Iowa City, Ia. -- Nearly 300 Iowa City parents have signed a petition to get more organic, locally grown food into their youngsters' school lunches.

Food service coordinators for three Iowa school districts say they are trying to buy more local food, but organic fare is nearly impossible without drastically increasing meal costs.

"There needs to be a reality check," said Diane Duncan-Goldsmith, director of food services for the Iowa City school district. "Is this something schools can do? Maybe if we want to have $4 or $5 lunches."

Other school districts nationally are offering organic foods, with one district dropping desserts in order to offer the fare.

The Better Iowa City School Food committee will deliver its petition to the Iowa City school board Tuesday, said Deirdre Egan, an Iowa City mother of four.

The petition asks the board to implement a wellness policy requiring the district's schools to use fresh, locally grown and organic ingredients "to the extent possible."

Parents in the group have a range of goals, including cutting the use of sugar and processed meats, Egan said. However, "if we had to make a list of priorities, organics are probably in our top five."

Studies have shown that people who eat organic food have fewer fertilizers and pesticides in their bodies. Some research also indicates that organic food has more nutrients, although critics say the differences are negligible.

The Olympia, Wash., school district stopped offering desserts in 2002 to pay for adding organic salad bars, said Paul Flock, child nutrition supervisor for the 9,000-student district.

The change raised food costs slightly, but lunch prices weren't raised, he said.

Farmers near Olympia specialize in organic food and are willing to provide washed, prepared produce that works in school kitchens, he said. About half of the district's $125,000 produce budget in 2006-07 was organic, with about 8 percent local food, Flock said.

"Initially we had two farmers. We have 10 now," Flock said.

The Iowa City school district, which serves about 6,200 lunches daily, has an annual food and milk budget of $1.5 million, Duncan-Goldsmith said. That budget comes from state and federal reimbursement and the meal prices paid by parents whose children don't receive free or reduced-cost lunch.

The district is launching a pilot program to serve fresh produce from Kalona Organics at City High School, Duncan-Goldsmith said. But there are challenges to serving local foods throughout a large district.

"Most of the growing season in Iowa is not when school is in session," she said.

Districts also struggle to find local farmers who can deliver large quantities of produce that is ready to serve, which is important because school kitchens are small and staff must serve thousands of students in a short period of time, she said.

Iowa's Farm-to-School pro- gram, created in 2007, is working to help Iowa growers develop partnerships to supply larger quantities of food and find businesses that could do light prep work before the produce is delivered to schools, program coordinator Maury Wills said.

Cost is the major stumbling block for organic food, school food supervisors said.

"The organics would be 50 percent higher," said Nancy Hogstad, president of the School Nutrition Association of Iowa and purchasing specialist for West Des Moines schools.

Laurie Crane, Davenport schools' food and nutrition supervisor, said she gets few requests for organic foods.

"In our community, 54 percent of kids don't pay for lunch," Crane said, referring to families who qualify for government-subsidized lunch. "Parents (who do pay) are expecting our meals to be lower cost than average. If it costs $4.79 a meal, we have to charge the parents."

Iowa City parents hope to convince the school board that there is support for organic and local food in the college town known for natural food stores and vegetarian restaurants.

A March 2006 online survey of 453 Iowa City parents showed 93 percent were willing to pay at least 25 cents more per meal to have a more nutritious, tasty and appealing lunch for their children. Twenty-eight percent of parents surveyed said they would add $1 to the $1.65 cost of elementary-school lunches and the $1.75 cost of secondary-school lunches.

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