What's for lunch at Smith Middle School?

Would you believe spinach? How about shredded cabbage and sweet potatoes? Broccoli and squash?

To some kids, these may sound like the nightmare side dishes from a recent dinner at Aunt Edna's, but they're actually on the school lunch menu — or soon will be.

And plenty of kids say they like them.

Since September, the Quarryville school has been offering an unusual array of fresh vegetables and fruits under a new program that encourages students to develop healthier palates.

Pupils can try the foods for free, thanks to a $10,000 grant from the Highmark Healthy High 5 School Challenge.

The Smith program is the brainchild of students in NRG, a club formed last year to promote fitness and better eating habits among youngsters.

NRG (short for "energy") members last spring met with school nurse Sue Myers to discuss ways they could improve students' eating habits.

"We knew that fresh fruits and vegetables were something Solanco needed," eighth-grader Tyler  McCardell said.

But the cafeteria manager told the students it would cost too much to add more fruits and vegetables to the menu every day.

"We were looking at various grants, and the Highmark one seemed the most reasonable, with the widest range of topics, so we applied for it," Tyler said.

Tyler and other students worked with Kegel's Produce, which supplies food to the school district, to develop a list of fresh fruits and vegetables that could be served each week.

It was the diversity of that list, Myers said, that helped the school get the grant, which provides $9,000 to purchase food and $1,000 to promote the program.

Since September, the cafeteria has served green, red and yellow pepper strips, kiwis, Bartlett pears, sliced pineapples, potatoes, mangoes, broccoli, cauliflower and jacima (pronounced "HE-ka-ma") — a sweet root vegetable.

"That was awesome," eighth-grader Curtis Weaver said of the jacima slices he tried. "It tasted like a potato, kind of, but it was different. I had it with ranch dressing."

In addition to liking jacima (which was served with whipped marshmallow "ranch dip"), students went through cases of kiwi and enjoyed the pineapple chunks and pepper strips, cafeteria manager Karen Bowman said.

During a recent lunch, students were piling cucumber slices, pears and mango chunks on their trays alongside the chicken nuggets, barbecued ribs, steamed corn and french fries on the regular menu.

Eighth-grader Alexa Rongione, who was eating fresh mangoes for the first time, said she tries to eat a healthy lunch to stay in shape for cross country and track.

"I think it's good for us, and I want to try to eat healthier because it helps you exercise better. In sports you want to do as well as you can, and eating fruits is good for that," she said

Kids are bombarded with advertising for junk food, Alexa said, but don't have much incentive to try healthy foods.

"There are so many unhealthy foods that are blaring out at us, so I think it's good that they're giving us a chance to try these foods and make better healthy choices."

Future lunches will feature Italian squash, portobello mushrooms, papayas, carrot chips, yams, shredded cabbage with carrots, dried cranberries, watercress and other fresh fare.

Students can take as much as they want and are urged to submit comments on the food, which qualifies them for prizes every quarter.

So far, T-shirts and Frisbees have been given away, but NRG plans to award a Wii Fit gaming system to a lucky student or students at the end of the year.

"Kids are looking for it and willing to try something new," Myers said of the fresh foods.

She's hoping the program prompts students to eat better outside school, making them less inclined to become obese and develop diabetes, high blood pressure and other health problems associated with being overweight.

"It's definitely a good thing because the childhood obesity rate is rising," Tyler said.

"NRG is one of the things that will counter that, and hopefully we'll have a healthy generation of Americans."

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Highmark also has awarded $6,700 grants to 10 School District of Lancaster schools to establish Grub Clubs as part of the schools' extended-day programs.

Participants will learn about the history and culture of different regions of America and the world and the foods that originate there and then learn how to cook those foods.

By December, Grub Clubs should be operating at Burrowes, Ross, Lafayette, King, Price, Washington and Wickersham elementary schools and at Wheatland, Lincoln and Hand middle schools.

The SDL and Smith Middle School grants are among the $921,000 awarded statewide to schools for efforts to promote physical and nutritional well-being, boost students' self-esteem and combat bullying.

E-mail: bwallace@lnpnews.com