Cafeteria

• Breakfast provides a steady energy supply and many important nutrients to keep your body going until lunchtime.

• Eating breakfast makes you feel more alert and function better to meet daily tasks.

• Food consumed in the morning prevents you from feeling hungry.

• School performance, behavior, and cognitive development are improved when a nutritious breakfast is consumed daily.

• Nutrients missed when breakfast is skipped are rarely made up during the day.

• Breakfast helps prevent over-eating later in the day.

• Some parents leave for work early and don’t have time to make breakfast.

• Some students may not be hungry when they first get up.

• Students may have to travel long distances and are hungry when they arrive at school.

• Students may eat better with friends at school.

In addition to traditional breakfast foods, school breakfast menus may include other items such as peanut butter toast, breakfast pizza, soft granola bars, various bran, fruit, and nut muffins, and pancakes-on-a-stick. 

The price paid for breakfast at school is less than half what you would pay at a fast food restaurant. Federal funds help keep the sale price low to students who pay. The volume of meals produced at school also keeps the cost low. Students who are eligible for free or reduced price lunches are also eligible for breakfasts.

Your school principal or cafeteria manager is an excellent resource. You may contact you school cafeteria manager for more information on breakfast. Each school nutrition program also has a district-level director.