What's for dinner? In thousands of school districts across the country, students are no longer asking that question to mom or dad but rather to cafeteria workers. That's because of the federal Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, signed into law in December 2010, which funds a third meal in schools where at least half of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunches. "It has opened the door of opportunity for children. It has given us the opportunity to provide a well-rounded, nutritious meal," which includes fruits and vegetables, says Roxanne Moore, national director of wellness for schools at Sodexo food service. Sodexo serves dinners to students in some districts, as do other national vendors like Chartwells and ARAMARK. "Across the country, there are many children depending on school breakfast and school lunch meals who had been going home hungry, and might not have a full meal again until breakfast the next day." The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act stipulates that states receive funding for the dinner program through the federal Child and Adult Care Feeding Program (CACFP), which also serves child and adult day care centers, which means that nutritional guidelines are slightly different from guidelines for school lunches, says Linda Scuerman, director of nutrition and menu development for ARAMARK Education. They still include requirements to include meat, grains, fruits, vegetables and milk, but the federal child feeding program, or CACFP, guidelines have not been updated to govern levels of fat or sodium, for example. ARAMARK expects the regulations for CACFP, last changed in the 1990s, to be updated this fall, but Scuerman doesn't expect many surprises and says the company has been attempting to anticipate what those changes will involve. Whether for lunch or dinner, ARAMARK tries to tie meal planning back to nutrition education, Scuerman says. "It's important for us to be able to connect the food with the nutrition aspect," she says. "Children are going to learn healthy lifestyles by what they see and what they learn through food."