The ice cream sandwiches at Dundee Middle School are to die for. Or at least to wait in a really long line for.

Lulu Croissant's classmates already were halfway through their bagged lunches on a recent Friday at the West Dundee school by the time the 11-year-old Carpentersville girl joined them at their table, ice cream sandwich in hand.

"It takes forever!" she said.

Marla Kotesky, also 11 and of Carpentersville, added, "It's worth it!"

She wouldn't normally substitute the sweet snack for a meal, Lulu said, but that morning, "we were running out the door." And she didn't have much money preloaded onto the swipe card Community Unit School District 300 students use to pay for their lunches.

Even then, the snack isn't all that unhealthy. Those ice cream sandwiches are made with fat-free ice cream, says Ruth Gibson, who is the Dundee Middle School manager for Aramark, the food service provider for the district.

As National School Lunch Week came to a close earlier this month, both Carpentersville-based Community Unit School District 300 and Elgin School District U46 are looking at new ways to encourage children to eat healthy through their school lunch programs.

"We feel that the food service program is an integral part of the education program for children," said Claudie Phillips, U46 director of food service.

In U46, looking for healthier food offerings is a constant review. Phillips said the district currently is in the middle of a push to involve more students and their parents in its Healthy Eating and Wellness program.

At D300 the changes "have been ongoing over the past several years," said Scott Rodgers, Aramark general manager for the district. "Aramark as a company continues to address nutritional wellness across the country."

Both school districts have switched to an "offer" style of lunch this year, allowing students to choose from several entrees and sides rather than be served a set lunch. Those sides always include choices of fresh fruits and vegetables.

What kids are reaching for in that lunch line still is no surprise, says Gibson. Pizza is available every day, and macaroni and cheese and nacho days are especially popular.

But "The items we serve are healthier," Rodgers points out. For example, the cheese is reduced fat, and the pizza crust is whole wheat with reduced sodium.

"Even if they choose to eat pizza every day, it's healthier" than it would have been five years ago, he noted.

Both D300 and U46 serve whole grain and wheat rolls. And their hot dogs now are made from turkey, which contain much less fat than the beef version. Also, chips are baked rather than fried, and deep fryers, trans fats and sodas have been eliminated, as have sugars in cereals and cookies. And they've made even smaller changes, like switching from iceberg to romaine lettuce, to up the nutrient quotient.

So what won't kids eat?

Whatever their parents pack in their lunch boxes, says Evelyn Diaz Fuentes, custodian at Hanover Countryside Elementary School in Streamwood.

Fuentes oversees the district's new "Tap and Stack" program, encouraging students to tap their trash into the appropriate trash cans -- for recyclables, liquids and other garbage -- then stack their trays.

Digging through the trash cans to weed out misplaced recyclables after first- and second-graders finished lunch recently, she said, "There's not much district food in there. It's more home food."

The trash backed her claim: a plastic bag full of browning apple slices, almost an entire ham and mayonnaise sandwich on white bread, a whole-wheat roll here and there, left over from the day's meatball lunch.

Still, now that the kids can choose their own lunches, there's been a lot less waste, Fuentes said. By her count, she'll take out four trash bags after lunch, as opposed to the 16 to 20 from before.

Additional changes to the lunch program (including health and wellness awareness) depend on funding, says D300 grants specialist Eric Knutson.

"I look wherever we can" for additional money, she said. "You can see a lot of opportunities, especially on obesity issues."

This year, D300 received a $38,500 grant from the state that make it possible to offer breakfast at all schools. Studies link eating breakfast to better classroom behavior and test scores and a lower rate of obesity, Knutson added.

At U46, a $30,000 grant from the National Dairy Council will allow the district to launch a program next month called "Fuel Up to Play 60." Its purpose is to encourage students to exercise 60 minutes each day. Next month, the Elgin district also will begin holding healthy cooking classes for parents.

Those well-balanced meals are all the more important now, as an increasing number of students are dependent on free and reduced-price lunches from the National School Lunch Program.

"We've seen a significant increase, with the economy the way it is," Rodgers said.

In U46, Phillips said about 51 percent of students take part in free and reduced lunches. And the district has received "a tremendous increase in applications" this year.

In September, U46 already had more than 10,000, compared to 8,600 total last year. D300 doesn't have those numbers in yet for this year, but Knutson said "our indications are up." Last year, up to nearly 95 percent were eligible, according to data from the Illinois State Board of Education.

That increase is partly due to the economy, Knutson said. But it also has to do with changes in eligibility. This year, families that take part in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly called food stamps, and Temporary Assistance to Needy Families automatically are eligible.

Regardless who's paying, both school districts want as many students as possible to take part in their lunch programs.

"We want kids to eat a healthy, well-balanced meal," Rodgers said. "Hopefully, that becomes their habit instead of going home and eating Cheetos and drinking Mountain Dew while they play PlayStation."

But don't expect miracles.

"Meatloaf," says Gibson of the school lunches, "is kind of one of those -- kids aren't really all that hip" to it.