Savvy entrepreneurs are cracking open the door to the grammar school lunchroom with something many parents can’t get soon enough: healthier lunches.

School lunches are big business. In public schools they often are controlled by unions and federal subsidies, primarily the $7 billion-a-year National School Lunch Program, which covers about half the 54 million public school kids. The lunches rarely include fresh fruits and veggies at a time when 17% of children ages 2 to 9 are overweight, according to the National Center for Health Statistics.

With growing concern about child nutrition and obesity, more alternatives are being offered by tiny start-ups with names such as Health e-Lunch Kids, Brown Bag Naturals and Kidfresh.

Besides fresh fruit and veggies, their lunches include organic or natural foods without trans fats, additives or preservatives. At $4.50 to $7.40, they also cost up to three times the price of the typical school lunch.

“It’s time to change our children’s relationship with food,” says Ann Cooper, author of Lunch Lessons: Changing the Way We Feed Our Children. “Cheap food means sick kids.” Says nutritionist Sharron Dalton: “The system is screwed up.”

USA Today