Resources for Principals
Principals are vital to ensuring students get what they need to succeed. Many students struggle with academics because they don’t get their basic needs met, such as enough food to eat, no matter what economic background they come from. In schools where breakfast is offered in the cafeteria before the school day begins, students often face barriers to eating school breakfast including parents and busses dropping students off too late, students not knowing about school breakfast, students choosing to socialize with friends, or stigma around school breakfast.
This is where principals can shine! Breakfast After the Bell (BAB) is a breakfast serving model that meets the needs of the students by providing a basic level of support that every person needs: food. Breakfast After the Bell models like Grab and Go to the Classroom, Breakfast In the Classroom, and Second Chance Breakfast, provide more kids with the healthy food they need to learn and thrive. As a result, students demonstrate improved academic outcomes and attendance, and decreased school nurse visits and behavioral disruptions. [Deloitte & No Kid Hungry, 2015] By supporting BAB, you are directly supporting the health and well-being of all students, you are advocating for teachers and school nurses, as hunger contributes to loss of instructional time and more nurse visits, and you are aiding parents, because mornings at home can feel rushed and time for breakfast can easily get pushed aside.
The National School Breakfast Program (SBP) is a federal school nutrition program, just like school lunch. Schools that participate in SBP must adhere to nutrition guidelines supported by science and provided by USDA. Even though food items offered to students at school sometimes look the same as breakfast foods found in grocery stores, convenience stores or fast food restaurants, school breakfast items often include whole grains and less sugar, sodium, fat, and calories. School breakfast is made affordable for all students through subsidies and reimbursements provided by the federal government. School breakfast expenses are not part of the school system’s education budget. Learn more about how school meals reach kids and the finances involved with How School Meals Reach Kids.
This toolkit is here to provide you with everything you need to get a successful Breakfast After the Bell program up and running.
Resources for Principals
Breakfast After the Bell 101 Videos: Geared towards teachers and principals, these short videos outline how Breakfast After the Bell benefits students and classrooms, and how Breakfast After the Bell can be a seamless part of the instructional day in four easy steps
School Breakfast – Healthier Than You Think: School breakfast often gets a bad rap for being unhealthy, when in reality the food options served at breakfast must adhere to strict nutritional guidelines and are often much healthier than store-bought breakfast.
Innovative Breakfast Delivery Options: Breakfast After the Bell models often incorporate elements of multiple models and can look different in each school; however, three models in particular are the most effective at increasing breakfast participation. Learn about each Breakfast After the Bell Model and choose which model best suits your school’s needs.
Breakfast in the Classroom Myths: This easy-to-read document addresses common myths and about Breakfast in the Classroom and provides information to dispel concerns you or your staff may have.
Implementation Tools
This collection of tools includes a Pre-implementation Checklist, Breakfast After the Bell Rollout Timelines and a Breakfast in the Classroom Activity Guide. Each tool is unique, but they all complement each other nicely to create an extensive set of implementation tools that can guide multiple school stakeholders on how to create a successful Breakfast After the Bell launch.
How School Meals Reach Students: This resource traces the path of the funding that supports school breakfast and lunch from Congress to cafeteria. It also answers common questions that educators have about how the programs work.
Participation Tips And Student Surveys: High breakfast participation is the result of many different aspects of the breakfast program running smoothly, from the logistics of the program, to gaining buy-in from the student body. These resources highlight how to increase breakfast participation.
Get the Word Out in your School and Community: Using these communication materials like backpack flyers, posters, sample social media language, and more will help you build a network of champions in your school and community.
Hear from Principals
Classrooms as Communities: Hear from New Orleans principals and teachers who say that breakfast turned their classroom into a community, and brought them closer to their students.
Too Hungry to Care: Hear from Maryland Principal McElhaney about how he discovered hunger among his students through an 8th grader’s test score.
Breakfast Success Story from Longfellow Elementary: Watch a Minnesota teacher, food service lead, principal and students share why giving every kid breakfast each morning matters.
Breakfast Brain: Watch Washington State Principal Hernandez and students talk about the importance of “Breakfast Brain.”