Imagine a school lunch program with entrees containing only 6 percent of calories from fat, almost completely based on nutrient-dense USDA commodity plant foods, such as dried beans, lentils, bulgur wheat and brown rice, and -- here is the hard-to-imagine part -- is readily eaten by children.

Yet such food is being served -- and consumed -- in six schools across the nation, thanks to a pilot program developed at Cornell University.

"My research shows that children will eat up to 20 times more low-fat, high fiber foods if they first learn about them through hands-on experience in the classroom," said Antonia Demas, Cornell Ph.D. '95, who developed the award-winning multicultural food education curriculum for her doctoral thesis.

From New Mexico and the lower east side of Manhattan to upstate New York and Boston, children are learning about, preparing, sampling and then eating in their cafeterias such healthful foods as "dill-lightful" bulgur and veggies, calconnon (Peruvian potatoes with an Irish twist), three sisters casserole (beans, corn, squash and maple syrup), soul stew (black-eyed peas, corn, collards, molasses), Chinese bean dumplings, pasta primavera, couscous chili, chutney and curry.

"Children usually reject low-fat versions of foods they're used to, but by involving the students in preparing healthful, international foods in the classroom, and teaching them about nutrition through the study of other cultures, food and cooking, the children accept these foods and even ask their families to prepare them," said Demas, whose curriculum received the Society for Nutrition Education Excellence in Nutrition Education Award and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Most Creative Implementation of the Dietary Guidelines Award last year.

After the highly successful pilot project of the curriculum in Trumansburg, N.Y., that showed how powerful experiential learning about food in the classroom is in getting children to taste diverse, low-fat foods, Demas received more than 100 inquiries about the program from schools and community groups across the nation. With limited funding from local PTAs, grants, school boards, and other sources, the curriculum is now school-wide in The Crestwood Children's Center in Rochester, N.Y.; P.S. 61 in New York, where all the children, primarily black and

Hispanic, receive free lunch; and two elementary schools in Santa Fe, N.M. For lack of enough funds to be school-wide, the curriculum is also part of the third grade in Somerville and Lynn, Mass., and is in collaboration with Tufts University and the AtlantiCare Medical Center.

The curriculum involves engaging the senses in preparing the foods, such as making pasta, curry and chutney; smelling and using fresh herbs; feeling the stickiness of butter and relating that to clogged arteries; a cross-cultural history on the use of grains and other healthful plant foods; units on countries such as China, Italy, and India and their unique foods; and showing how foods connect to other subjects in school, such as history, social studies, math, reading, geography and science.

To help the children better understand the food cycle, the curriculum this year will include school gardens with fresh herbs, greens and dried beans. In Manhattan, Trumansburg artist Daniel Burgevin is working with children to paint a large mural based on the food education curriculum, to dress up the cafeteria and reinforce the classroom learning.

"Typical school lunch programs have contained about 35 to 40 percent of calories from fat and have relied far too much on meat and other animal based foods," said T. Colin Campbell, Cornell professor of nutritional biochemistry and director of the Cornell-China-Oxford Project on Nutrition, Health and Environment, who is one of Demas's faculty advisers for her thesis and a board member of Demas's forthcoming nonprofit organization, with plans to institute the program on a much wider basis.

"We know from a wide variety of data, including our China data that Americans will not reduce their rates of cancer, cardiovascular disease and other chronic, degenerative diseases until they shift away from their animal-based diet to a plant-based diet. The best way to do this is in childhood."

Also endorsing Demas' curriculum and sitting on her board of directors are family pediatricians Dr. Benjamin Spock and Dr. Charles Attwood. Said Spock: "I am delighted to learn of the dramatic success of the Trumansburg experiment which showed that children will eat unfamiliar foods if they cook them in school and study their sources and properties. We desperately need a varied program to steer children away from the death-dealing American diet high in meats, dairy fats and other unsaturated fats, toward whole grains, vegetables, beans and fruits."

Said Attwood, author of Dr. Attwood's Low-Fat Prescription for Kids: "This unique program, created by Dr. Demas, has the potential of changing the health destiny of an entire generation of children. I've seen nothing like this in my 32 years as a pediatrician."

By 1998, the new School Meals Regulations, published by the USDA, requires that meals in schools meet the dietary guidelines, yet food service providers and administrators often claim that children will not eat plant-based commodity foods.

"Yet our program shows that a multicultural food based curriculum program has consistent and dramatic results," said Demas, who now seeks funding for her pending nonprofit organization. With a $25,000 grant from the Caldwell B. Esselstyn Foundation, Demas will disseminate the results of the school projects. She also has just published the first edition of Food Studies News, a newsletter about the on-going programs and their evaluations.

"Antonia's work helps children appreciate and respect people from other cultures all over the world and does so in a very appropriate, direct and immediate manner. I think they will remember what they learn," said Robert Ascher, Cornell professor of anthropology and member of her graduate committee. "By preparing and tasting the foods from other cultures, they, in a way, directly experience an aspect of those cultures."

"Antonia is a superb teacher who masterfully trains teachers in implementing the program and integrating a wide variety of disciplines," said Joan Egner, professor emeritus of education at Cornell and chair of Demas' doctoral committee. "The program is education -- and nutrition -- at its best." Educators interested in the project may contact Demas at 60 Cayuga St., Trumansburg, N.Y. 14886; telephone or fax (607) 387-6884; e-mail: