It has been two long years since the Obama administration mandated that school lunch programs provide healthier menus. Those schools that subsidized their lunch programs with government funding were forced to add more fruits and vegetables to their menus while discontinuing to offer foods with high sugar and sodium content. On paper, the program seems like a no brainer. Not many would object to feeding kids more healthy foods and limiting their access to sugary treats.

However, the School Nutrition Association, one of the program’s biggest supporters, is now lobbying Congress against the new nutrition plan. In what is seen as a complete 180-degree turn, the association is now urging congress to allow schools to opt out of the program they formerly supported. They are now arguing that the program is too costly, even with government subsidization. Congress is considering legislation that would delay the nutritional guidelines for the next year, though some of the regulations have already gone into effect.

Those who once considered the School Nutrition Association to be allies have been up in arms over the association’s latest lobbying moves.

“They sold their souls to the devil,” said Stanley C. Garnett, a former Agriculture Department official involved with children nutrition, as reported by The New York Times. Garnett has withdrawn his membership from the School Nutrition Association since the association’s lobbying motives became clear.

Critics of the School Nutrition Association’s change of heart are pointing the finger at giant food companies as the real culprits. They argue that more than half of the School Nutrition Association’s $10.5 million dollar budget comes from sponsorship fees provided by dozens of food manufactures. The lobbying seems to have been working. The House Appropriations Committee has already passed a spending bill which would allow schools to opt out of the nutrition requirements for the fall semester. It has yet to be approved by the whole House.

The School Nutrition Association has been trying to save face, declaring that they still support healthier lunch options, but most students just ended up throwing away the fruits and veggies. A spokeswoman for the group, Diane Pratt-Heavner, claimed that the discarded food equated to as much as $684 million in a single year. She went on to explain that those funds were “enough to serve complete reimbursable school lunches to more than 228 million students.”

As of now, the White House has scheduled a meeting with multiple nutrition groups to discuss the matter for July 10.