Considering Expansion

If your district is considering expansion of school breakfast, there are many useful toolkits and resources available to support your efforts. Here are some of our favorites:

• School Breakfast Program Toolkit (USDA)
• School Breakfast Expansion Strategies (Food Research & Action Center)
• School Breakfast Program (John C. Stalker Institute) 

Additionally, local, state, and federal agencies are working throughout the country to provide the support, information, and education necessary for districts to successfully start or expand their breakfast programming.

Rather than duplicate work that is done well by others, we focus on the food service department’s operational and fiscal requirements to identify the best possible service model. We will also explore the essential factors for sustainable and successful breakfast programs.

Fiscal Health

Assessing your department’s fiscal health and preparing a fiscal management plan are essential first steps when expanding a breakfast program. Due to the additional costs that come with running an effective breakfast program, taking time to adjust your budget will allow for a smooth transition and a sustainable program. By taking advantage of our Fiscal Management resources, you will have all of the pertinent data on labor, student participation, and the fiscal health of your department’s fund in one place. The critical data sets are:

• By-site enrollment and eligibility data
• Average daily participation by meal type
• Average daily participation by eligibility
• Staffing information by school site: number of employees, total labor hours
• Current fund health: fund balance available to cover early start-up costs or deficits as the new breakfast program develops
• Operational model type
• District student transportation program

Preparing for Launch

After assessing the feasibility of expanding a breakfast program both operationally and fiscally, it is also essential to consider the program’s feasibility. Consider whether you have the full support of key stakeholders, if your food service team has the capacity, which breakfast model would be best for each school site, and the type of training needed for all school site employees. All of these factors will dictate what the expansion of your breakfast program will look like and the steps needed to lead to a successful launch and sustainable program. Depending on your team’s capacity and timing, you’ll have to decide what rollout schedule makes sense for your district. Your primary goal should be a smooth and successful rollout since nothing can derail breakfast programs faster than a poor launch. Consider the following planning out the launch of a program:

School Wide Plan

Involve the whole school site team, including food service staff, principals, teachers, paraprofessionals, and custodians. The food service team orchestrates the program but will need the support and cooperation of the school team. Everyone needs to be informed and trained. See a sample Breakfast Plan for the School Team.

Unlike Traditional Breakfast, BIC and Grab ‘n Go are successful when all key stakeholders know their role and are motivated and organized. Regardless of how prepared everyone may be, the rollout of any new program can test the nerves of many.

Accountability

There are several methods for accountability. Our Breakfast Accountability Procedures can be customized to fit any implementation model. For BIC accountability, you will typically need to train the teacher or paraprofessional on meal identification and recording of which students have taken a meal.

Roster check-off is the most common method in which weekly rosters are delivered daily with the food, filled out by the classroom staff, picked up with the leftovers, and entered into the Point-of-Sale System (POS) by food service staff. For Grab ‘n Go, some districts have mobile device options for their POS, or many schools simply use their computers and PIN pads wirelessly (or offline and perform an upload later). If the school is Provision 2 or operating under the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP), student numbers are not required. In that case, regardless of the model, a simple student count can be utilized, but some districts retain the use of rosters if the school falls out of eligibility for Provision 2 or CEP.

Trash Collection and Classroom Cleanup

Breakfast eaten in the classroom usually requires custodial cooperation since additional trash is generated outside the cafeteria’s contained venue. By involving the custodial staff in the early planning, you can establish their commitment to the disposal and cleanup process.