study, Erin R. Hager of the University of Maryland School of Medicine and Lindsey Turner of Boise State University called the program the “one of the most important pieces of US federal legislation regarding child health” and emphasized that the study shows the importance of staying the course, despite the pushback:

“We encourage policy makers to consider the hard evidence rather than anecdotal reports when evaluating the impact of policy changes,” they write. “On the fifth anniversary of this landmark legislation, it is worth celebrating the successes of the HHFKA, rather than abandoning the recent progress made in keeping our nation’s children healthy.”