Cliff Buchan
News Editor

Old ways are sometimes hard to change, so it wasn't surprising that Eric Kaluza met some reluctance when he approached his students with an idea last fall.

A first-year physical education teacher at Century Junior High School here, Kaluza's idea was to use special incentives to encourage his Grade 7 students to eat more fruits and vegetables.

Fruits and vegetables? Seventh graders? Could it work?

"It really didn't take off at first," Kaluza said, looking back to the opening of the school year. The 160 students that he sees each day were presented with the fruits and veggie idea as an extra credit component.

The idea of encouraging kids to eat fruits and veggies was more than an extra credit incentive to help kids, Kaluza said.

As a physical education teacher, Kaluza theorized it makes sense to teach good eating habits along with the physical education skills that students learn.

And it was clear, too, Kaluza said, that students who eat better, learn better and test better.

With patience and some encouragement, Kaluza says many of his students have come to adopt the program. Each day during lunch, as many as 100 of his students will sit down with their hot lunch and side orders of apples, oranges, carrots and other fruits and veggies.

Some have even come to like dinner salads, the teacher says.

The fact that students are catching on is encouraging, he says.

"The bottom line is the kids are eating more and more fruits and vegetables," he said.

How it works

During the lunch periods at Century, Kaluza can be found in the lunchroom, clipboard in hand, charting the progress of the students who order and consume veggies and fruit.

Extra credit points are assigned on a staggered basis tied to each specific fruit or veggie that is eaten. Friday is double points day, so many students will load up their plate.

For some students, Kaluza says, the extra credit points can help improve a grade.

Kaluza says the component is in concert with other Century classes that stress nutrition and healthful living topics. It's also a way to fully utilize the excellent foods prepared by the ISD 8831 Food Services Department, the teacher said.

"They offer really good fruits and vegetables," Kaluza says.

"Some of the kids are really taking advantage of it. It's a nice way to top off a good lunch."

A graduate of Hamline University in St. Paul, Kaluza says the lesson component and year-long data will be included in an action research plan that he will write next year as part of a master's program in education that he is completing at Hamline.

It's not just a student-centered program, he said.

As a teacher and an adult advocating such lifestyle choices, he sports a diet much like the one he preaches. He and his wife, Corrin, a language arts teacher at Century, both put fruits and veggies high on their home meal plans.

Kaluza, 28, also stresses the importance of balancing a good diet with being fit and active. "I run every day," he says.

He is logging about 10 miles a day now in preparation for an April 16 appearance in the Boston Marathon. He qualified for Boston by running a sub three hour Twin Cities Marathon in 2005.

"We are role models for the kids," he says.

As a teacher, Kaluza says the goal is not to push students too far in one direction. It is important, he says, that they find a balanced diet that reinforces healthy living.

"Everything in moderation," Kaluza.

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