It’s hard to believe that we’re saying goodbye to 2015 already—time truly does fly! The Partners for Breakfast in the Classroom had a very busy, very productive year, bringing breakfast-in-the-classroom to students around the country. We are already looking forward to expanding our reach in 2016 (stay tuned to the blog for details!) but until then, we are feeling excited—and a little nostalgic—about the amazing year we’re leaving behind. One of the reasons we love our regular “In the News” feature is the opportunity it provides for looking back and taking stock.
On the Blog
We have been touching base with many of our PBIC-funded districts over the last few weeks, and we’ll be bringing you more interviews with directors who have successfully implemented breakfast-in-the-classroom. First we chatted with Lawrence Whiting from Franklin City Schools in Virginia about his personal journey to child nutrition, as well as how he worked with a supportive superintendent to convince stakeholders to give BIC a shot. Here is one of our favorite quotes from the piece:
“I’m a former principal and one thing I know is that a lot of the stuff that the teachers are doing in the morning is administrative—handing out papers, collecting homework, taking attendance—and on a normal day those things take up class time. Now it’s during breakfast time, so it works for the teachers to get those administrative things done while the students are eating breakfast. They wound up in a situation where they realized ‘This really does increase our class time.’ When a student walks in they can start working with them immediately.”
We also had the opportunity to visit with Erie Public Schools and celebrate the implementation of breakfast-in-the-classroom in thirteen district schools. It was wonderful to see how popular the program was among all stakeholders, and to visit with students enjoying their morning meal. After our visit to Pennsylvania, we called Jenny Johns, Assistant Foodservice Director for the district, to talk about her successes, and some surprises—like storing and moving a semi-load of cereal every ten days! Don’t miss our first interview with Jenny from March 2015.
Last month we also brought you an interview with the superintendent of the Schenectady School District in upstate New York. This was one of our favorite interviews this year; Superintendent Laurence Spring’s passion for the program, and his concern for his students, informs everything he does and we found his message extremely inspiring.
School Breakfast Resources
If you missed any school breakfast webinars from School Nutrition Foundation or FRAC this year, the holiday break is a great time to catch up! Access archived webinars and brush up on all of the latest happenings in breakfast-in-the-classroom, from how to implement BIC mid-year to finding principal champions to help you earn support from other stakeholders.
SNA members can access all of the archived Webinar Wednesday files through the archive page, and access past calls and webinars at FRAC through their webinar and conference call recordings page.
We’re already looking forward to new school breakfast webinars from both FRAC and SNA in the New Year—we’ll bring you more on those in the next few weeks as well.
A Holiday Message
One final note as we head toward the holiday season. We all know that during extended breaks, many children miss the school meals they count on for nutrition. Hunger truly does not take a vacation, and so we will link here to our annual Thanksgiving post that includes resources for food assistance as well as volunteer opportunities in your community.
From everyone at Partners for Breakfast in the Classroom, we are wishing you a happy and healthy holiday season.