WORCESTER, Mass. — For years, school cafeterias have been the butt of jokes or worse — the battleground of food fights.

But meals being dished out in the country's college dining halls and grade-school cafeterias are getting tastier and more nutritious thanks to a growing number of programs that encourage local farmers to sell their crops directly to schools.

"I care about what I eat, so I'm happy the school is doing what it can to help make meals healthier," said Joe Levering, a sophomore at Clark University who was surprised that the carrots he had for lunch came from a Lunenberg farm, just about 25 miles away from this campus near downtown Worcester.

"And it's a great idea to support local farms so they could stay in business," he said.

Clark is one of about a dozen colleges in the state participating in the Massachusetts Farm to School Project, a three-year-old program that helps eliminate the middleman in food distribution by having more farmers bring their fruits, vegetables and dairy products directly to campuses.

About 90 Massachusetts farmers reaped more than $415,000 through the program last year.

Across the country, more than 200 colleges and 1,000 public school districts in 35 states have similar programs, said Marion Kalb, director of National Farm to School Program, based in Santa Fe, N.M.

The national program was launched in 2000 after schools in California and Florida started buying food directly from farmers. It now helps foster new programs with marketing, legal assistance and purchasing arrangements.

The Massachusetts Farm to School Program was started by Kelly Erwin, who got the idea while working for the state agriculture department as a marketing specialist.

She attended a school food service trade show in 2002, where she tasted "the worst food you've ever had in your life," and decided to make a push for getting fresher ingredients into school kitchens.

After losing her job to state budget cuts, Erwin formed the Massachusetts Farm to School Project with about $20,000 from MassDevelopment, the state's finance and development authority, and Project Bread, a Boston-based anti-hunger organization.

In the past three years, the program has grown to include about 75 public school districts and a dozen colleges across the state.

At Clark, about 20 percent of the ingredients for student meals come from locally grown crops during the fall and spring, said Jim Lachance, the school's executive chef. During the winter, when fewer crops are available, the amount drops to about 5 percent, he said.

"The biggest limitation we have is in the growing season," said Cheryl Walker, general manager of Clark's dining services.