District & Community Support:

Whether introducing breakfast, expanding as a traditional cafeteria model, or implementing an alternative breakfast model, engaging the school community and building stakeholder awareness is essential. Stakeholders can include the superintendent, school board, school site administration, teachers, support staff, parents, and students. Educating these stakeholders on the need for and benefits of offering breakfast is critical to success. Depending on the breakfast model, you’ll find a variable level of confidence and support from the stakeholders in your district.

Out of all the various breakfast models, after-the-bell breakfast eaten in the classroom (whether delivered or “Grab ‘n Go”) is typically the most challenging to implement. To best prepare a proposal, we encourage you to:

• Assess the school sites
• Analyze your school data and fiscal opportunities
• Research and choose a specific operational model
• Present the opportunity as a well-developed extension plan (including the benefits of a healthy breakfast)

Establish support with your supervisor for the project, and then identify which stakeholder support is needed. Engaging key district administrators and principals from the beginning will help your breakfast expansion flourish. Educating superintendents, principals, other staff, and administrators about the academic, health, and financial benefits of breakfast in the district is essential.

Plan to expand to Breakfast in the Classroom (BIC). Your administrators can help the program’s sustainability by ensuring BIC time counts as instructional time (see instructional time fact sheet from FRAC). Breakfast in the classroom typically takes approximately ten minutes and works well with the first-period routines of taking attendance, making announcements, and turning in homework.

Parents and students also play a crucial role in your success. Surveys, presentations at PTO meetings, and focus groups can effectively respond to concerns, educate the community, and receive ideas to solidify support for your program rollout.

Once you have engaged the key players, you may need to revise or adjust your initial plan based on feedback. Flexibility and cooperation are paramount when implementing alternative breakfast.

Increasing Program Participation

Marketing Your Breakfast Expansion

More than any other meal, breakfast requires real engagement with the school community, particularly for Alternative Breakfast models served after the bell. Some districts create breakfast expansion teams of key stakeholders who support marketing the breakfast program. Efforts often include branding the district’s program and pushing the message out through the districts’ various channels. These channels include: