Think outside the box

ANABEL SHAFFER Barnett admits that she's a picky eater. The eight-year-old won't eat meat, and there are only a few vegetables that she enjoys. "My favorite is mac and cheese," said the West Chester soon-to-be third grader.

"She likes peanut butter, so every day, it's peanut butter on whole wheat," said her mother, Missy Shaffer. "She's good about fruit, so we always pack a few fruits, an organic yogurt and usually one cookie." Shaffer sticks to the basics for lunches, and tries to introduce new foods to her daughter at dinnertime. "But we don't make her eat meat - she just doesn't like it."

Andrew Masciangelo, chef at Savona, in Glen Mills, packs lunches for his 10-year-old daughter, Kali, and eight-year-old son, Jake, when he has the kids Sundays and Mondays. "My kids are pretty good," admits the Phoenixville resident. "My son doesn't eat quite as much as my daughter, who'll eat just about everything."

"My dad's a pretty good lunch maker," said Kali, who, along with her brother, counts tuna as a favorite sandwich. "We cook on Sunday nights, so leftovers can work, too," said Masciangelo, who's found that keeping it simple is the best way to be sure that the kids eat their lunches.

As parents everywhere can attest, back-to-school means back to packing lunches, usually for a less than enthusiastic audience. Making sure that your kids get the nutrition and brain food that they need to get through the day can be a real challenge - especially if your brood includes a finicky eater. If you're also trying to control your child's weight and offer healthful alternatives to junk food, going the easy, processed-food route just won't cut it.

So what's a harried parent to do?

First of all, according to chef Ann Cooper, you want to involve your child in the process. Cooper is working with Whole Foods Market on its "School Lunch Revolution" campaign, a national effort aimed at improving the way children eat. "If they make decisions and help make their lunch, they'll be more excited about eating healthier things."

Cooper, whose free Web site is www.thelunchbox.org, worries about the increase that she sees in Type 2 diabetes in elementary-school children. "We really need to change children's relationship with food," said the Boulder, Colo.-based chef. "Whether at home or school, we want them to be eating fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains and clean protein with a minimum amount of processed foods, no trans fats, hormones or dyes."

Little Egg Harbor chef/consultant Scott Swartz has three children. His oldest is a picky eater. "One of the challenges is, if she sees something she's not familiar with, it's immediately, 'I don't like that.' We try very hard to enforce the rule that she has to take one bite out of everything, at least most of the time." As a parent well versed in nutrition, Swartz does some undercover work to beef up his family's diet. "She loves pancakes for breakfast, so I add soy flour, or grind oatmeal into flour, at a ratio of two parts regular flour to one part soy or oatmeal, and she never knows the difference. My son loves corn dogs, so I give him soy corn dogs - he never suspects."

Making the right choices at the market is an important first step, said Guillermo Tellez, chef at the new Square 1682 in the Kimpton Hotel, slated to open in October. Tellez, a native of Cuidad Hidalgo in central Mexico, grew up eating fruits and vegetables from local farms. Tellez and his wife, Leslie, a pastry chef, have a vegetable and herb garden behind their Downingtown home and often bring their daughters Paloma, 5, and Montysè, 2, to local farmers' markets.

"We cook all fresh foods at home," said Tellez. "I'm a little bit heavy, so I'm very aware of keeping the girls away from foods that are high in fat and calories."

"I know Paloma sees other kids eating chicken nuggets and that kind of thing, and sometimes I feel bad - it's like a peer pressure. But we do our best to make her understand that she can try that, but, instead, this is what we want for her. I consider myself lucky, because they love salads, fruit and vegetables."

Giving kids options can make packing lunch a fun exercise in creativity. Create a salad bar atmosphere, with choices of kids' favorite vegetables, shredded cheese and sliced meats. Give your child a reusable container and provide salad dressing in another sealable container. Kids enjoy making their own selections. This idea works well for fruit and yogurt treats. Have sliced or diced fruit prepared ahead of time, add some crunchy ingredients like crushed graham crackers, chopped nuts and their favorite flavored yogurt.

While a sandwich can be ho-hum, a wrap, stuffed pita pocket or assemble-as-you-go lunch can be fun. Kids love to dip, which makes items like low-fat mozzarella or string-cheese sticks, cut-up veggies, sliced fruit, lunch meat and cheese roll-ups and whole wheat bread sticks all fun items to pair with hummus, salad dressing, peanut butter, yogurt, salsa and the like.

"The best thing a parent can do is model for their children the behavior they want them to exhibit," said Cooper. "One in three children born in the year 2000 will have diabetes, and 30 percent of them are overweight, according to the Center for Disease Control.

"The CDC also says that the cost of treating diabetes in the United States is estimated at $174 billion each year," said Cooper. "The reality is, we're going to pay now or pay later with rising health costs and poor health."