142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition

Annual Meeting Recordings are now available for purchase

300760
Alternative school breakfast in urban districts: What do students think?

142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition (November 15 - November 19, 2014): http://www.apha.org/events-and-meetings/annual
Monday, November 17, 2014

Kelly A. Beckwith, MPH, CHES , AASA, The School Superintendents Association, Alexandria, VA
Sharon Adams-Taylor, MA, MPH , American Association of School Administrators, Alexandria, VA
In many urban school districts, there is a high rate of students that are eligible for free and reduced-price meals, but low participation in the school breakfast program. There are a myriad of reasons for this including stigma of using the program, bus schedules that get students to school too late to participate, and preferring to socialize with friends.

However, many urban school districts are changing when and where breakfast is served -- moving breakfast out of the cafeteria and into classrooms and hallways. With Breakfast in the Classroom, breakfast is incorporated into the elementary school day. With Grab’n’Go serving methods, breakfast can be available to older students up until one hour before lunch begins on kiosks or vending machines in school hallways. With these types of changes, districts have seen participation increase by leaps and bounds. In addition, teachers have seen a turnaround in behavior in their classrooms, and school nurses report fewer early-morning visits by children whose stomachs ache from hunger.

AASA, the School Superintendents Association, worked with 11 urban school districts to change how they serve breakfast. In conducting focus groups with key stakeholders in these districts – including students, cafeteria workers, custodians, teachers, and principals – we learned valuable lessons on the impact that alternative school breakfast can have on a community. This session will highlight the focus group discussion points from students and other key stakeholders, as well as the significant increases in in participation and how that impacts the food service budget.

Learning Areas:

Administer health education strategies, interventions and programs
Administration, management, leadership
Implementation of health education strategies, interventions and programs
Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs

Learning Objectives:
Explain alternative school breakfast serving models Describe why students choose not eat breakfast in the school cafeteria

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am the project director on the grant and am involved in all aspects of the work being presented.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

Back to: 3317.0: Nutrition in Schools