Use our Breakfast Assessment Tool to compile all the key school building information in one place, which will guide you through the decision-making process. For example, based on the projected participation, which sites will require additional refrigeration? How many classrooms, hallways, stairways are there?

Assessing each location’s needs allows you to identify building challenges, schedule issues, and needed infrastructure improvement like electricity for refrigeration. You may have sites where traditional breakfast is the only option. In those cases, are there bus drop-off issues; is the cafeteria space used before school for other programming; and how early is your staff currently arriving at the site? All of this information is critical in developing an effective plan and the eventual success of your breakfast program.

Menus & Food

Take a look at breakfast menus in many districts today, and you’ll see all sorts of packaged pancakes and waffles that are pre-sweetened with maple-flavored corn syrup and sometimes even served on a stick like a corndog. The prevalence of convenience foods is not surprising, especially if you consider these challenges:

• Labor allocated to breakfast is typically small, especially given the restricted budget and bandwidth.
• Budget for breakfast food costs is modest, with most districts trying to keep food cost averages for all meal components under $0.90. Reimbursement for breakfast in school year 2018-19 ranged from $0.31 for non-eligible students to $2.14 for free-eligible students, depending on whether the school qualifies as “severe need.”
• Nutrition requirements like the USDA requirement to serve a cup of fruit or vegetable daily. Juice is also limited under the USDA guidelines and no longer counts as a full serving of fruit. Consequently, many districts are pairing juice with a half cup of fresh, canned, or dried fruit.
• Waste is a big concern and it is a valid one, so efficiency in breakfast becomes paramount.

So with these challenges, how can we offer breakfasts—either in the cafeteria or in the classroom—that are cost-effective, attractive to students, and meet the guidelines?

Creative Serving

Breakfast is often called the “most important meal of the day.” Children need nutritious food in the morning to fuel their bodies, and many studies prove how breakfast affects attention, behavior issues, mental health, and academic performance.

Unfortunately, many kids don’t have access to breakfast at home. With school meals currently free for all kids, you can take full advantage of serving as many students as possible. One of the largest challenges for access to breakfast at school is the serving time. Many families don’t have the ability to get their kids to school early, and kids who ride a bus to school often don’t have the advantage or option of arriving early.

Here are a few ways to serve breakfast in schools:

• Breakfast In the Classroom is one of the most successful ways to feed more vulnerable children. In this method, breakfast is delivered to each classroom and the teacher serves breakfast right after the start of school. Typically a roster is checked off for each student that eats and then the food service staff retrieves the roster along with the remaining breakfast products. Studies have shown that more kids eat breakfast when served this way as it is part of the school day and all students have the ability to receive a meal.
• Breakfast After the Bell is a method that is used in a lot of secondary schools to capture students who aren’t able to come in early to eat before school. In this format, there is usually an extension of time between first and second period. During this time, students can get food from the cafeteria on their way to their next class or they can sit briefly in the cafeteria and eat their meal.
• Grab n Go breakfast is also an effective method and is exactly as described, breakfast served on the go. Generally items are put in a bag or some sort of packaging designed for students to take with them. This is a quick and easy option for busy students and since they are taking the food with them, they have the option of eating when they are hungry or when it best fits into their morning.
• Portable Breakfast Stations are an innovative way to serve breakfast during covid times, taking food directly to kids. Many food service programs have had success by setting up portable breakfast stations outside at the bus drop off area or right inside the door when students arrive in the morning. This saves kids a trip to the cafeteria and is both quick and convenient.
  

Depending on how much labor is attributed to the site before expansion, adding breakfast may or may not require additional labor. Reorganizing start and exit times, adding an hour or two, and occasionally hiring additional personnel are all options but need to be vetted against current labor assignments and expected workload of the expansion.

When calculating a meal equivalent to evaluate Meals Per Labor Hour (MPLH), we typically assign BIC at 2:1, or two breakfasts equal one meal equivalent. This is because it requires more labor if the foodservice staff is solely responsible for pack-out, delivery, pick-up, and data entry. Traditional Breakfast or Grab ‘n Go would be factored at 3:1, three breakfasts equal one meal equivalent. When determining labor requirements, MPLH analysis should be considered in the context of other practical considerations of the site, such as facility limitations and bell schedules that create gaps in service.

SOPs

Standard Operating Procedures

Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for breakfast service must be articulated for the particular service model and updated as part of the department’s SOPs. For example, handling leftovers in classroom breakfast and the proper set-up of Grab ‘n Go should each have a SOP.

Food ordering, menu cycles, recipes, production records, and accountability procedures are all part of the school site team’s responsibilities and should all have SOPs. Here is a sample Breakfast SOP from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction School Nutrition Team.