GOLVA - Mary Beth Nistler snaps on a hair net and prepares some of the healthiest food made in any school anywhere.

Pity the kids. They have to spell and smell the aroma of whole wheat baked buns curling down the hallway at the same time.

"It's so hard," moaned Lexie Nistler, a seventh grader and a great-niece of the cook. "We shut the classroom door and the smell still comes under the door."

Lexie Nistler said she loves lunch at the Golva Elementary School, the last school out there before Montana to the west: "I always eat seconds," she said.

Mary Beth Nistler has been head cook - make that only cook - at Golva for a decade; three years ago, she and the school staff became committed to student wellness.

It's second-grade math:Good food plus exercise equals healthy kids who learn better in school and grow up with good habits.

Most of the Golva students come to school from a ranch or farm. While they may not fit the nationally worrisome child profile of overweight and out of shape, they are as prone to bad habits as kids everywhere, says principal Julie Zook.

Zook said to meet the school's wellness policy, kids get plenty of exercise and outstanding nutrition.

Sun or snow, all 30 students bundle up twice a week and walk down to the old-time Golva hall for 45 minutes of structured exercise, in addition to daily recesses.

And every day, they eat a lunch that's good and good for them.

The USDA was so impressed it recently awarded Golva a Healthier US Gold School Award. That makes Golva - along with Burlington - one of two in the state so recognized and North Dakota the 23rd of all states in which a school qualified for the award.

The state Department of Public Instruction weighed in with first-ever North Dakota Showcase School awards for Golva and Burlington.

Deb Egeland, who manages the DPI school nutrition program, said the USDA award is "really, really special. It's an exemplary award."

Mary Beth Nistler loves to cook, and she likes putting healthy food in growing bodies.

For her, much of it starts under a stainless steel counter in a big plastic bin that contains 100 percent stone ground whole wheat flour.

Mary Beth Nistler scoops those grains into rolls, pizza crust, buns and breads she makes from scratch with more than 50 percent whole wheat flour, blended with baking flour from the State Mill and Elevator.

To meet that whole wheat percentage, she modified USDA school recipes and the USDA is so impressed, they've asked for her recipes to pass along to other schools.

Golva school lunch offers a daily fresh fruit or vegetable, low-fat entrees and milk products skim or two-percent only. Meals are high in iron, provide a daily dose of Vitamin A and have at least one whole grain product.

Dessert is downplayed. Golva kids learn that beans are indeed a magical fruit, and they eat them at least once a week.

"It's amazing how many kids love baked beans," Mary Beth Nistler said.

She said it wasn't difficult to make the switch, or much more expensive, either.

School lunch fees went up slightly this year, but mainly because of the high transportation costs tacked onto food.

Otherwise, the biggest expense was a new freezer, she said.

For her, it's a good life there in the heart of a small, productive school.

"I'm very happy with what I do," she said.

Egeland said Mary Beth Nistler runs "an absolutely fantastic program. She goes above and beyond and has neat activities that involve the whole school."

The Golva cook is also a mentor for other area school cooks who are either struggling, or want to meet a higher nutrition threshold, Egeland said.

Zook, the principal, was a Golva student herself back in the day.

She said it's great to be back for a lot of reasons, lunch included.

"The food was always good, but now it's really good," Zook said.

(Reach reporter Lauren Donovan at 888-303-5511, or lauren@;westriv.com.)