Happy National School Breakfast Week!

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day and critical in ensuring kids have the nutrition they need to learn and grow. This year, we’re celebrating #NSBW23 by highlighting how school breakfast changes lives, and thanking the school nutrition professionals who are at the heart of it. 

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 with fewer behavior problems. School breakfast is a win for families too and can help lighten the load during busy weekday mornings.

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. 

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. 
  • High school graduates on average earn $10,000 more annually and have a higher employment rate. 

Here in Tennessee, even as they face an immense set of challenges, including supply chain disruptions and labor shortages, school nutrition staff have adapted to ensure students get a healthy meal to start the day.

Walker Valley High School in Bradley County, students have the opportunity to grab a ‘second chance breakfast’ between first and second bell since they may not have been hungry first thing in the morning or just ran out of time before school starts to eat breakfast. The cafeteria manager, Angie Parris does a great job of advertising options, opening plenty of lines and having a great variety of food items for students to quickly come through the line, check-out, and get back to class in a timely manner allowing students to refuel for their next class.

At Roane County High School in Kingston, Tennessee, the school nutrition program has gotten extra creative to reach the students on their very large and spread out campus. They use a utility/golf cart to transport breakfast options to the other side of campus to allow students to grab breakfast and continue on to class each morning.

At Hardy Elementary School in Hamilton County, students enter the building and go directly to the cafeteria to pick up their breakfast each morning to bring back to their classrooms. Under the direction of school principals and leadership, each morning starts with students eating breakfast together in their classroom while starting their morning routine, connecting with their teachers and easing into the day. Teachers at Hardy elementary report enjoying the extra time to check-in with their students about how they are doing from a social-emotional perspective and catching up on any classwork they missed from the previous day. This Grab and Go breakfast model allows students to not feel rushed in the morning and gets them off to a great start each day.

These are just a few examples of schools across Tennessee that have adapted their breakfast service models to overcome barriers to students accessing breakfast in the morning.

Feeding kids today is one of the smartest investments we can make to ensure they’re ready to face the challenges of tomorrow. As we celebrate the importance of school breakfast this week, we want to say THANK YOU to the critical role all school nutrition professionals play in helping children succeed in and out of the classroom.