Why Eat School Meals?

• Helps make family food budgets go further
• Healthy meals – from breakfast to lunch
• Proven to help children achieve in school

When children are hungry, they cannot concentrate on a reading assignment or solve a math problem. A good breakfast keeps kids healthy and helps students focus in class, score higher on standardized tests and avoid trips to the school nurse.

Importance of Breakfast

Breakfast has long been identified as the most important meal of the day, because it helps fuel both the body and mind. Eating a healthy breakfast helps jumpstart metabolism and provide energy. The school breakfast program has been shown to increase children’s scores on the Health Eating Index, improve the quality of children’s diet and intake of essential nutrients and reduce childhood obesity. Children who get a balanced breakfast:

• Have better concentration
• Are more alert and ready to learn
• Remember more of what you learn
• Participate in class
• Have higher standardized test scores
• Make healthier food choices throughout the day
• Have healthier body weights