National School Breakfast Week Starts March 6
The School Nutrition Association (SNA) is inviting schools around the nation to celebrate school breakfast during National School Breakfast Week (NSBW), March 6 through March 10. This year’s theme is: “Go Places with School Breakfast,” which explores the wide world of travel and stresses the importance of a good breakfast as an important aspect of children reaching their full potential. The theme is based on the premises that just like a car, plane or train, children need fuel to make their daily journey.
The School Breakfast Program became a permanent Federal program in 1975. For fiscal year 2005, Congress appropriated $1.91 billion for the program. According to the latest School Breakfast Scorecard from the Food Research and Action Center, participation in the national School Breakfast Program rose to $9.2 million children during the 2004-2005 school year, the largest increase since the 1994-1995 school year.
SNA launched the NSBW in 1989 to raise awareness about the availability of breakfast for students at school and the link between eating a good breakfast and cognitive growth. A healthy school breakfast includes milk, fruit/vegetable/100% juice, whole grains/breads, and/or meat/meat alternate. There are many positive reasons to promote the eating of school breakfast including that eating a nutritious breakfast can help prevent obesity in children. In addition, research has shown that children who eat breakfast at school achieve higher scores on standardized tests, make fewer trips to the nurse’s and principal’s offices, and get better grades overall. Moreover, sometimes kids are not quite ready or hungry enough to eat breakfast before they leave home; and families with hectic schedules may find it impossible to get everyone fed and out the door in time for the bus or carpool.
Other good reasons to start the day with a school breakfast include: 1) the U.S. Department of Agriculture requires that a school breakfast must have at least 25% of the Recommended Daily Allowance for protein, calcium, iron, vitamin A, vitamin C and calories as well as meet the Dietary Guidelines for Americans; and 2) eating breakfast at school is a great way for children to catch up with friends and get ready for their busy schedules.
SNA has set up a website for the NSBW. The website features two activity sheets, brochures, a media toolkit, menus, as well as NSBW merchandise. In addition, the website offers an official proclamation which can be used in several ways to raise public awareness of a school breakfast program such as request that a mayor or city council proclaim that it is NSBW in a town or city and/or send the proclamation to a local newspaper for publication or to a local radio for on air personalities to read. The website also includes a form which can be used to showcase how schools or school districts celebrated NSBW.
For additional information, please contact:
School Nutrition Association
700 South Washington St., Suite 300
Alexandria, VA 22314
Phone: (703) 739-3900
Fax: (703) 739-3915
Email: servicecenter@schoolnutrition.org
Source: National School Breakfast Week 2006 website.