At Errick Road Elementary School, Fridays mean one thing for hungry students: Pizza day. But this Friday, pizza day meant students could eat their favorite food and still be eating healthy.

That’s because the school gave a test run to a new whole wheat, low-fat vegetable pizza as part of ongoing efforts to offer students healthier choices.

The healthier pizza version was given the stamp of approval by second-graders at the school earlier this year when the Univera Healthcare Fun 2B Fit program had them taste-test 11 healthier versions of their favorite foods.

“We like to give the students things they like,” said Doloros Stinson, the school lunch manager for the Niagara-Wheatfield Central School District. “We like to try new things throughout the school year and if it goes over well, it’s something we will add to our cycle of menus.”

Niagara-Wheatfield is one of many districts across the country looking to find new ways to offer healthier food choices. Laws are getting tougher on which foods schools can serve students, placing limits on the amount of sugar, for example, that can be in food items.

It’s for good reason. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate nearly one-third of children in the United States are obese — representing a generation burdened with health problems that will only worsen as they age. By contrast, only about 5 percent of children were obese in the 1960s and 1970s.

But a recent report by the CDC indicates childhood obesity may have finally reached its peak, offering hope that a reverse trend wherein children become less obese could be on the horizon.

Though the reason for the leveling of is still unclear, some experts have been pointing to schools pushing healthier lifestyle education on their young students.

Nora DiMatteo, principal at Errick Road Elementary, said she believes educators can’t just focus on “the core academic subjects” anymore.

“The bottom line is, they need to be taught (about living healthy),” she said. “Whether it’s at home or school, they need to be taught. It’s part of our responsibility. It’s best if we’re working with the family, but we can’t control that. We can only control what we do at school.”

The Fun 2B Fit program, which is offered free to schools in the Western New York area, aims to do just that: Get families involved in the health of children.

As part of the Fun 2B Fit program, some second-grade parent volunteers made lunch items like macaroni and cheese using whole-wheat noodles and skim milk. The children voted for the vegetable pizza and a trail mix made with pretzels, Cheerios and coconut as their favorites. Both items were offered at Errick Road for lunch Friday.

Recipe cards of the children’s favorites go home with them and they are encouraged to re-create the dishes as a family.

“The ultimate goal is to encourage children and their families to make healthier foods choices by trying new foods, shopping for healthy foods and preparing meals together,” said Virginia Foreman, spokeswoman for Univera.

While the second-graders focused on trying out different healthy recipes as part of the Fun 2B Fit program, third-graders participate aerobic dance workouts and learn about how the muscles in their body work. Fourth-graders take a field trip to Wegman’s to go grocery shopping and learn how to find healthy foods.

Geraldine J. Mann Elementary School and Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Niagara Falls have also hosted the program in their schools this year. Around 14,000 children at 50 schools throughout Western New York have participated in the Fun 2B Fit program so far.

At Errick Road, the school has taken its own steps toward promoting good health, offering its own healthy cafeteria items and teaching nutrition in health classes, but increasing assessment demands can make it hard to fit everything in, DiMatteo said.

“Time is the biggest challenge,” she said. “Time to fit everything in. One of the ways we’re trying to do it is to make everything integrated and connect things.”

In physical education classes, students might take fitness tests and later in math class, they can use those results for a graphing lesson, she said.

“Tying it all together makes it more meaningful for the kids and also allows us to try to fit those pieces in,” DiMatteo said.

Diane McGranor, the health services coordinator for the Niagara-Wheatfield district, said she is hoping to get the Fun 2B Fit program in other elementary schools in the district.

“We understand the importance of good nutrition and staying active,” she said. “When kids are active and they eat a healthy breakfast, test scores go up and, academically, they’re more successful.”