We know what they say… “Breakfast is the most important meal of the day” and they aren’t wrong! With the hustle and bustle of the beginning of the school year, eating breakfast before school may not be a top priority. This leaves students unprepared for a morning of learning. Let’s explore why breakfast is so important, and how school breakfast can give students the energy and focus they need to learn.
There are a number of reasons that breakfast is so important. Especially for students that have an entire morning of learning ahead of them. Hunger can impact a child’s physical health and development, mental well-being and their learning capacity. Hunger can have an effect on a student’s:
- Cognitive ability
- Concentration
- Memory
- Problem solving
It is important that students eat a nutritious and well-balanced breakfast. Healthy breakfast is proven to help academic performance and overall concentration in students. The three core components of a healthy, balanced breakfast are:
- Whole grains
- Fruits
- Dairy
School breakfast programs are a great way to ensure students are eating breakfast. According to a study from the Food Research and Action Center, students that eat breakfast closer to class and test-taking time, perform better than students who skip breakfast or eat at home. Just eating breakfast is not enough. A lot of common breakfast foods are processed and filled with sugar. This can make students feel tired and hungrier. This is because of the rapid increase of blood sugar levels that eating sugary or processed food causes. Breakfast made with fresh, healthy and local food helps student get essentials nutrients they need to increase their energy and focus.
Now that we know why eating a healthy breakfast is so important. The next question is: How do we add healthy, fresh and local food into School Breakfast Programs?
Feed Our Future can help!
We have a ton of resources to help you procure and serve local food in all school meals, including breakfast. Harvest of the Month items, recipes and other educational activities can be used to promote local foods during breakfast.
Our new professional development tool is built to help support or expand farm to school programming in school breakfast and lunch. The no-cost, self-paced tool consists of six modules. It is created for all school nutrition professionals. The “Build a Better Breakfast” module will give users an overview of building a better breakfast for their students. There are downloadable and printable resources like recipes, communication toolkits and educational activities.
To learn more and receive an alert for when the tool is ready click here!
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