Would you want a burger, pasta or roasted chicken at 9:30 a.m. in the cafeteria? Students have no choice when early classes or big enrollments mean lunch hours start long before noon. Schools in at least six states start lunch before 10 a.m. "Who wants to be eating chili at that hour in the morning?” asks Bettina Siegel, a Houston mother with a school food blog called The Lunch Tray. She and others worry that kids will choose snack-type foods in mid-morning because they’re not hungry, rather than having a more nutritious lunch.

An intermediate (middle) school in Queens, N.Y., is so jammed that the principal scheduled three meal periods – starting with a 9:45 a.m. lunchtime. “My concern," says an eighth-grader's dad, "is that this brunch schedule teaches children to skip breakfast." The father, Paul Manuele, told the New York Post: "Those that don't skip breakfast won't have the appetite for a meal two hours later."

Serving lunch at brunch time is increasingly common across the country, even though federal government guidelines say subsidized lunches should be served between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. State education agencies can get permission to schedule lunch outside that time slot, as several hundred schools currently do. Sometime the reason involves proper nutrition. Because of family finances or rushed morning schedules, some students don't start the day with adequate food at home and need early "fuel" for learning.

Student says: "I don't want this [pizza at 9:55 a.m.] It just didn't sit right in my stomach." – Joe Canal, 17, of Vernon Township, N.J., interviewed Sept. 20 on NBC Nightly News

Mom says: "Can you imagine having to eat pizza, broccoli, mashed potatoes or ravioli at 9:30 a.m.? What's more, how are these kids . . . feeling at noon or 2 p.m.? They're probably starving, irritable and tired." – Michele Cheplic of Wisconsin, blogging at families.com

Administrator says: "Some cafeterias are very small and enrollment may be very large so that schools must start serving lunch early and end later to accommodate all the students. Schools have become flexible." -- Frances O'Donnell, child nutrition coordinator at the New York State Education Department