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School breakfast programs exist in all 15 schools in the Harrisburg City School District. School Food Service Director David Lloyd has worked in the field for 25 years and was with the school district for the start of each breakfast program. David believes the breakfast programs help students start the day in the right frame of mind: they are calm, attentive, and ready to learn.
As an attempt to improve participation in the breakfast program, David switched from the traditional cafeteria breakfast to “Breakfast in the Classroom” in six elementary schools. Anticipating that teachers might perceive that “Breakfast in the Classroom” would reduce instructional time, David met with the teachers in each school before the transition took place to discuss their concerns. Once the new format was in operation the teachers realized the benefits of improved breakfast participation: their students were calmer, visits to the nurses’ offices declined, and fewer children were being referred to the principals because of discipline problems. The change to “Breakfast in the Classroom” resulted in increases in participation of approximately 60%.
Based on its success in the first six elementary schools, David plans to gradually switch the other five elementary school programs to “Breakfast in the Classroom.” He would also like to try alternative delivery methods in the secondary schools. He knows the students at his middle school want “Grab ‘N Go” service because they petitioned him to continue it after it was piloted during PSSA testing week! (Breakfast participation jumped from 7-8% to 80-90% during the Grab ‘N Go trial!) David plans to pursue the idea of a permanent “Grab ‘n Go” breakfast program with the middle school principal and expects to work with the secondary principals to determine which alternative method each of them would like to try in their respective schools.
David is also trying to add more variety to the “Breakfast in the Classroom” programs by pilot-testing “Hot Breakfast in the Classroom” in two participating schools. In spite of its success, he is still taking several issues into consideration before fully launching his next program!
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