Erika Henderson winces when she thinks of the food served up in the cafeteria at her Howard County high school - especially the wheat crust pizza.
"It's disgusting," said Henderson, a senior at Oakland Mills High. "It's cheap food with no seasoning."
But on a recent day, as she lunched on microwaveable instant noodles she brought from home, Henderson and the other students in culinary arts class were taking up a challenge to change things. They sliced onions and dipped them in batter, tweaking a dish they hope will win a place on the county's school cafeteria menu next fall.
Over the past decade, school cafeteria food has taken a turn for the healthier, federal officials say, in response to the epidemic of child obesity. But the challenge has been balancing better nutrition with tastes that appeal to students raised in a fast-food world. So Howard's and other school systems in Maryland and across the country are enrolling students in an effort to upgrade cafeteria menus.
Baltimore schools put on a similar contest this year, with bonus points for family recipes and use of locally grown ingredients. A Florida school system invited students to take part in a veggie burger taste-testing. In Ohio, teen chefs were offered college scholarships for cooking up a winning recipe.
And a school system in California relied on research of students' preferences in developing a food court model that includes sushi, stir-fry and deli-style sandwiches.
"I think the lesson for us all is that if we get children to make healthier choices [they] make their own choices and make healthier decisions," said Jean Daniel, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
School lunch is a part of the daily routine for many children. Nationally, 31 million lunches are served daily in public schools, the USDA says. Last academic year, 72 million lunches were served in Maryland public schools, eaten by 45 percent of students.
While the effort in Howard is drawing the attention of other jurisdictions, officials there have had their ups and down with school lunches. The system adopted a stringent "wellness" policy in 2006 that limited the sales of high-fat foods as a la carte items - apple slices were in; french fries were out.
But students balked in droves, and the system's food program budget incurred a $740,000 deficit, school officials said.
Now they're looking at new ways to give students a voice in the process.
