National School Breakfast Week

This week, March 3-7, is National School Breakfast Week and is sponsored by the School Nutrition Association. The purpose of National School Breakfast Week is to raise awareness of the healthfulness of school breakfast and the importance of breakfast in general. This year’s theme is “School Breakfast: Fuel Your Imagination“.

Fuel Your Imagination

What a fun slogan! By fueling your body, you can fuel your imagination! Kids who eat breakfast have been shown to do better on tests (especially in math and reading) and improve their speed and memory in cognitive tests. If you have kids (or if you’re a kid at heart), you should check out the School Breakfast website. On the site, you can take some “cosmic quizzes” and learn about breakfast. Did you know that 49% of Americans start their day off with a bowl of cereal? I’m one of those people!

Many of us may think that school food isn’t healthy, which is actually not true. School breakfast actually provides (and is required by the government to provide) 25% of the recommended daily allowances for calories, protein, vitamins A and C, calcium, and iron. Schools are required to keep the total fat of the meal to less than 30% of calories and saturated fat to less than 10% of calories.

Some school breakfasts that your child’s school may be providing this week are (all come with milk):

• Monday: Molten Space Cereal (oatmeal) with asteroids (raisins) and space dust (brown sugar)
• Tuesday: Blast-off Burrito (breakfast burrito with corn, tomatoes, peppers, onions, and salsa) with Rocket Wedges (potato wedges)
• Wednesday: Pluto Pancakes (in memory of the “planet-no-more” I bet) and Saturn Sausages (turkey sausage)
• Thursday: Galaxy of Grub (cold cereal and an apple with peanut butter or critter munch–animal crackers, cheeries, goldfish, and peanuts)
• Friday: Faraway French Toast with Space Syrup (french toast, syrup, yogurt, and grapes)

Some important information about the School Breakfast Program:
Last year, about 9.9 million children in more than 84,500 schools and institutions participated in the School Breakfast Program (which is about a 6% increase from the previous year). If your child’s school participates in the School Breakfast Program, your child is eligible to buy breakfast at school. You will need to fill out an application to determine eligibility for free or reduced-cost breakfasts. And, in case you’re wondering, your child’s school does get reimbursed some for participating in the Program.

Who may benefit from the School Breakfast Program

1. Kids who aren’t hungry when he/she wakes up in the morning
2. Kids who do not typically have time to eat in the morning before school
3. Kids whose families are having a hard time providing meals for them

If your school provides breakfast and your child typically eats it, ask them this week if they are having any of the fun foods listed above. If your school doesn’t provide or if your child eats breakfast at home, consider making the above foods in honor of this week. Whatever the case, enjoy your breakfast this week!! Remember to model behavior for your child! A child who sees a parent or teacher eat a healthy breakfast will more than likely want to do the same, so lead by example!

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