ARIZONA (By Anne Ryman, Arizona Republic) August 10, 2004 - Eight Arizona schools are starting the school year by removing soft drinks and candy from campuses and lowering the fat in their lunch menus.

Health Model, a semester-long pilot through the Arizona Department of Education, is meant to provide students with healthier choices and allow the department to study the financial impact of removing junk food.

Over the summer, the pilot schools stocked their snack bars and vending machines with healthier choices such as granola, sunflower seeds and bottled water. Cafeteria managers took out high-fat foods, and teachers developed nutrition lessons.

The pilot comes amid rising concerns over childhood obesity in the United States and as school districts in San Francisco and Los Angeles have banned soft drinks and junk food.

Many cash-strapped schools, although supporting the idea in theory, have resisted change because soft drink and snack sales generate thousands of dollars every year. The money pays for everything from field trips to football uniforms, depending on the school.

If the pilot is a success, state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne hopes other schools will follow the pilot schools' lead.

Many parents are excited about the changes, especially the nutrition education.

"Some kids don't realize what they eat is really bad for them," said parent Rhonda Shinn of Phoenix, whose children's school, Madison Park, is involved in the pilot. Other pilot schools in Phoenix are Monte Vista Elementary and Mountain Trail Middle School. Schools in Tucson, Yuma and rural areas are also taking part.

At Stanfield Elementary School, an 800-student rural school west of Casa Grande, deep-fat frying is out. Children will get stir-fry chicken and veggies instead of a hamburger smothered in white gravy.

"Once a month, I'll dress up as a grape or a carrot, stand by the buses and hand out fliers on good nutrition," said Ken Smith, business manager for the Stanfield Elementary District.

At Monte Vista Elementary in east Phoenix, the cafeteria menu got healthier and the snack bar got trimmed. Kids now get wheat buns and rolls. They dip carrots and celery into low-fat ranch dressing.

Students don't appear to notice the changes, cafeteria manager Linda Scarpone said.

"It's pretty much the same," second-grader Audrey Valencia, 7, said as she ate chicken nuggets - baked, not fried - in the cafeteria last week. The big change will come this week when Monte Vista opens its snack bar and no longer sells candy bars, licorice and sports drinks. Instead, kids can buy granola bars, sunflower seeds and trail mix.

Monte Vista Principal Kathi Frankel said she is confident the snack bar, which generated $150 to $200 a week last year, won't lose money.

To help the bottom line, she stocked bottled water and school supplies.

"A lot of kids just want to spend money," she said. "It doesn't have to be on food."

The Arizona pilot is taking place at a time of increasing scrutiny by parents and state legislators of the food served on campuses.

Although the U.S. Department of Agriculture restricts food served in school cafeterias, many schools sell snacks such as potato chips, ice cream and cookies on the side to raise money. These snacks are not required to meet federal school lunch standards.

The sales have continued despite a USDA report in 2001 that warned that snack foods compete with lunch and may contribute to the trend of unhealthful eating among kids.

The success of the pilot in Arizona hinges on whether schools can still make healthy profits by serving nutritious snacks. Results are expected to be available in January 2004.

But even if a school loses money, it shouldn't put a price on children's health, said Caroline Grannan, a San Francisco parent who was active in getting junk food taken out of her children's school district.

"How can you possibly say that new uniforms for the football team are more important than giving a kid Type II diabetes?" Grannan said.

Fifth-grade teacher Cathy Goodman of Phoenix, whose school isn't a pilot, said exercise and parental influence mean more than taking soft drinks out of schools.

"It's almost like a gesture, 'Oh, we're going to make kids healthy by getting rid of pop machines at school.' There's a lot more to it than that," she said.

The Arizona Automatic Merchandising Council, an advocacy group representing 65 companies, supports the pilot. But the group's president, Todd Elliott, emphasizes that school snacks alone aren't to blame for the growing obesity problem among kids. A more sedentary lifestyle is the bigger culprit, he said.

"It's a matter of individuals picking the proper food. There are no bad foods. There are just bad diets," he said.

One of the pilot schools, Mountain Trail Middle School in northeast Phoenix, is hoping to give kids knowledge so they can make better food choices. The school added nutrition lessons in its math and science classes.

In math, students will learn how to calculate the percentage of fat in food. In science, they will study calcium and design a calcium-rich diet.

Mountain Trail teacher Jan Stiles said she wants students to learn, at a minimum, how to evaluate food nutrition labels.

"You don't always know where the fruits of your labor will end up," she said. "My hope is a few years down the road, they'll be making wise choices."