Each month, our staff reads hundreds of media reports on the subject of school nutrition. We curate our favorites in a monthly blog post we call, “In the News.” Highlighting positive stories about the great things going on in school cafeterias helps us in many ways: providing inspiration, connecting school nutrition professionals from across the country, and promoting those programs and individuals who are taking the extra step to make their school nutrition program the very best it can be.
We had an amazing September here at Beyond Breakfast, and we hope you did, too! The beginning of the school year is always an exciting time and this year was no exception. School nutrition programs are using social media to market and promote their programs at a rapidly growing rate—and we love it! This month we’ve seen an explosion of beautiful school breakfast and school lunch photos on our Facebook and Twitter timelines, which means more of you are feeling comfortable with using these incredible tools to toot your own horns. We say go for it!
So we can’t help but think that this year’s National School Lunch Week theme is perfect—and perfectly timed. Make sure you find SNA and SNF on Facebook to celebrate the NSLW theme ‘School Lunch Snapshot’, October 12-16, and to share your best school lunch snapshots with us!
We also shared a lot of Partners for Breakfast in the Classroom news with you in September. Our recent interview with NEA Secretary-Treasurer Princess Moss about the benefits of breakfast-in-the-classroom was hugely popular—you are all still sharing it on Twitter, so thank you!—and it received extra traction when it was republished on the NEA Healthy Futures blog. We can’t thank Ms. Moss enough for her time and her expertise on why breakfast-in-the-classroom is a win-win for both students and teachers.
You also loved our blog about upcoming breakfast webinars, and there is still time to register for FRAC’s October 8 Breakfast Matters Webinar: School Board Champions for School Breakfast Expansion. There is a new webinar on FRAC’s schedule as well, coming up on November 12—Principal Champions for Breakfast After the Bell in Secondary Schools.
In September we also brought you stories from some of our newest PBIC districts. First we learned how Butts County, Georgia schools are combining CEP with their breakfast-in-the-classroom grant to maximize success, and then we visited with Foodservice Director Marilyn Neil to talk about how a supportive administration helped pave the way for a successful breakfast-in-the-classroom program in Arma, Kansas.
Several of our PBIC schools made the news last month as well! In Georgia, both Butts and Houston Counties were honored by the USDA for best practices. Both districts received PBIC grants this year, and we can’t wait to share more of their school breakfast journeys with you throughout the coming school year. In addition, Cochran Elementary in Jefferson County, KY, made the news with their breakfast-in-the-classroom program. At Cochran students are rewarded with responsibility and participation in BIC delivery to the classroom—a great way to help get kids invested in BIC!
Finally, we shared some really inspiring scholarship stories with you. Visit with your colleagues Amanda Bot, Shirley Martinat, and Desiree Anderberg to learn how they leveraged their SNA membership to apply for scholarships that helped them pursue their college degrees.
Do you have a great school nutrition story to share? Email our blogger Christina at c.e.uticone@gmail.com!