Celebrate National School Breakfast Week With Our Social Media Toolkit!

California School Breakfast Week Social Media Toolkit

March 2 – 6, 2026

National School Breakfast Week (NSBW) is a weeklong celebration of the federal School Breakfast Program (SBP), which provides children with a nutritious morning meal each school day. NSBW is an opportunity to celebrate and raise awareness about the healthy breakfasts served at schools, increase student participation, offer a platform to share successful implementation strategies, and attract media coverage. That’s why No Kid Hungry is celebrating NSBW and expressing our gratitude to the school nutrition staff who nourish students with the meals they need to start their day ready to learn. For additional information and resources around No Kid Hungry grants, collaborations, or technical assistance, please contact us at nokidhungryca[at]strength.org. 

WHY BREAKFAST MATTERS

No Kid Hungry supports Breakfast After the Bell (BAB) programs, an essential strategy for ensuring students receive a free nutritious start to their day, directly addressing the issue of childhood hunger. Unlike traditional school breakfast, which is often served before the school day begins and is missed by many students due to transportation issues, late arrival, or social stigma, BAB moves the meal service closer to or during the first class. By integrating breakfast into the school routine, whether through “grab and go” options, serving in the classroom, or a second-chance breakfast, these programs significantly increase participation rates. This increased access means more children, especially those from low-income families, are fed, arriving at class ready to learn with the necessary energy and focus for academic success.

The benefits of school breakfast are compounding and have the ability to affect children now and their futures. Check out these fast facts about school breakfast below, and for additional information and the research behind these facts, click here. 

SOCIAL MEDIA SAMPLE POSTS

We invite you to post daily during School Breakfast Week by using these shareable social media assets and copy, and encourage your network and supporters to do the same. 

Tags: #NSBW26 #SchoolBreakfast @NoKidHungry

SOCIAL MEDIA GRAPHICS

You can access customizable templates on Canva. You can also download the graphics you see below here.

WEBPAGE/ NEWSLETTER TEMPLATE

Copy, paste, and edit this template for your next blog post or newsletter celebrating National School Breakfast Week.

School Breakfast Changes Lives, Celebrating The Most Important Meal of the Day

Happy National School Breakfast Week! From March 2-6, 2026, we are joining No Kid Hungry California in celebrating school breakfast and the school nutrition professionals preparing them. 

By feeding kids a healthy school breakfast, schools are providing the foundation for kids to succeed. School breakfast is intertwined with student success. Studies show that kids who eat school breakfast are more likely to excel academically, be more alert, and have better concentration, memory and attendance and fewer behavior problems. School breakfast is a win for families too and can help lighten the load during busy weekday mornings.

School Breakfast Facts

• Students with regular access to nutritious food tend to have significantly lower levels of behavioral, emotional and educational problems. 
• Students who eat breakfast have significantly higher test scores in spelling, reading, and math.
• Providing students with breakfast in the classroom helps to reduce chronic absenteeism by 6%.
• Students who attend class more regularly are 20% more likely to graduate from high school. 
• It’s free for all California students!

Ways You Can Help

• Learn more about school breakfast by visiting your child’s school nutrition services website. Find out what’s on the menu, get in contact and say thank you to the countless school staff who cook and feed kids in your community.
• Encourage your school district to adopt Breakfast After the Bell programs to ensure all students have access to a free school breakfast.
• Collaborate with your local elected officials to recognize school nutrition services and staff for all that they do to feed kids.
• Celebrate School Breakfast Week on social media. Use this social media toolkit for templates, graphics and more!

LOCAL PROCLAMATION TEMPLATE

WHEREAS, the School Breakfast Program (SBP), permanently established in 1975, provides nutritionally balanced breakfasts to more than 15 million children across 91,000 schools and institutions in the United States each day; and

WHEREAS, the School Breakfast Program meets the nutritional needs of children, improves food security, and promotes health, learning, and development by providing nutritionally balanced breakfasts to school children each day; [1] and to

WHEREAS, 1 in 6 of children in California lives with hunger; and

WHEREAS, school-aged children who experience hunger are more likely to be absent from school, visit the school nurse, and experience more challenges than children with a nutritious diet, and skipping breakfast has consistently been linked with worse academic and health outcomes for children;[2] and

WHEREAS, through California’s Universal Meals program all 5.8 million kids attending California public schools can eat free school meals, but only 1.7 million kids start their day with school breakfast in the 2024-2025 academic year;  

WHEREAS, eating breakfast improves children’s overall diets,[3] builds healthy, lifelong eating habits and enhances their ability to learn and perform academically;[4] and

WHEREAS, making breakfast a part of the school day, commonly known as Breakfast After the Bell, and offering breakfast at no cost are effective ways to ensure more students realize the benefits of breakfast;[5] and

WHEREAS, parents, caregivers, teachers, and school food personnel all play an essential role to ensure the children of [CITY] have the basic resources needed to grow, learn, discover their own potential, and live happy fulfilling lives; and

WHEREAS, No Kid Hungry offers information, tools, resources and grants to support schools in implementing and expanding school breakfast programs[6] and the School Nutrition Association offers free materials to help schools commemorate “National School Breakfast Week” including artwork to decorate their meal serving areas, toolkits and handouts, sample menu items, marketing materials, and suggested promotional activities, including games, activities and contests;[7] and

WHEREAS, my administration is committed to helping expand access to and enhance current school breakfast programs to ensure that our children have the means to succeed.

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that I, [FIRST NAME] [LAST NAME], Mayor of [CITY], do hereby proclaim March 2-6, 2026, as SCHOOL BREAKFAST WEEK. I encourage all residents of [CITY] to recognize and commemorate school administrators, school nutrition directors, and cafeteria staff who operate school breakfast programs that ensure the health, safety, and success of our children. 

REFERENCES

[1] Bartfeld JS, Ahn HM. The School Breakfast Program strengthens household food security among low-income households with elementary school children. J Nutr. 2011;141(3):470-475. doi:10.3945/jn.110.130823.

[2] Ricotti R, Caputo M, Monzani A, et al. Breakfast Skipping, Weight, Cardiometabolic Risk, and Nutrition Quality in Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Review of Randomized Controlled and Intervention Longitudinal Trials. Nutrients. 2021;13(10):3331. doi:10.3390/nu13103331.

[3] O’Neil CE, Nicklas TA, Fulgoni VL 3rd. Nutrient Intake, Diet Quality, and Weight Measures in Breakfast Patterns Consumed by Children Compared with Breakfast Skippers: NHANES 2001-2008. AIMS Public Health. 2015;2(3):441-468. doi:10.3934/publichealth.2015.3.441.

[4] Lundqvist M, Vogel NE, Levin LÅ. Effects of Eating Breakfast on Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Review of Potentially Relevant Outcomes in Economic Evaluations. Food Nutr Res. 2019;63:10.29219/fnr.v63.1618. doi:10.29219/fnr.v63.1618

[5] Kingshipp BJ, et al. Breakfast Consumption by School-Aged Children and Adolescents and School Performance, Weight-Related Outcomes, and Health Outcomes & U.S. School Breakfast Program Best Practices, Including Models of Student Costs and Breakfast Delivery: A Series of Rapid Reviews. 2022. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK597877/

[6] No Kid Hungry, Center for Best Practices, https://bestpractices.nokidhungry.org/programs/school-breakfast.

[7] School Nutrition Association, https://schoolnutrition.org/about-school-meals/national-school-breakfast-week/#resources.  

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES & INFORMATION

• CA Breakfast in the Classroom (CA BIC) Learning Tool helps California schools successfully implement and optimize their school breakfast programs. Based on your role, you’ll get step-by-step guidance on logistics, stakeholder engagement, and best practices to ensure smooth operations and maximum student participation. 
• Report on Chronic Absenteeism: Breakfast After the Bell has the potential to decrease chronic absenteeism rates. Serving Breakfast After the Bell can reduce chronic absenteeism by 6 percentage points on average.
• Breakfast After the Bell Myths: Learn about Breakfast After the Bell (BAB) myths, and the facts that disprove them, with this resource. For example, learn how, despite the misconception, BAB does not cause mess or reduce instructional time.
• No Kid Hungry Back to School Report: New research by No Kid Hungry reveals an overwhelming number of parents are struggling to put food on the table for their kids. This is especially true during the summer months when kids lose access to many essential free and reduced meals.

Last update: February 18, 2026