It has been four years since the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act‘s (HHFKA) improved school nutritional standards went into effect, and we’ve been hearing conflicting reports about how districts are adapting to them ever since. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reports that over 95 percent of districts are now meeting the standards, which sounds like a resounding success, but to bolster its own campaign to roll back reforms, the School Nutrition Association (SNA) has tended to emphasize all the obstacles districts reportedly face, from lost revenue to increased food waste.

So what’s the true story?

A comprehensive report released last week by the Kids’ Safe and Healthful Foods Project (KSHFP) goes a long way toward answering that question. The KSHFP surveyed 489 school nutrition directors from across the country about their implementation of the new standards as of the 2014-15 school year, then shared their responses with a panel of 11 expert food service directors who offered their own insights and recommendations. Here are the key findings:

Cost and Availability of Suitable Foods Remain a Challenge

The KSHFP says “districts have emerged from the most challenging phase of the transition to healthier meals,” but when you drill down into the details of the study, the picture is a little less rosy: About 60 percent of the directors surveyed still report “some” or “a great deal” of difficulties implementing the new standards at lunch, and about 40 percent felt the same way at breakfast. The most commonly cited issues were the availability and cost of compliant foods that are acceptable to students.

But it’s worth noting that districts that improved their meals in anticipation of the new rules experienced somewhat fewer challenges than those that waited until after the rules went into effect; newer data might therefore show even fewer districts still experiencing difficulties.

Financial Concerns

More than half of the directors surveyed said their revenue stayed the same or increased following the implementation of the HHFKA standards, while just under half had seen declines. But overall, 87 percent of the directors reported having financial concerns, often relating to the costs of labor and equipment. Interestingly, the directors only rarely reported that their financial concerns stemmed from factors such as food costs, decreased revenue from competitive food sales, drops in student participation, or an adverse effect of meal price increases.

Increased Plate Waste for Fruits and Vegetables

Under the HHFKA rules, children now have to take a half-cup serving of a fruit or vegetable at lunch, rather than being able to pass those foods by. The SNA has maintained that this change increases plate waste, while other studies, such as this one from the Harvard School of Public Health, found no such increase. But to the extent one can rely on the impressions of school food directors (as opposed to actual measurement), the KSHFP survey bolsters the SNA’s position: More than half of the directors surveyed reported increased plate waste for fruits, and 75 percent said that the amount of vegetable waste had increased.

However, districts using strategies like cutting up fresh produce, offering a wider array of produce and serving it in salad bars felt those techniques were particularly effective in increasing student acceptance of fruits and vegetables. It’s also important to note that the survey took place in the 2014-15 school year, which means children have since had an additional year and half to become accustomed to the new rule; arguably, the more fruits and vegetables become the norm, the less likely kids are to spurn them.