Eating breakfast has a real, powerful effect on kids. Studies have shown that kids who eat breakfast are more focused, score significantly higher on tests, miss less days of school, and increase fewer discipline problems. School breakfast provides the consistent nutrition kids need to learn, grow and reach their full potential. No kid should start the day with an empty stomach!
Why Breakfast After the Bell (BAB)?
BAB programs are alternative breakfast models and can look very different in each school. Whether in elementary, middle, or high school, BAB programs can incorporate elements of multiple models.
These programs not only meet the basic needs of students, it also provides ownership and leadership skills, build community where educators have use their morning breakfasts together to use social and emotional learning check-ins, and more.
We found that the most effective BAB models are Breakfast in the Classroom (BIC), Grab and Go to the Classroom and Second Chance Breakfast. In these models, school breakfast is served after the official start of the school day. BAB is one of the most effective ways to significantly boost school breakfast participation and the best way to start the school day.
There are three delivery models that have proven to be most effective:
1) BREAKFAST IN THE CLASSROOM (BIC)
Students eat breakfast in their classroom after the official start of the school day. Students or staff deliver breakfasts to classrooms from the cafeteria via coolers or insulated rolling bags. Breakfast in the Classroom takes 15 minutes on average. Schools reach 88 percent breakfast participation on average with this model.*
2) GRAB N’ GO TO THE CLASS ROOM
Students pick up conveniently packaged breakfasts from mobile service carts in high traffic areas that are convenient to students, such as hallways, entryways or cafeterias. Students can eat in their classroom or in a common area before and after the bell has rung. Schools reach 59 percent breakfast participation on average with this model.*
3) SECOND CHANCE BREAKFAST
Students eat breakfast during a break in the morning, often between first and second period or midway between breakfast and lunch. Schools can serve breakfast using a Grab and Go model, or they can open the cafeteria to serve breakfast during the break. Second Chance Breakfast can be effective for middle or high school students who may not be hungry first thing in the morning or prefer to socialize with friends. Schools reach 58 percent breakfast participation on average with this model.*
* Participation is measured by the average daily participation of free- and reduced-price school breakfast eaters / average daily participation free- and reduced-price school lunch eaters.
MYTH: IT TAKES AWAY FROM INSTRUCTIONAL TIME
FACT: Students usually take 10-15 minutes to eat their breakfast, including clean-up time. Educators often spend that time constructively on classroom activities. Some educators report that they gain instructional time due to fewer behavioral disruptions, visits to the school nurse, tardiness and absenteeism. Studies show that students who eat school breakfast are more likely to reach higher levels of achievement in reading and math, score higher on standardized tests, have better concentration and memory, be more alert, and maintain a healthy weight.
MYTH: IT MAKES A MESS
FACT: When students and staff are trained to properly dispose of breakfast items, Breakfast After the Bell (BAB) is a simple and clean experience. By developing a holistic, smart system involving the school nutrition staff, custodians, and students, trash issues can be overcome. Sometimes, something as simple as a separate trash bin for breakfast trash can make a big difference. Educators find that with appropriate planning and clear procedures, BAB can become a seamless part of the morning routine.
MYTH: BAB BURDENS TEACHERS
FACT: Educators know that students who are hungry cannot concentrate and may act out or disrupt class. Educators spend about $300 per year of their own money to feed hungry students in their classrooms. BAB alleviates this burden on educators and provides students with a nutritious meal to last them to lunch. Studies have shown that bringing universal breakfast into the classroom significantly improves students’ behavior. Educators can spend more time teaching and less time discipling students. Also, BAB fosters an environment for social-emotional learning as students authentically practice relationship skills and decision-making.
MYTH: BAB IS PAID FOR BY SCHOOL FUNDS
FACT: The more kids who eat school breakfast, the more revenue the district has to make their breakfast program a success. Schools that participate in the National School Breakfast Program (SBP) are eligible to receive federal reimbursement for every breakfast they serve. Other revenue sources come from state and local government, a la carte sales, and other student payments. The school breakfast budget operates independently from the district general fund and individual school budgets. School breakfast is never in competition with school supplies or teacher salaries.
For more myths busted, download the factsheet.
Featured below are stories of the dynamic partners we get to collaborate with to impact the daily lives of every child in California.
December 16, 2024: END OF THE YEAR: Kids are starting the day with a Nutritious Breakfast, how these School Districts are Changing the Game
October 23, 2024: Celebrating Principals: Enabling California’s Kids to Start the Day Nourished and Ready to Learn
May 7, 2024: Breakfast Spotlight: How Fullerton School District Is Closing the Achievement Gap With School Breakfast
March 3, 2024: Breakfast Spotlight: How Coalinga-Huron Unified is Closing the Achievement Gap with School Breakfast
March 3, 2024: Breakfast Spotlight: How Azusa Unified is Closing the Achievement Gap with School Breakfast
The No Kid Hungry California Breakfast Grant Opportunity will provide funding to school districts to maximize participation in the National School Breakfast Program to ensure children have access to healthy meals at school.
Grant amounts will vary based on the size and specific needs of each applicant. Typically, grant awards range from $5,000 to $10,000 per individual school site impacted.
Application Cycle: CLOSED
Please visit the No Kid Hungry website to learn more about No Kid Hungry’s grantmaking beliefs and values.
USE OF FUNDS
Funds are intended to support school districts with implementing a strong and sustainable plan for maximizing participation in the School Breakfast Program.
Strategies may include:
Expanding access with Breakfast After the Bell models such as Breakfast in the Classroom, Grab and Go to the Classroom, and Second Chance Breakfast
Promoting awareness of breakfast availability to students and families, especially for free and reduced-price eligible students
Innovative strategies that increase participation in the School Breakfast Program
Budget requests may include:
Meal service supplies and equipment needed to serve breakfast such as: grab and go carts, insulated coolers/warmers, packaging equipment and supplies, refrigerators, and retrofitting existing equipment to meet
new needs
Technology requests, including point of service machines.
Celebrating National School Breakfast Week!
Save the Date: March 3-7, 2025!
Learn more about BAB from our partners who operate the model in their schools. In 2024, our Center for Best Practices highlighted the voices of current and former school nutrition directors and the keys to their successes with BAB models.
In this 13-minute video, Warren Ryan, Assistant Director for San Bernardino City Unified School District, shares his experience implementing BAB in his district.
Highlights
Why? Reasons to implement BAB:
Participation. How breakfast in the classroom in elementary schools and second chance breakfast at their high schools have helped increase participation.
Success. How to begin by building support for this model, starting small, and remaining flexible and persistent.
Problem solving. How to anticipate challenges and focus on solutions.
Partnerships. Ultimately, remember that we are in this together; this partnership can help everyone if we stay flexible and open to feedback!
Recognition. Celebrate accomplishments large and small; recognizing accomplishments and those staff who make it happen goes a long way.
In this 14-minute video, No Kid Hungry national consultant Donna Martin, a retired director of Burke County, Georgia’s school nutrition program, will share her knowledge about menu planning and some great menu ideas for Breakfast After the Bell school meal delivery programs.
Basics of menu planning
USDA meal pattern 101, including food components: grains, milk/dairy, and fruit requirements
How to create menus that meet calorie ranges for all grades for easier district or school-wide planning
Sample menu ideas and offer vs serve details, food combination ideas
Breakfast in the Classroom, Grab and Go, and Last Chance breakfast
Culturally inclusive menu ideas and sample menu items
Smoothies and coffee bar examples and how to make them reimbursable
In this 13-minute video about equipment needs for BAB programs, No Kid Hungry national consultant Marla Caplon, recently retired from Montgomery County Public Schools, will share her ideas about how to make equipment needs decisions and things to consider, such as your campus setup and delivery methods.
Examples of various types of equipment you can spend your budget on for BAB programs
How to use what you already have to serve meals in areas other than the cafeteria
Price ranges and examples of the delivery equipment and other items you may not have considered needing before, including hand sanitizer, POS devices, and extra garbage bins
Tips and tricks on how to make BAB successful at your campuses
This 15-minute video about training and promoting your BAB program features No Kid Hungry national consultant Walter Campbell, who retired after 17 years where he was the executive director of nutrition services for Charleston County School District. He will share his expertise on how to train your campus community and promote your BAB program.
Key questions to ask when planning your BAB program
Delivery models for BAB and what you need to know about implementing each (Second Chance, Grab and Go, Breakfast In the Classroom)
Funding and Grants for these programs
How to engage important stakeholders, including principals, teachers and students, custodians, staff, parents, and community members
Creating Peer-to-Peer Networks
A detailed timeline, meetings, and nutrition education for staff and students
Don’t forget the heart of our work – the students
In this 13-minute video, Nutrition Director Frances Montoya, from Vaughn Next Century Learning Center in California, will share her expertise about launching and sustaining your BAB program.
Pre-Launch – things to consider include meeting with stakeholders to plan and develop your strategy together and marketing on social media, with student groups, in the community, and among school staff.
Launch – think about ways to make it fun, including adding music, extra staff, inviting administrators to participate, taking pictures, having staff walk-throughs, posting to social media, and #createahashtag for your event!
Feedback – make sure to check in with everyone, create and maintain open communication loops, have parent and student surveys, and take time to reflect on your program and the comments received.
Outreach & Marketing – these strategies are shared throughout the presentation.
FAQs
The School Breakfast Program is a federally funded program which assists schools and other agencies in providing nutritious breakfast to children at reasonable prices. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is responsible for overseeing the program nationally. In California, the program is administered by the California Department of Education.
Beginning in School Year 2022-23, California will become the first state to implement a statewide Universal Meals Program for all school children. California’s Universal Meals Program is designed to build on the foundations of the federal National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and School Breakfast Program (SBP).
This means, the California’s State Meal Mandate is expanded to include both a nutritiously adequate breakfast and lunch for all children each school day!
Kids do better when they start the day right. Research shows that the simple act of eating school breakfast can change a child’s life. Making school breakfast a seamless part of the morning by serving it after the official start of the school day can have positive impacts on classrooms.
Here are some ways school breakfast benefits kids:
Higher Test Scores: Hunger makes school harder. Students who eat school breakfast achieve higher scores on standardized tests.
Calmer Classrooms: Children who do not regularly get enough nutritious food to eat tend to have higher levels of behavioral, emotional and educational problems.
Fewer Trips To The Nurse: When kids come to school hungry, they visit the school nurse more often due to stomachaches and headaches. Kids who struggle with hunger are also likely to be sick more often, are slower to recover from illness, are hospitalized more frequently and are more susceptible to obesity.
Stronger Attendance & Graduation Rates: Students who eat school breakfast attend more school days. Chronic absenteeism, defined as missing three weeks or more of school, decreases by 6 percentage points on average when students have access to Breakfast After the Bell. Attendance is important, as students who attend class more regularly are 20 percent more likely to graduate from high school.
Every time we feed a child, we’re unlocking their ability to grow up to become the next future teachers, scientists and entrepreneurs. To learn more, the Study on Chronic Absenteeism and Breakfast After the Bell is new research that shows the impact serving breakfast as part of the school day has on student outcomes.
Despite the benefits of school breakfast, the program is underutilized – over 22 million kids get a free or reduced-price school lunch on an average school day, yet only 12 million of those kids get free or reduced-price school breakfast.
Traditional school breakfast programs often have barriers that prohibit students from eating breakfast before school, such as:
Transportation: The school bus doesn’t arrive in time for kids to get breakfast in the cafeteria.
Busy mornings: Regardless of their socioeconomic status, many families are rushed in the morning and don’t always have time for breakfast at home.
Stigma: There is often a stigma associated with eating breakfast in the cafeteria before school starts; therefore, children avoid it, especially middle- and high-school students, for whom social status and the perceptions of their peers loom large.
Lack of resources: For low-income families, there simply may not always be enough food at home for kids to have a healthy breakfast.
Across the country, educators, parents and community leaders are removing these barriers for kids by implementing Breakfast After the Bell programs. Because each school is unique, schools often create their own individualized Breakfast After the Bell programs that combine elements of multiple models so they can fully cater to the needs of their students and staff.
To access our full national resource library and to register for webinars on various topics around child nutrition, visit our Center for Best Practices website.
For technical assistance and support, contact us.
Last updated: December 10, 2024