To overhaul a school's hot lunch program, you don't need a blue-eyed British chef and a gaggle of television cameras parked in the cafeteria's kitchen. School districts throughout Colorado — aided by independent organizations — have been conducting food revolutions all their own: disowning high-fructose corn syrup and trans-fats while integrating more fruits, vegetables and scratch cooking into their routines. And although it hasn't been an easy road for many, they're proving it can be done, even in a down economy.

“Every part of it's hard,” said Ann Cooper, director of nutrition services for the Boulder Valley School District, which has 28,000 students.

Cooper, a long-time professional chef and author of four books, including “Lunch Lessons: Changing the Way We Feed Our Children,” has changed “everything” about Boulder's school lunch program in her two-year tenure. Children no longer receive plates full of “typical, processed food,” but scratch-cooked meals with fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, healthy proteins and organic milk. There's a salad bar in every school, and kitchens are devoid of trans-fats and high-fructose corn syrup. Having earned the moniker “the renegade lunch lady,” Cooper said she became interested in school food after writing “Bitter Harvest: A Chef's Perspective on the Hidden Dangers in the Foods We Eat and What You Can Do About It.”

“I really started to explore why food makes us sick, food supplies and the politics of food,” she said. “From that, I started thinking about what we were feeding kids, and why kids were getting sick.”

While Cooper said the majority of parents are happy with the program now (some were upset chocolate milk and frozen chicken nuggets were being axed), and she expects the lunch program to be financially self-sustaining by next year (money from fundraisers and district general funds helped implement the plan), changing the old system was an uphill battle.

“There are five major challenges you have to overcome: Food, finance, facilities, human resources and marketing,” Cooper said. In other words, the food has to be good, there needs to be a budget for it, school kitchens have to be equipped with stoves and walk-ins (some aren't), staff has to be taught to prepare the food and kids have to purchase the meals.

Stealth cooking

Administrators in Eagle County School District faced the same barriers implementing a scratch cooking program at Brush Creek Elementary this past year, an initiative they want to expand district-wide. Ray Edel, director of nutritional services for the Eagle County schools, said the kitchen is only cooking from scratch using fresh, whole foods. They've also employed “stealth cooking” techniques — mixing butternut squash in with macaroni cheese sauce, or zucchini and celery in with spaghetti sauce.

“I firmly believe there should be food in children's food,” said Tara Van Dernoot, an Eagle County parent who helped form Fresh Approach, a district-wide coalition of parents that helped initiate the change. Now, the group is focused on fundraising and marketing efforts to help expand the program.

Edel said one big challenge is extra time put into preparing food and training kitchen staff, an expenditure he said will pay off once everyone's used to the new routine.

“We have some really great cooks, and what we've asked them to do is become chefs,” he said. “That's very challenging to create that level of expertise.”

Initially, there are extra expenses associated with labor, but there's also the matter of higher food costs for fresh fruits and vegetables. Edel said the district has received a few small grants, but they've only gone towards a fresh fruit and vegetable bar. The rest, he said, is coming from outside funds; the district hasn't put in a dime. Fresh Approach has been hosting a series of fundraising dinners to support the pilot program and expand it throughout the district. Livewell Colorado — an organization committed to reducing obesity in the state by promoting healthy living — is pitching in through a program assessment and a “kitchen bootcamp,” a five-day training for district cooks.

“That organization is helping us take it to the next level, but we do need to raise more funds to bring it into more schools,” Edel said.

Spending district funds

Kevin Clarke, director of culinary education for CMC's Keystone and Breckenridge resorts and member of the Colorado Chef's Association, has been working with Douglas County School District through the association. District officials became interested in revamping their food program after Michelle Obama launched her food initiative, a plan which has involved re-training of kitchen staff by association members.

“Their goal is have the healthiest food program of any school district in the United States by 2012,” he said.

Clarke said the Douglas school district has committed to putting in the money to reach their goal.

“There has to be enough of a grassroots movement that the school board makes the decision, ‘we are going to change what we're doing,” he said.

What about Summit?

In Summit County, food services are run by Chartwells, an outside vendor that designs meal programs. But Cooper said just because Chartwells runs the show, it doesn't mean the district can't demand change. She said school districts can hold vendors up to whatever standard they want through contract negotiations.

“It's all about the school district's request or proposal, and making sure they put guidelines in there they want the company to uphold,” she said. “It's not that Chartwells can't do this food, it's probably that no one asked them to.”

Brad Piehl, Summit County Board of Education member, said the district would definitely look into change if the community asked for it, but the biggest issue is money. And, asking Chartwells for bigger and better things would require more funding.

“In these times, when we're having decreasing funds from the state, it's tough to put more money into anything, no matter what it is,” he said.

Piehl said outside resources would certainly help, but would have to be guaranteed on an annual basis. Then, the notion of upgrading school food would have more feasibility.

“If it's a community value that we hear, we would look into it a little bit more,” he said. “We wouldn't say no to any idea that has merit.”