How to win over students to healthy food

Jay Mathews [“The school lunch conundrum,” Metro, Feb. 6] questioned the efficacy of healthy nutrition in schools when students are free to make poor choices and retain their acquired taste for them.

I agree that it is a challenge — I believe that we are all hard-wired for sweets and fats — but I know progress is possible.

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At my school in Northeast D.C., our experience has been the opposite of what was reported in Los Angeles. Two years ago, we began serving locally sourced, nutritious meals cooked on site from scratch, often with ingredients grown in our organic garden, which our students plant and harvest.

Faculty and staff eat the same foods as our students, eat with them and teach them how their food is prepared. Also important is that our healthy meals taste good, thanks to our on-site, French-trained chef.

The students, 85 percent of whom qualify for free or reduced-price school lunches, still crave unhealthy options — but they are eating healthier fare such as dark, leafy vegetables; whole, fresh fruits; grains; and dairy products.

Our fresh approach also costs less than the processed alternative. Our optimism has begun to pay off.

Linda R. Moore, Washington

The writer is executive director of the Elsie Whitlow Stokes Community Freedom Public Charter School.