The Breakfast Scoop School Breakfast Conference a Success

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1 Schools and families working together toward student success Spring 2009 Vol. 2 No School Breakfast Conference a Success Spring Into Action With School Breakfast was the theme for this year s SNA-WI Spring Conference held in Manitowoc, WI on March 26th and 27th. The conference started off with a representative from Senator Kohl s office thanking everyone in the audience for the extraordinary work they do in school nutrition. Katie Wilson, president of the School Nutrition Association gave a presentation challenging all of us to do better and more for all the children attending Wisconsin schools. The interactive presentation gave attendees the chance to do some group activities including developing responses for some commonly heard barriers for not offering school breakfast programs. Everyone enjoyed the activity and commented on the usefulness of hearing the responses they could use in their schools when confronted with road blocks to implementing or improving a breakfast program. Lastly, Katie shared some tips and examples of what schools in and out of Wisconsin are doing to increase breakfast participation. The vendor table top session was well attended and a variety of items were showcased. The focus of the following day was on education. Representatives from different schools across the state shared their school breakfast program experiences. The first session focused on the financials of operating a successful program while the second session of the morning had school nutrition professionals share their breakfast program success with people in attendance. The networking activity in which attendees chose a topic to learn more about, gave them the opportunity to work in small groups and ask questions about a specific topic. The afternoon sessions included learning more about the state wide breakfast challenge in which schools are challenged to increase student participation in the breakfast program. The last panel discussion allowed attendees the opportunity to learn more about the benefits and the power of partnerships. A school principal was among the panel members who urged everyone to seek the support of school administrators for their own breakfast program. Approximately 120 people attended representing 64 different Wisconsin school districts. The conference was organized by staff from four different organizations: the University of Wisconsin-Extension, the Department of Public Instruction, the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board and the School Nutrition Association of Wisconsin. A great partnership! Wisconsin Breakfast Newsletter Website

2 School Breakfast Grant Availability Pending Approval The Nutrition Enhancement Grants, otherwise known as the Breakfast Grants made possible thanks to the support from Senator Herb Kohl, have in the past helped Wisconsin schools start a new breakfast program or improve an existing breakfast program. The purpose of these grants is to increase the number of children with access to morning nutrition. Start-up grants may be used to cover costs associated with implementing a school breakfast program in a school that did not have a permanent school breakfast program during the past school year. Improvement grants can be used to cover costs associated with improving participation in schools that are currently approved to participate in the program. Last year 39 new programs were started with the use of these grants and 96 programs were improved using funding from the grants. The USDA is currently reviewing the grant proposal submitted in May 2009, and once it is approved, funding will be available for schools for the school year. At the time of this publication, we had not heard from the USDA yet, but we are hopeful the grant proposal will be accepted and funding for schools available soon. ALL public and non-profit private schools and residential child care institutions are encouraged to apply for funding. However, to boost the number of schools starting a breakfast program, if the grant is approved, 60% of the funding will be awarded to schools that do not have a program applying to start a breakfast program. The remainder of the funding for the school year will be awarded to schools which have an existing breakfast program and are proposing innovative ways to increase their student participation in the breakfast program. Severe need schools are especially encouraged to apply for these grants. A school is eligible for severe need breakfast reimbursement if 40% or more of the student lunches served at the school in the second preceding school year were served free or at a reduced price. Severe need payment is made on an individual school building basis. Severe need federal reimbursement is greater than the non-severe reimbursement and it is of great benefit to schools. To identify severe need breakfast for the school year, lunch data for the will need to be used for this determination. Please visit which provides schools a tool to determine severe need breakfast. Schools which currently do not have a permanent school breakfast program are encouraged to apply for start up funds. To apply please visit the following website: Page 2

3 Wisconsin Student is One of Three Winners in the Power Up Design a Breakfast Superhero Contest An eleventh grader in Janesville, Wisconsin was one of three winners in the Power UP Design a Breakfast Superhero Contest. The contest was part of National School Breakfast Week 2009 and the Power Up with School Breakfast Campaign. The purpose of the challenge and National School Breakfast Week is to highlight the benefits of school breakfast. The design a School Breakfast Superhero Contest encouraged and challenged students to draw and name their own school breakfast superhero and to explain how their super powers help kids Power Up with school breakfast. Students first entered their design in a local competition organized by and held in schools. Wining designs were then entered into the national contest. More than 800 creative entries were submitted to the national portion of the design a superhero contest. Tiana Steinhorst from Craig High School in Janesville designed and named her superhero Nutrition Nate. Nutrition Nate s superpowers include using his knowledge of nutrition to help his friends eat well. According to the marketing manager at the School Nutrition Association, Tiana s entry was especially appealing because she incorporated MyPyramid in Nutrition Nate s design. Nutrition Nate joins the two other winners of the contest, Agent Apple, and Cer-eal (pronounced Surreal). Agent Apple was designed by a first grader from Connecticut and Cer-eal was submitted by an eighth grader from Illinois. The national winning entries were professionally recreated by a former DC Comics illustrator. The image on the left is Tiana s original sketch and the image on the right is the recreated version. School breakfast programs offer students access to a daily nutritious morning meal. There is convincing research that demonstrates that students, who eat breakfast, perform better academically and overall have better health outcomes, said Julia Salomon, MS, RD, CD, School Breakfast Specialist at the University of Wisconsin-Extension. It is evident from Tiana s design that she understands the importance of breakfast, Salomon added. Page 3

4 Breakfast from the Farm? We all recognize the value of breakfast relative to a child s health and well-being. We also appreciate the value of supporting our local agricultural economy. Farm to School programs have been initiated and are growing across the entire state of Wisconsin but most, if not all efforts, are directed at integrating locally grown produce into the school lunch program. Perhaps it is time to think about expanding our Farm to School initiatives to our breakfast programs as well Integrating Farm to School concepts is indeed challenging. There are issues with supply, preparation time, acceptance, and costs. The Breakfast program has unique challenges of its own not the least of which are even less time and money. Anytime a task seems overwhelming (if not impossible), it is wise to think small. So rather than even attempt to add locally sourced foods to a breakfast menu perhaps starting with a special promotion or an item of the month would get the wheels in motion and provide the experience needed to gradually build and sustain a farm to breakfast a program. One place to start is to recognize that there are many local foods beyond fruits and vegetables. There are local providers of milk, eggs, butter, and meats. It might be worthwhile to consider a special breakfast promotion that features Wisconsin products. One fun concept might be to do a twist on the Breakfast on the Farm promotions by launching a Breakfast from the farm. Menus could include anything from very traditional items such as eggs and bacon to creative breakfast breads made with local eggs, butter, milk and fruit or vegetables. For example, Sweet Potato muffins could be made with puree made from local sweet potatoes. The trend to support local agriculture will continue to grow. Despite what can seem like overwhelming challenges, managers of child nutrition programs have a unique opportunity to take a leadership role in initiating and expanding Farm to School programs. Breakfast programs may just be the diamond in the rough. The following are helpful resources for Farm to School programming Home Grown Wisconsin Institutional Food Market Coalition REAP Farm to School (National) Iowa State University Ext. Article written and submitted by: Monica Theis, MS, RD, Senior Lecturer The University of Wisconsin-Madison The Department of Food Science mltheis@wisc.edu Page 4

5 Ten Things To Consider When Remodeling Your High School Cafeteria Big screen T.V. It can be tuned to your high school TV station, CNN news, the inauguration, your high school sports teams at state competitions, etc. It can be used during staff training sessions. Newspapers. Find out if your local newspaper participates in, Newspapers in- Education. Having a free newspaper available at breakfast can help draw kids in. Club tables. Tables with high stools. Kids love to sit at these. One school panned to have four chairs per table, but the kids like to sit together and it was common to see 12 chairs per table. Paint the walls. Choosing a paint color by committee is not the way to go. This is a big investment and should be done by a professional designer. Paint can add to the mood of the room and should be a color combination that everyone will feel good about for years to come. Leave teaching up to the teachers; paint color should be left to the design professionals. Name the main areas or cafeteria. The kids really enjoyed submitting names and then voting on the best one. If you have a food court or scatter type cafeteria, should the areas have a name? International Foods or Betty s Homemade Lunch could work. Burger Area or Anything on a Bun is another suggestion. Lighting. Can you dim the lights or shut some of them off? Lighting definitely adds to breakfast success. Kids are a little tired in the early morning and dim lights seem to soothe them. Posters. Display students artwork, hang posters that recognize not only your sports teams, but also academic clubs. Switch them out during the year to add interest in our dining area. Displaying students work. Add shelving to display art class student work. Tables. Use different table sizes and shapes. Use institutional long tables along with rectangle shaped tables, round ones and club tables. A counter along the wall with high stools may be another option. Booths could be popular with high school kids. Cashiers. Do you have enough cashiers? Are you sure you can t add one more? The time could be tacked on to a cook s shift; you don t always need to add a new employee. The biggest high school complaint is the line is too long. Submitted by Jeanne Hopkins, Superior. is an electronic newsletter covering issues related to breakfast and school breakfast programs. It is made possible by a partnership of the University of Wisconsin-Extension, Cooperative Extension, Family Living Programs Wisconsin and the Department of Public Instruction. Page 5

6 Availability and Purchasing of Competitive Foods Differ Between Small and Large Rural High Schools According to an article in the May 2009 Journal of the American Dietetic Association, the dependence on and use of competitive foods in rural high schools is different depending on the size of the school. The purpose of the research was to observe and compare the availability and student purchasing of foods sold outside of the reimbursable school meal programs primarily a la carte or from vending (competitive foods) in small and large rural high schools in Kansas. The results of the study reveal some interesting findings: Small rural schools had significantly fewer vending machines than large rural schools. Vending at small schools contained fewer fat grams per item than items found in large high schools. A la carte items at small rural schools contained fewer fat grams per item than a la carte items sold in large rural schools. Vending items at small schools had 25 fewer calories per item than vending items found in large high schools. Significantly less fat and less calories were purchased per student from all competitive food sources and from a la carte by students in small schools compared to student from large schools. These finding, which highlight less availability of competitive foods and the presence of lower energy options from competitive foods at small rural schools compared to large rural schools, have implications for better understanding how small schools can support their foodservice programs despite limited use of and dependence on competitive foods from a la carte and vending programs. Adapted from: Nollen, N. l. et al. Competitive Foods in Schools: Availability and Purchasing in Predominately Rural Small and Large Schools. J. AM Diet. Assoc. 2009;109(5): Page 6

7 What is the Wisconsin School Breakfast Listserv? A listserv is an electronic discussion group based on common interests. It uses a mailing list ( addresses) to distribute messages to all members electronic mail boxes. A listserv enables people who become members of the list to send messages to the whole group without having to type in everyone s address. The Wisconsin School Breakfast Listserv is an efficient way to share information about school breakfast issues. If you have a question about any topic related to school breakfast all you have to do is post it to the list. Chances are someone will respond or provide useful information. In addition to posting questions and sharing resources, members receive information about grant opportunities, breaking news related to school nutrition (particularly breakfast) and other pertinent professional issues. The list is not a venue to share jokes, or chain letters and usually members are not inundated with messages on a daily basis. However you must be a member of the list to be able to post or view responses. To subscribe to the listserv and become a member, please visit the following website: Once you become a member you can post messages to the group by sending an to: wischoolbreakfast@lists.uwex.edu We hope you will consider becoming a member. Marketing Corner Marketing strategies have to be multidimensional. This means that you not only have to reach a variety of audiences (students, parents, school staff, school administrators, etc.) but you also have to tailor your message so that it has the greatest impact on the particular audience you are marketing to. For example, teachers and principals, want to hear that breakfast in the classroom will not result in loss of instructional time; school administrators may be more interested in knowing about the potential boost in school revenue due to federal and state breakfast reimbursements related to an increase in participation as a result of implementing a new breakfast model. Know your audience and what is important to them for greater effectiveness in getting your message across. Breakfast Facts Adults who skip breakfast are likely to take in more calories during the course of the day than people who do eat breakfast. Breakfast skippers also have a tendency toward higher cholesterol. American Institute for Cancer Research. The New American Plate for Breakfast Children who skip breakfast have slower memory recall and make more errors. Hungry children have lower math scores, receive more special education services, and are more likely to repeat a grade. Food Research and Action Center. School Breakfast Scorecard A study of girls 9 19 who routinely eat breakfast found they had a lower body mass index than girls who skipped breakfast. Journal of the American Dietetic Association Do you have an article or an idea for an article for this newsletter? If so, please let us know by ing us at: julia.salomon@ces.uwex.edu Page 7