NORTH ANDOVER - Star-shaped watermelon, heart-shaped vegetables and dishes of whole-wheat pasta with low-fat hot dogs made to look like octopuses will end up on lunch trays at Atkinson Elementary School later this month.

Erika Murphy, the director of Food Services for the School Department, is beginning a pilot lunch program at the school the week after Thanksgiving. The program will involve selling nutritious whole-grain bread, whole-wheat pasta, low-fat cheese and locally grown fruits and vegetables.

In an effort to get kids to take the healthier choices, Food Services workers will decorate the meals and cut fruits and vegetables into eye-catching shapes, Murphy said. The idea is to get children to eat healthy and to boost sales of school lunches.

"We're certainly not a five-star restaurant, but I guess what we're trying to do is be something like that in the public school setting," she said.

Murphy chose the Atkinson School because it has the right facilities and equipment for the new initiative. She plans to test the program for at least three months, and if it does well, she wants to expand it to other schools, she said.

By preparing healthy food in a "kid-friendly" manner - where you make it look pretty - students will likely branch further into the four food groups, she said.

"If you put them side by side - one in a regular state and one in a 'kid friendly state' ... nine times out of ten, the kids are going to go for the one that has more creativity and more eye appeal," Murphy said.

One example Murphy gave of a "kid-friendly" dish included using pasta and low-fat, low-sodium hot dogs to create a meal with an "underwater adventure" theme.

"(Go) maybe about three-quarters up the hot dog and you slice eight slices through it and you fan the top of the hot dog out, you sit it on top of the bed of pasta and it looks like an octopus sitting on a bed of seaweed," she said. "It looks adorable."

The healthy food will be just one of several options for the students. Children can still scarf on tacos and pizza if they wish. Selling food at school is a business after all, and the new program will be canceled if it doesn't make money, Murphy said.

But her goal is to get more students buying lunch and eating right, thus pouring more money into the School Lunch Revolving Account and hopefully getting the children to develop healthy habits.

"Hopefully at an early age you're eating healthy," she said.

The schools generated $877,000 in lunch sales during the 2006-2007 school year, and 82 percent of the students bought cafeteria food - not necessarily an entire meal - this past September.

The state Department of Education has given Food Services a list of local farms that can supply fruits and vegetables for the students' lunches, Murphy said.

She said she is not sure whether officials will have to raise lunch prices in order to offer the "kid-friendly" meals.

SUBHED: Bring on breakfast

Murphy also wants to sell breakfast to early birds, or students who wake up late and don't have time to eat at home before running out the door. She is starting a breakfast pilot program at North Andover Middle School when she starts the new lunch program at the Atkinson School.

Middle-schoolers will be able to buy muffins, bagels, yogurt, breakfast bars, toast, fresh fruit and breakfast sandwiches with eggs and cheese in the cafeteria between 6:55 and 7:25 a.m. They need to be in homeroom by 7:30 a.m.

A full breakfast will cost $2.25 and includes juice, a sandwich and fruit.

Murphy will be looking to bring breakfast to the high school next. Both the high school and the middle school sold breakfast until the year before last, but they stopped because of budget cuts, Murphy said.

Murphy's goal is to serve 300 breakfasts a day. If the schools do, the food program will bring in an additional $10,000 a month, plus $1,500 in reimbursements from the federal government. The federal government will give the school district 24 cents for every full-price breakfast it sells, $1.05 for every breakfast sold to students who get them at a reduced price and $1.35 for every student who gets them for free. Students who get free and reduced-price lunches have to come from families that meet certain financial guidelines.

High school and middle school students currently pay $2.50 for lunch, while elementary students pay $2. Students who qualify for reduced-price lunches pay 40 cents. The state and federal governments reimburse the School Department 28 cents for every paid reimbursable meal, $2.12 for every reduced-price meal and $2.52 for every free meal.

BOX: Some of the lunch options now

Ham and cheese croissant

Pizza

Sloppy Joe

Mozzarella sticks

Healthier options on the way

Whole-grain bread

Whole-wheat pasta

Fruits and vegetables from local farms

Low-fat cheese