SARATOGA SPRINGS -- Little Debbie has left the building.

So have the French fries, the high-fructose fruit snacks, the faux chicken nuggets and the packages of potato chips - items previously available to students in the Saratoga Springs City School District during their lunch hour.

In their place: roasted potatoes from Sheldon Farms in Salem, honey crisp apples from Saratoga Apple in Schuylerville and myriad other examples of local produce - including some grown by students in their own school-based gardens.

Indeed, pupils throughout the district are filling their Styrofoam plates with a much different meal than their predecessors these days, as kale, squash, beets and locally grown lettuce replace the throw-it-on-a-tray-and-bake-it meals students had largely grown accustomed to.

It's a transition few schools have endeavored to make but one that officials in Saratoga Springs describe as both logical and necessary, as nutritionists and lawmakers spotlight schools as fertile grounds for shaping long-term health habits.

"You really get the sense that things are going to change, whether we do this on our own or not," said Margaret Lamb, the director of the district's school lunch program. "We want to position ourselves so that when it happens, we'll be ready for that. To change on a dime would be very difficult."

The changeover began in Saratoga Springs years ago, when select high-fat, packaged items were subtly withdrawn from the lunch line in favor of salad bars, whole grains, fruits and vegetables.

It's been a deliberately slow evolution, but one that is poised to accelerate.

The school district announced last month it has forged a new partnership that will allow vendors with the Saratoga Springs Farmers Market to donate a portion of their bounty in exchange for reduced rent at the Division Street Elementary School, where they are setting up their winter market for the first time on Saturday.

This week, that partnership led to the delivery of more than 600 heads of romaine lettuce, along with smaller portions of beets, radishes and squash, that were to become part of Wednesday's chicken caesar wraps and a host of salad bars.

The delivery, which at this point merely serves to augment other offerings, arrived and was prepared at the Saratoga Springs High School, but portions were shared with schools across the district.

"This certainly isn't the first step in our transition to healthier school lunches, but it's definitely an important step in the overall process," Lamb said as she provided a behind-the-scenes glimpse at the school's lunch program.

And though some students have questioned the changeover, Lamb said many have embraced the new offerings.

"There's a learning curve because this is a big change for students," she said. "It's like turning the Titanic. It really is a tremendous change."

Students aren't the only ones learning to adapt, however.

More fresh food has meant more prep work for school employees who are working with the same number of food staff to produce more than 3,600 meals a day.

It also means coping with a less predictable menu, crafted only after discovering what's arrived in the kitchen cooler at the beginning of each week.

"It does take a level of creativity and experimentation that wasn't there before," said Donna Wendell, the assistant director for the district's school lunch program.

The increase in labor - and its growing complexity - is just one of the challenges schools face when looking to embrace healthy food, however.

There are also supply, storage and bidding issues, the question of whether local foods meet certain government-regulated safety standards and, perhaps what is the biggest impediment, cost.

"We really need the dollars to make this work, and these are tough times to talk dollars," said Ray Denniston, who co-chairs the New York Farm to School coordinating committee. "There's a lot of good discussion going on right now, but the money is definitely a barrier."

Such hurdles are among the reasons fewer than 11 percent of schools in the United States purchase local food, and why many of the efforts that are under way are both fledgling and fragile, according to the Farm to Schools Network, which promotes partnerships between schools and local agricultural producers.

Advocates with the organization are pushing lawmakers to provide $50 million over the next five years to support a grant program that would embolden schools to make the change.

But even that kind of commitment doesn't create a sustainable program over the long term, said Denniston, a former lunch program coordinator who now works with the Broome-Tioga BOCES in Binghamton.

"We're at the point where we are saying, 'OK, farmers, we want to buy from you,' but what we really have to do is create the infrastructure to support the kind of partnership," he said.

Despite the obstacles, the number of schools showing an interest in buying local food is swelling across the state.

A 2008 report by the Department of Agriculture & Markets suggested around 63 percent of schools said they had purchased local food - though often in limited amounts - and that another 30 percent of school officials expressed an interest in making similar efforts.

Denniston said that number has increased substantially even since the survey, as food safety concerns mount and nutritionists continue to press their case.

Just last week, the Institute of Medicine released a study suggesting school lunch standards need to be revised to limit students' intake of calories and sodium - typical by-products of processed, packaged foods.

Students should be required to take at least one serving of a fruit or vegetable at each meal, while all breads should be at least half whole-grain, the report's authors said.

"I think people are looking at all of these things - diabetes, obesity, what have you - and they're saying, 'Maybe it's time to start over. What are the priorities here? Maybe it's time to redefine school lunch completely,'" Denniston said.

There are more than just nutritional benefits, however.

Supporters are also quick to point out the economic advantages to developing a relationship between schools and their agrarian neighbors, highlighting the benefits of keeping money local and building community.

Patricia Sheldon, of Sheldon Farms in Salem, said the partnership she and her husband, Albert, forged with Lamb at Saratoga Springs four years ago, while paling in comparison with their wholesale and restaurant business, has been a blessing.

"We don't put schools in the rankings of important markets because they are important for other reasons," Sheldon said. "There's a lot more side issues than a sale."

The relationship, which has led to deliveries of hundreds of pounds of potatoes from Sheldon Farms each week, has more importantly allowed students to obtain a better understanding of where their food comes from, Sheldon said.

"They begin to understand how hard farmers work, and it all becomes very real," she said. "They also find out that real potatoes are actually pretty tasty. Most of what people eat now has been touched by some corporation, and to taste this, it just makes them say, 'Wow.'"

It's a point confirmed by Laurie Hall, the high school's head chef, who said this week that students no longer ask where the once-available deep-fried potato option went.

"The fries? They don't even ask for them anymore," she said.