Students at seven Wake County schools have been counting calories and grams of fat in the food they are eating in the cafeteria. It's a pilot program to see if informed students make healthier food choices.

As students filed through the cafeteria line at Zebulon Magnet Middle School, they couldn't help but see the bright yellow note cards above each entrée. The first one read: Taco Beef with Salsa - total calories: 390, total fat: 18 grams.

"You get to know the calories," said eighth grader Krysdalia Cruz. "And instead of eating pizza, you get to eat something that is more healthier for your body."

The cards were provided by Child Nutrition Services, in cooperation with the district's School Health Advisory Council, which came up with the idea for nutrition labels. At Zebulon Middle, a school-based committee is responsible for posting information.

"It makes you more aware of what you're feeding your kids as well as what you're feeding other people's kids," said Patricia Privette, cafeteria manager.

Students sort through the cards and match them to each day's lunch menu; Privette handles posting information for breakfast. She said students are taking notice. That's the goal, said Ann Dishong, Wake County Schools' administrator for Healthful Living.

"The purpose has not been to play the ‘good food, bad food' thing," she said. "But to provide information."

The cafeteria hasn't taken cookies off the menu, and a snack vending machine still gets plenty of use. School coordinator Barnanne Creech said the nutrition information is posted for those items too.

"It helps if students can be aware of that," she said. "We want them to make different choices. So if you want to eat 180 calories, where do you want it from? Do you want it from chips or from fruits and vegetables?"

Creech is taking the message a step further in her P.E. classes, where she uses pedometers to measure how many calories students burn in class.

"It brings it home at that point in time," she said. "Now we can actually apply it to our life."

Other schools involved in the pilot were Brassfield Elementary, Davis Drive Elementary, Leesville Road Elementary, Middle Creek Elementary, Weatherstone Elementary and Southeast Raleigh High.

Dishong said the effectiveness of the pilot program will be measured this summer, as cafeteria managers at the seven schools report whether students responded by buying healthier food items. That will determine whether or not food labels stay on the menu next fall.