#NationalSchoolBreakfastWeek may be over, but at No Kid Hungry Tennessee we’re thinking about the importance of school breakfast 365 days a year. 

 

When kids eat breakfast, their days run smoother. Research shows that kids who eat school breakfast score higher on standardized tests, take fewer trips to the nurse, and have higher attendance and graduation rates. 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. For additional information and the research behind these facts, click here. 

 

However, across the country, school breakfast is not reaching all the children who need it. Students’ access to breakfast is impacted by so many barriers, including transportation, busy mornings, stigma, and more. One strategy to work around these barriers and make sure students receive breakfast is Breakfast After the Bell. Whether you’re just beginning to explore Breakfast After the Bell or have run your program for years, we have resources and support to make your program as successful as possible. 

Just Starting Out

Gaining Buy-In

Building Partnerships and Stakeholder Support

Outreach and Promotion

  • School Breakfast Promotion Strategies
    • This resource highlights promotion strategies to build awareness, generate excitement, and increase school breakfast participation.
  • School Meals Application Outreach Toolkit
    • This toolkit is designed to help districts get the word out to families about why completing and submitting free and reduced-price meal applications is important. The toolkit includes guidance about connecting with families, outreach examples from other school districts, and ready-to-use and customizable resources that are available in both English and Spanish. The contents of this toolkit can also be adopted for outreach for the completion and submission of alternative income forms.
  • Powered by Breakfast Posters
    • Help promote your school’s breakfast program with these customizable posters.

Logistics

Increasing Participation

    • Strategies for Finding Success With CEP
      • The Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) enables eligible schools to serve free meals to all students, regardless of income. This resource explores strategies like improving meal participation rates, increasing the Identified Student Percentage (ISP), and generating revenue with savvy business practices.
    • Conversation Starters for Designing More Inclusive School Meals Programs
      • This resource can help increase participation by Identifying access barriers and developing strategies for partnering with students and families to eliminate those barriers.
    • Planning with Purpose – An Equity Diversity & Inclusion Checklist
      • This resource covers actionable steps that can be implemented to plan high-quality events that meet the needs of all. This checklist is not an exhaustive list and can be customized for your training, webinar, or other events.
    • School Meals Design Guide
      • Visit our School Meals Design Guide website to access tools that school food and nutrition teams can use to make meal programs more student-centered. 
      • Watch this webinar to learn about BAB, how you can launch a successful program, and expand and/or sustain your own BAB program. The three speakers showcasing their BAB programs represent districts of varying sizes and geographies to demonstrate how BAB can be successfully adapted to meet the individual needs of a district and its schools.
    • Middle and high schools typically have lower breakfast participation than elementary schools. Middle and high school students have unique needs; therefore, the breakfast program should be adapted accordingly in order to gain buy-in from students and increase breakfast participation.

You can find even more resources for school breakfast – as well as other programs – at the No Kid Hungry Center for Best Practices website. No Kid Hungry Tennessee is committed to supporting school nutrition professionals and making sure that you have the resources you need to help your students thrive. Looking for more information, 1:1 technical assistance, or grant opportunities? Reach out to our team via our inquiry form.