Celebrating breakfast during a pandemic

Date: January 13, 2021 Posted by Amy Mail Twitter Facebook

The annual National School Breakfast Week celebration (March 8-12) will surely look different this year due to the pandemic. That doesn't make it - or school breakfast - something to skip! You might need to be a little more creative if there are no in-person classes in your district/school but, if we've learned anything about FSDs this past year, we know you're up to any challenge! Allow us to provide some ideas and resources to help kick off your planning.

Messaging

Parents (and students) need to be reminded that school breakfast is a nutritious way to start the day and supports better academic and behavioral outcomes among students. Studies show that students who eat school breakfast are more likely to:

• Reach higher levels of achievement in reading and math
• Score higher on standardized tests
• Have better concentration and memory
• Be more alert
• Maintain a healthy weight

NutriStudents K-12 2020 breakfast white paper, "Improving Student Outcomes and Increasing Foodservice Revenues with School Breakfast," shares more benefits (and research) for both students and schools.

Include details about school breakfast nutrition, such as "schools offer nutritious school breakfasts, complete with whole grains, fruit and low-fat or fat-free milk" and, if applicable, details about your free school meals for all students this year. 

Marketing

The School Nutrition Association, the organization behind NSBW, has set the theme "Score Big with School Breakfast." This can be leveraged for virtual events, social media, giveaways and more. Some ideas to get your creative juices flowing:

• Daily breakfast messages on the school's video scoreboard (if available), shared via social media.
• Recruit one teacher and a student to play a game of "horse," shooting baskets in the school gym or at their homes, and shared with the school community via distance learning platforms and social media. Rather than spelling horse, the duo could spell "breakfast" or "waffle" and with each letter, a moderator could share one fact about school breakfast.
• Create a sports-themed breakfast trivia contest or use the School Nutrition Association's activity sheets for younger students to send home with weekly meal packs.

In addition to the activity sheets, the School Nutrition Association offers several tools for free download (some are restricted to members only):

• marketing toolkit that's full of ideas you can use
• template news release (Word doc) you can send to local media
• artwork for social media, website and print
• infographic for print and digital uses (jpeg and PDF)
• social media cover images

We also have an issue of Cafeteria Connection devoted to school breakfast. Download it today and share it with parents.

Have fun with NSBW and share your celebrations on social media and on the NutriStudents K-12 users' Facebook group.