CTLawyer – yes, you are correct. it is the chocolate that is fat free. But nobody wanted it. Instead of having three to five cases left over there would be 10-20 cases left over.
And yes, you are also correct about all the other regulations you listed. The lunches are measured out to each child regardless of how much they want. But they are not obligated to take all the options, they may chose 3 of 5, or 4 of 6 (I don’t remember). That is how the left overs ‘come to be’.
For the first year of our lunches (we have only had the lunch program in our schools for about 2 years) we threw tons of food away as staff members who had little to eat watched on. It was awful. It took a while to come up with a way to get access to the food that was perfectly legal, no loopholes or kulas but with Hashem in our corner, so to speak, we found the way.
There is also the issue of food from the kitchen that cannot be used again for lunches (menus cannot be repeated within a certain time frame) but is perfectly fine for eating.
B”H
Menu