Social Distancing Measures Helps Bring School Breakfast Innovation to Cannon County
The Cannon County School nutrition team knew that it would take teamwork to serve meals when schools shut down early in the pandemic. Thankfully Principal Cossey at Woodland School and her staff knew the importance of meeting all of the students’ needs, and together worked to distribute meal packs and enrichment materials for parents to pick up for their kids. When the new school year started in August, they knew things would be different.
Cannon County School Nutrition Director Jennifer Insell had been wanting to try a new alternative way of serving breakfast to students on campus at the elementary schools in the breakfast program. In determining how to keep students socially distanced throughout the school day, the team decided to allow students to eat meals in the classroom. Thus, this Fall, the district’s alternative breakfast program in the classroom, was born.
Cannon County School District’s new breakfast program has excelled at getting kids in their classroom, settled down and eating together each morning as teachers started their morning work. In addition to the new service model, waivers from the USDA allowed all children to eat breakfast at no cost, removing financial barriers for students accessing school meals. Due to its success, three schools in the district will continue the program in the 2021-22 school year.
Ms. Insell shared that not only did her child nutrition team accept the challenge of feeding all of the children in the classrooms each morning, but the partnership with the teachers and principals has really made this a win-win for everyone! Principal Angela Cossey from Woodland School stated that she can’t imagine going back to the traditional breakfast in the cafeteria model after the success they have experienced with the
“We are a Pre-K-8th grade school, with about 325 students and I had never really considered that our youngest students might be a bit intimidated eating in the cafeteria with much older students,” said Principal Cossey, as she raved about the community-classroom setting the new model allows. Teachers have enjoyed having the children eating breakfast in the classroom and there has been no loss of instructional time, says Cossey, something that is always a concern when trying something new. ‘We are so thankful to Ms. Insell and her school nutrition team for all of the hard work they have done since the beginning of the pandemic to ensure our students have the meals they need to succeed,” says Principal Cossey.
