photo by Dennis Dalman
At Oak Ridge Elementary School, school district cooks pool their brains and talents Jan. 18 to help create a tasty and nutritious menu option for the students at Oak Ridge Elementary School in Sartell. The special sidedish, called "Zesty Mandarin Orange Chicken" is made with jasmine rice and is a way to introduce students to how delicious grains can taste. From left to right are Janice Sweeter, head cook of Sartell Middle School; Carole Michalek, head cook of Pine Meadow Elementary School; Sherry Scholters, head cook of Oak Ridge Elementary School; Cheryl Freihammer, head cook of Sartell High School and Mike Holleman, chef of "Indian Harvest" in Bemidji. Holleman, a visiting chef, is the one who concocted the "Zesty Chicken" grain recipe.

There is life after French fries.

That's one of Brenda Braulick's favorite reassurances. Braulick is the food-service director for the Sartell-St. Stephen School District. She understands children love French fries, pizza, cheeseburgers and other not-so-healthy foods.

But she also knows it takes time – sometimes years – for children in and out of schools to finally try and get to like foods that are better for them.

"Sure, it takes time," she said. "Rome wasn't built in a day."

Braulick is a strong supporter of a recent federal government mandate to make school meals more nutritious.

Known as the "Renewal of Child Nutrition Bill," the authorization, proposed by Pres. Barack Obama, was approved in December. An additional $10 billion over 10 years will be invested in child nutrition programs, which include school lunches and school breakfasts. In addition, there are federal mandates to make school lunches and breakfasts more nutritious and less fattening. The president and First Lady Michelle Obama have pushed for ways to help reduce childhood obesity, which has become practically an epidemic in the United States.

Braulick applauds those efforts. Long before the Obamas and others addressed those issues, Braulick was constantly seeking ways to make school lunches more nutritious and to offer students an increasing variety of options, most of which are nutritious and low-fat entrees and side dishes.

The federal mandates probably won't go into full effect until the end of 2012, Braulick said, because it will take time to develop the plan, educate all involved and to implement every part of it. The plan calls for a reduction of sodium, calories and fats in school lunches and breakfasts. It also calls for an increase in such healthy foods as legumes, whole grains, fruits and vegetables. Potatoes, peas and corn (three top favorites of students) will be de-emphasized in favor of less-starchy vegetables such as greens and orange-colored veggies such as sweet potatoes.

"There's a lot of work to be done, but we're excited about the changes coming up," Braulick said.

The students in the Sartell-St. Stephen District have a big head-start when it comes to healthy eating, thanks to Braulick and her food staff. For years, healthy options have been added to school menus. Furthermore, the addition of fruits and vegetables has helped change the eating habits of many students who used to just lunge for the hamburgers-and-fries. Periodically, students are offered samples of healthy foods. On Jan. 18 at Oak Ridge Elementary School, for example, students had a chance to try sample foods made with grains created by an "Indian Harvest" chef from Brainerd.

A month ago, the school district submitted three nutritious recipes to a national contest sponsored by First Lady Michelle Obama. The recipes were developed right at Sartell Middle School by a guest chef, a parent, a student and members of the cooking staff. One day, most of the students in the lunch line sampled those three foods. Some loved them, some didn't. But that's to be expected, Braulick noted. Like many adults, most children are a bit squeamish about trying new foods, and it takes time to develop a taste for foods a person did not grow up eating.

Another innovative approach Braulick brought to the school is the "Farm to Schools" program in which children are treated to foods, such as corn-on-the-cob, grown by local farmers. School staff and parents, at least on two occasions, helped shuck the thousands of ears of corn delivered by local farmers. The program is a hit with kids. "Farm to School" is a way for children to learn about the importance of local foods and local growers, not to mention the wisdom of eating fresh, locally grown foods for maximum nutrition.

Little by little, Braulick has seen the positive effects of children's exposure to new, healthy foods. In some cases, it's as simple as students' friends raving up a particular food, causing others to want to try it too.

Wise eating, Braulick said, is definitely a form of school education. It's an ongoing process that works well in tandem with at-home food education. Braulick encourages parents and children to go on shopping trips together, to research fun recipes in books or online, to cook together and to sit down to eat together. Most children exposed to healthy food choices at home will, over time, tend to adopt those good habits.

Last fall, Braulick developed a survey taken by parents in the district. The results showed parents love the menu choices their children get at school, and they are impressed by the good values of what their children receive.

"We will keep working on it, together," Braulick said. "We'll keep exposing children to good, healthy foods. Through (food) education, their horizons will be expanded."