Chrissy Jones, a fifth grade teacher at West Fairmont Middle school and Kanawha County native, said her school isn't as healthy as it could be, but it's getting there.
After her 10-year-old student Reagan Blasher goes to the White House next weekend for the 2015 Healthy Lunchtime Challenge sponsored by Michele Obama, Jones hopes other students are inspired to eat healthier.
"Once you get her involved with something, she's very outgoing," Jones said. "She's not shy in the slightest."
More than 1,000 students across the country submitted healthy recipes to the competition, but only one from every state was chosen to come to the White House for a "Kid's State Dinner," according to the event's website.
Reagan was chosen to represent West Virginia for her dish of honey baked salmon with spinach quinoa, pineapple salsa and cucumber-dill dipping sauce.
"There's probably going to be a lot of people at the White House," Reagan said. "It's probably going to be really fancy."
Reagan is a straight-A student. She likes playing basketball, dancing and competing in gymnastics.
In addition to be selected to go to the White House, Reagan and her teacher recently started a GoFundMe page and raised more than $1,600 to buy milk for local food banks in Fairmont during a Disney Friends for Change event. Reagan will also travel to Chicago at the end of July to represent her school at the Fuel up to Play 60 Summit.
"It's a lot and I have to credit her teacher for getting her involved in this program and being such a great mentor," Reagan's mom, Amy Blasher, said.
Reagan and her teacher are a dynamic duo that began their partnership up during the school's Fuel up to Play 60 program, a program that tries to inspire kids to be active for at least 60 minutes a day.
When Jones learned of the Healthy Lunchtime Challenge, she recalled telling Reagan, "You know kiddo, I don't know how to cook." But she knew someone who could.
Ted Hastings is a culinary instructor at Pierpont Community & Technical College in Fairmont. He met with them just three times to help Reagan decide what recipe she would submit.
Hastings introduced her and her teacher to foods like flaxseed and quinoa. Reagan loves fish, so she wanted to center her dish around that. After three meetings where Hastings helped her created the meal, Reagan finally settled her recipe.
"I told her, 'I'm sorry but I'm not even trying that,'" Jones said. But Reagan made her take a bite. "I'm sorry but I have to spit this out, I can't even swallow it."
But she thought the quinoa and cumcumber-dill dipping sauce was delicious. Fish just isn't her thing.
Even though Jones didn't like the salmon dish, her diet has changed since she started working with the school's Fuel up to Play 60 program.
"To be honest, they just needed someone to run the program and I kind of got volunteered," Jones said. "So I ran with it."
Jones said she's started trying more foods and has stopped buying as much prepackaged, frozen meals and instead opts more for fresh food.
Even though she hasn't made her way to the White House yet, Reagan has already started planning what type of meal she'll make next year.
"She's going to make a difference, I can tell you that," Jones said. "She would rather help everyone else besides herself.
Reach Jake Jarvis at jake.jarvis@wvgazette.com, 304-348-7905 or follow @NewsroomJake on Twitter.