Use our Breakfast Assessment Tool to compile all the key school-building information in one place. This 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, and stairways are there?

Assessing each location’s needs allows you to identify building challenges, schedule issues, and needed infrastructure improvements 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? 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.

Breakfast Model Type

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. In addition, one of the most significant challenges for access to breakfast at school is the serving time. Many families can’t get their kids to school early, and kids who ride a bus often don’t have the advantage or option of arriving early. This is why school districts are beginning to implement more creative serving options for their School Breakfast Programs to combat these common challenges and feed more students a healthy meal to start their day. Here are a few ways to serve breakfast in schools:

• Breakfast in the Classroom 
• Breakfast After the Bell 
• Grab ‘n’ Go - Portable Breakfast Stations 
• Traditional Breakfast

The breakfast model that you choose to implement in your schools may depend on things such as:

• State requirements 
• District and/or school-specific requirements 
• School schedule 
• Structure of school 
• Staffing and budget

The ultimate goal is to follow all specified requirements and work with district partners to ensure the most appropriate breakfast model is implemented for the district and the students.

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.