SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) – When you were a kid, you may have disliked certain fruits or vegetables, and you may have left them on you plate when you were done eating. The Sioux Falls School District implements a program that is giving students an option when it comes to meal time.

It’s lunch time at Sonia Sotomayor Elementary.

Students have the option to say what they want on their trays.

It’s part of the offer versus serve program.

“We find kids make better choices when they have the option to say this is what I want on my tray versus you’re being told you have to take everything,” child nutrition services coordinator, Gay Anderson said. “We see less waste in the garbage can after they’re consuming their meals and at the same time it also benefits us, we’re an enterprise business and we have to keep our costs down so we have to work together uniquely so we can manage that.”

It’s not completely new to the district. All of the secondary schools and some elementary schools have already been doing offer versus serve.

But it was fully implemented in all schools on Monday.

“We started this a year ago, we piloted it in some of our schools, along with that we’ve been sharing with building principals in all the elementary schools that we needed to get to this point,” Anderson said.

Sonia Sotomayor was one of the schools that piloted the program at the beginning of the last school year.

When going through the lunch line, students will give a thumbs up or a thumbs down to determine which food they do or do not want.

“We have feet on the floor, to show the children where to stop, and it’s at each entree,” principal, Tracy Vik said. “Our lunch EA went a step above and she has printed pictures in front of each entree, so if they can’t see what is actually being served, they do see a real picture of that.”

When going through the food line, students are required to take either a half cup of fruit or vegetables, or both if they would like.