Module 1 - New Horizon for School Breakfast
Why More Matters!
Why Breakfast?
Here’s the thing… kids who eat breakfast do better in school, go to school more often, and also have way more energy for fun and play. So that’s why taking a look at breakfast, as the place to eat right….just makes sense! And kicking off the day with a good start means a breakfast filled with colorful, great tasting fruits and vegetables.
Why Fruits and Vegetables?
Why?!! Eating fruits and vegetables is fun, easy, and they taste great. You guys know that for kids to keep fit and feeling good they need to eat 5 to 9 fruit and vegetable servings a day. That’s 5…to 9! That’s gonna take breakfast, lunch, dinner – and snacks!- the way I see it.
Good health habits start early in life, so when learning to love those fruits and vegetables…the earlier, the better! With your help, most kids just need the opportunity and the encouragement to say YES to breakfast, and YES to all this!
What's Your Style?
Breakfast Bar or Buffet:
It’s easy to get kids eating more fruits and vegetables at a breakfast bar or buffet. Once you’ve considered the age groups you serve, preparation facilities, food safety, and staffing, there are lots of ways to serve more fruits and vegetables at breakfast. You can increase consumption of fruits and vegetables by giving kids lots of choices. Kids love making their own CHOICES….yes, choices, choices, choices!.Take advantage of how easy to display fruits and vegetables beautifully, in different color combinations, and as garnishes on a breakfast bar or buffet. Also, whole produce can be creatively displayed at varying heights on the bar and even cut differently, like in stars, adds interest and dimension.
Create a breakfast promotion, breakfast bars lend themselves to thematic displays, These are really fun ways to entice kids, and you can use the displays again and again. Ethnic or cultural recipes and seasonal promotions of specific fruits and vegetables are fun, let your imagination go!. Get students involved in choosing the theme and the matching fruits and vegetables.
Maximize your resources by mixing lower cost fruits and veggies with more expensive ones, remember students love choices. Even salads on a late morning breakfast bar are an idea to promote.
Many schools, from elementary to high school, are finding that by serving breakfast on a salad bar set up, no additional labor is needed, prep work is manageable, and their students are enjoying more and more fruits and vegetables at breakfast.
Grab ‘n Go:
Speed and convenience are a big priority for some schools. Grab ‘n Go breakfasts may be a simple answer. It’s easy to increase the amounts of fruits and vegetables offered whether they are whole or cut. Grab ‘n Go breakfasts can also be served as a “second chance” breakfast at nutrition break, which is another opportunity for a serving of fruits or vegetables.The flexibility of the Grab ‘n Go breakfast helps you add more produce because:
• It increases participation in your program, which means more students are eating fruits and vegetables.
• It’s also an easy way to add hand-held fruit to a meal where students may not have been getting a serving of fruits or vegetables before.
• And it’s convenient-- for staff because it takes less time to prepare than most traditional breakfast meals. You get more students eating because long lines are eliminated.
The Grab ‘n Go service style makes it easy to include a variety of fruits and vegetables in the menu, like whole fruits, packaged veggie sticks, or potato and egg burritos. Package cut fruits and vegetables in see-through containers so they are visually appealing.
Breakfast in the Classroom:
With Breakfast in the Classroom, all children are given breakfast, so it’s a great way to introduce a variety of new fruits and vegetables to all students in a safe and encouraging environment. Ideally students will see others trying new fruits and vegetables and will want to try them too.The individual packaging makes it easy to mix fruits together in a serving. The fruit looks great, and students end up branching out by trying new ones. This is a great way to serve fruits that may be new to kids, such as plums, kiwis, and tangerines.
Students can save uneaten fruits or vegetables from breakfast, for a treat anytime of the day. This eliminates waste!
An added bonus is teachers have an opportunity to augment what students are eating with a little nutrition education. And we know that the more students are exposed to fruits and vegetables, the more likely they are to enjoy eating them.
Students will want and expect fruits and vegetables at breakfast when a breakfast service is naturally woven into the regular morning routine. Prepackaged items such as sliced apples and carrot sticks, keep it easy to distribute, deliver, and clean up breakfast in the classroom.
Traditional:
A traditional plated breakfast served in a cafeteria before school offers different opportunities for introducing a variety of fruits and vegetables to students.For schools with on-site kitchens, there is no need for special transportation or packaging foods, so it’s easy to replenish fruits and vegetables on the spot. Adding fruits and vegetables to hot breakfast item plates like eggs, waffles, pancakes and oatmeal combines fruits and vegetables with other popular breakfast items. And by placing fruits and vegetables at the beginning of a line, students are encouraged to take them.
Produce Stand:
A new piece of equipment on the market is a Produce Stand made for food service operations who want the “look” of a fruit stand with the ease of commercial food service equipment. Perhaps a school art class could create fruit and veggie posters to add their own flare to the produce stand.If you have a produce stand you can store fruits and vegetables in bins, or packaged, individual servings. The stand can be rolled next to the meal service so students purchasing a meal have an opportunity to try the produce. The produce stand is popular with students because it mimics a “Roadside Produce Stand” or grocery store. The stand could even highlight some of the produce growing in the school garden. The produce stand concept could be a spin-off for academic coursework in economics, social sciences, nutrition, agricultural literacy and art.
You’ll have no problem enhancing the visual appeal of fruits and vegetables and highlighting choices for students. Both secondary and elementary school staff find this is a great way for students choose more fruits and vegetables at breakfast.
Vending:
A newer alternative at secondary schools is breakfast served in vending machines. These convenient breakfasts allow students to eat anytime, and they allow you to provide breakfast even when no staff is there. (can this work with free and reduced breakfast…key in a card number???) Because vending machines can offer a full breakfast meal , as well as breakfast meal components, many of the same serving suggestions for other breakfast styles may be used in refrigerated vending machines. What’s most important is to make high quality selections that are attractive and eye-catching. Freshness of the produce and other items is critical, so everything needs to be dated and rotated regularly.Vending machines are an easy way to promote nutritious breakfast options such as:
•Fresh fruit cups
•Cottage cheese with fruit
•Yogurt and fruit combinations
•Celery sticks and peanut butter
•Carrot sticks and dip
•Bagel, cream cheese, and tomatoes
•And of course, whole fruit options.
By packaging meals or items in see-through containers so they are visually appealing, and combining a bright variety of color combinations, produce in will sell easily.
When using a vending style of breakfast service, it’s a great idea to have a system in place for students to provide feedback about the selection and how to improve the system. That way you’ll know even more about which fruits and vegetables your kids want to eat.
Bright Ideas From Others
Our job is the health and welfare of our district’s children.
Lynelle Grumbles says "All those kids out there are your kids and my kids. And it’s up to us as school nutrition professionals to provide healthy meals for them each and every day when they come to school. In order to improve their health, one of the best things that we can do is to encourage them to eat more fruits and vegetables, and breakfast is the perfect time to do that."
Great fruit and vegetable choices are demanded now by the high school kids we serve.
Lucia Bonila says "I’ve been in food services for 17 years now, and I have found in my experience that if you offer fresh fruits and vegetables to your students, they will make wise choices. We have a lot of vegans at our school, and they’re very happy that we’re offering these things now. I encourage them to eat breakfast every morning. Not only does it help them to concentrate better in school and get better test scores, but breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and I try to encourage the students to do these things. But I’m very surprised that they do it on their own. They ask for these things, and they’re very happy. So, I encourage you to offer these to your students, and you’ll be surprised at what they’ll choose."
Looking to the restaurant industry for ideas.
Paul Idsvoog says "One of the issues that we had when I first came to the district was how to better utilize farm-to-school, and with the size of our district, the biggest issue that we had was distribution and how we could better use the purchasing end of it. We aren’t able to call a hundred different local farmers in regards to how to handle all those calls. We need to centralize our distribution process. So what we did is we planned and worked with our local distributors, and worked with them to be the co-op for the local grower, and really looking for a win-win for both sides. And in the process, we were able to actually increase our produce consumption by about eighty percent, and being able to utilize a lot of different kinds of vegetables and fruits that we were not able to use before."
Effective marketing strategies for fruits and veggies used at The Pit Stop Café.
Sue Horn says "We have decided in our district to do something really fun and different. So I developed what we call “The Pit Stop Café,” and it’s based on a race car theme, which really brings the kids into the cafeteria for breakfast time. We were able with our breakfast grant to purchase some equipment that would allow us to do some packaging of fresh fruits and vegetables and present it to the kids in a really fun way. And put them out on display so that the kids really wanted to take them, rather than just having a basket of apples or oranges. So what we found was sometimes it’s just about getting the kids all excited about a new idea. And we are seeing a more positive turn, and the kids are eating more fresh fruits and vegetables."
Importance to me, as a parent and a doctor, that kids eat more fruits and vegetables for breakfast.
Karen Mo says "As a family physician and a PTA president at one of our local elementary schools, I feel that nutrition education is a very important piece of our children’s lives. At our school, in particular, we do have a very active garden program. We also do a program where they tour some of the local organic farms. When they go out and taste and see new vegetables and new fruits, it makes them want to try new things, and it really is very important for their health for them to try new fruits and vegetables. A piece of this that has been very beneficial, I think, is that they even then go home and ask their parents to buy them more fresh fruits and vegetables, and so everyone’s health in the family is improved."