A menu change at schools in Winnipeg is getting poor reviews from some students.
 
The Winnipeg School Division is one of a number in the province introducing policies based on the Manitoba School Nutrition Handbook. The aim is to persuade students to make healthier food choices.

Those guidelines were recommended by the province's Healthy Kids, Healthy Futures all-party task force, which aims to curb the growing problem of childhood obesity.
 
As a result, soda pop and potato chips are out of vending machines, and fried food and pizza are served only occasionally in cafeterias.

But some students say the changes are too extreme, offer too little variety and have resulted in higher prices, pushing them to unhealthy alternatives.

"The specials are … around $4 or $5, and you can get a good unhealthy meal at McDonald's for, like, $4.  Even Flying Pizza is, like, $1 a slice," said Charmaine Vidoya, a Grade 12 student at Daniel McIntyre Collegiate.

Students at one high school in the division even launched a group on the popular Facebook social-networking site calling for school leaders to "bring sugar back" to the school.

The Winnipeg School Division declined to comment, but Healthy Living Minister Kerri Irvin-Ross acknowledged that some schools are going through "an adjustment period.

"As a minister, I haven't heard these complaints before — they haven't been directed to my office — but … as a parent, I've heard them from my own children," she said.

Even though some students may find the adjustment difficult, Irvin-Ross said she's confident the move will benefit students in the long run.

"By just giving them the healthiest choice, making it the easiest choice for them, having the healthy options available to them, I believe that's going to make a difference, that they're going to be able to make the good choices and in turn have a better quality of life," she said.