Northwest Iowa — This week is National School Breakfast Week. School cafeterias, including some in northwest Iowa are celebrating with the “Start Your Engines with School Breakfast” campaign.
According to the School Nutrition Association, the 30th annual celebration includes special events, activities, and menus to raise awareness of the many ways school breakfast helps fuel students for academic achievement. West Sioux Schools served a free breakfast on Thursday to all their students to show what their breakfasts have to offer. At West Lyon, parents were invited to eat school breakfast with their children on certain days this week. Sheldon Community Schools are also celebrating National School Breakfast Week.
The School Nutrition Association says that more than 90,000 schools nationwide offer students a variety of healthy breakfast options each day through the School Breakfast Program. Meals meet federal nutrition standards limiting unhealthy fat, calories and sodium. School nutrition professionals encourage students to enjoy the fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and low fat or fat-free milk offered with school breakfast. They tell us that research shows students who eat breakfast at school perform better on standardized tests and have improved classroom behavior and attendance.
Association officials go on to say that school breakfast is a key source of nutrition for students who receive free or reduced-price school meals, but it is also a benefit to those who are not hungry before they arrive at school or have hectic morning schedules. Those who do receive free or reduced-price meals automatically qualify for breakfast as well.
They tell us that schools serve more than 14 million students each school day. The USDA Food and Nutrition Service says that the School Breakfast Program is a federally-assisted meal program operating in public and nonprofit private schools and residential child care institutions. It began as a pilot project in 1966, and was made permanent in 1975.
