When the calendar flips to August that means one thing – back to school begins! Did you know August is Kids Eat Right Month™? Established by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and the Academy Foundation, Kids Eat Right Month™ is a chance to highlight the importance of child nutrition and health and emphasize the development of healthy habits for all kids, from infants to teenagers.
Kids Eat Right Starts with Breakfast!
Eating right starts with breakfast! Did you know that eating breakfast at school improves concentration, alertness, comprehension, memory, and learning? And that eating breakfast in the classroom is associated with higher attendance, improved academic performance, and better test scores? Make school breakfast part of your Kids Eat Right Month™ plan; use the following resources to help:
- Breakfast in the Classroom Resource Center: Visit the School Nutrition Foundation’s website to access tools to help you implement breakfast-in-the-classroom
- Food Research and Action Center: FRAC’s school breakfast resources include their annual School Breakfast Scorecard and their Large District Report
- NEA Healthy Futures Breakfast in the Classroom Toolkit: Our partners at The NEA Foundation—formerly NEA Healthy Futures—assembled this toolkit to help you educate teachers and other stakeholders about BIC
- Partners for Breakfast in the Classroom: A new school year could mean a new grant to help you implement a new breakfast-in-the-classroom program. If you live in one of the ten target states—Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas, and Utah—you can apply for a grant to cover the upfront costs associated with BIC startup and implementation
Kids Eat Right Month Resources
The first stop for Kids Eat Right Month™ resources is AND’s website, where you will find materials to help you celebrate. Kids Eat Right Month™ resources are available for community leaders, schools, parents and kids, and RDNs.
- Community Leaders: Get neighborhood and faith-based organizations involved to coordinate activities to empower families and communities to make better choices and improve child health.
- Schools: Stakeholders from principals to teachers to parents will find materials to help encourage healthy school communities.
- Parents & Kids: Recipes, games, physical activity tips and more to get families focused on a healthy household.
- RDNs: Registered dietitian nutritionists will find resources, toolkits, handouts and more, to celebrate Kids Eat Right Month™ at work.
Are you celebrating school breakfast or breakfast-in-the-classroom during Kids Eat Right Month™? Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter to share your photos and stories with us!