A pilot program to add more fruits and vegetables to cafeteria offerings is being expanded to Howard County’s 41 elementary schools in time for this week’s start of the new year.

On Thursday, Interim Superintendent Michael Martirano announced expansion of the Let’s Rethink Lunch healthy meals program with a news conference at Bellows Spring Elementary School in Ellicott City — complete with a taste test involving principals, staff, parents and students.

“We have 56,000 young people in our school system who are counting on us every day to take care of them and provide the very best education, but to also take care of their well-being,” Martirano said. “In many cases, the only solid meals they’re receiving are the breakfasts and lunches they receive in school.”

The Let’s Rethink Lunch program launched in April 2016 as a two-year pilot in three elementary schools — Talbott Springs, Bollman Bridge and Laurel Woods — and was developed through a partnership between the school system and the Horizon Foundation.

The system received a $200,000 grant from Horizon to add fresh fruit and vegetable bars to cafeterias in the three schools.

Nikki Highsmith Vernick, Horizon Foundation president and CEO, said the pilot was so well received that the system decided to expand its offerings to all elementary schools in time for the upcoming school year.

“More kids are taking advantage of the healthy lunches and families are excited about having more options available,” Vernick said. “You want to provide enough of a variety, so you want to put some squash up there in addition to the strawberries and grapes and things that go really quickly.”

The elementary school roll-out will effectively double the amount of fruits and vegetables previously served during lunchtime. The program offers access to fresh produce from red grapes and apples to cucumbers and romaine lettuce.

Officials said fruits and vegetables are locally sourced throughout Maryland.

Brian Ralph, director of food and nutrition services for the school system, said despite increased costs of food and labor, school lunch prices have remained constant over the past two years. The average full-price lunch costs $2.75, while reduced-price lunches — for those who qualify under family income guidelines — are 40 cents.

Ralph said a goal of Let’s Rethink Lunch was to increase student lunch participation and healthy options. In the pilot, that seemed to work: Lunch participation increased more than 6 percent at the three pilot schools, he said.

“If you consume more fruits and vegetables and you have healthy eating habits, it tends to reduce chronic illness, obesity and diabetes,” Ralph said.

“There is a direct correlation between healthy eating and academic achievement,” he said. “If you’re hungry, you’re not going to focus. If you eat junk, you may focus less. Our program focuses on healthy eating habits.”

Nancy Thompson, principal at Talbott Springs Elementary, said students were happy to participate in the pilot program last year. The school’s overall menu changed as well, she said, with options other than chicken or fish nuggets, veal patties and pizza.

“We offered pizza five days a week and there were some kids who ate pizza five days a week,” Thompson said. Now, “the menu offerings are more diverse. Now, we’ve got a little color on their plates and a whole bunch of different textures for them to try out.”

Talbott Springs also posts informational about healthy menus and choices on the cafeteria walls, and teachers discuss in classrooms what an organized, healthy food plate should look like.

“If we can help them have fresh fruits and vegetables during the day — especially families who are living in poverty — we’re helping kids become better learners and feeding their brains,” Thompson said.

Kate Cole had children in first and fifth grades at Bollman Bridge Elementary during the pilot program. Until last year, she regularly packed her children’s lunches to make sure they were eating right.

“We eat a lot of fruits and vegetables at the house and school lunches were not providing that at that time,” Cole said. When the pilot program started, “my kids thought it was the greatest thing ever that they had strawberries, spinach and the kinds of things that they see and eat at home.”

She organized an event at Bollman Bridge to invite parents to experience the new and improved student lunches.

“A lot of the parents were really happy to see less pizza on the menu,” she said. “They felt more comfortable and it was easier for them to let their kids buy lunches now because they knew they’d be getting enough protein, fruits and vegetables.”

Jenny Bonilla, parent of a kindergartner and second-grader at Cradlerock Elementary, had heard about Let’s Rethink Lunch even though it wasn’t offered at her children’s school last year.

She said she usually packed her children’s lunches because cafeteria offerings didn’t appeal to them. Now, they will have another option.

“As a parent, the program helps us feel better about the times that we need to buy lunch and they’re getting a viable option other than what I can pack for them at home,” Bonilla said.

anmichaels@baltsun.com