So this may be an ignorant question, but I was surprised in the question about what time kids get up in the morning that quite a few responders have their kids eat breakfast at school. Is that a regional thing? I've never heard of breakfast at school...it's maybe done in some of the cities here with high poverty rates as part of a before school program but outside of that, it's not an option. It wasn't when we were kids either. I think in the high school that the kids can go buy a bagel or something quick before class but the cafeteria isn't serving a full on breakfast.
For those where this is the norm...what do they serve? And do your kids actually eat it? Just curious...
Wow - I'm surprised at how wide-spread it is and that it's often free. Our schools barely get lunch set up and served on time, I can't imagine the cafeteria staff revolt that would come if they added a breakfast shift. There is a small city nearby (I'm in a suburb of Boston) where I know that they do the breakfast thing because of high poverty and so many parents needing to get their kids to school very early so that they can work. That city also does serve lunch all summer too because of the risk of some kids not eating at all outside of school.
All of the grade school here offer breakfast. People who use it do so for a variety of reasons.
early morning drop off to the before school care program
Because they are eligible for the free lunch/breakfast program
No time to eat before school
Things offered here are
Egg biscuits
French toast sticks
Waffles
Cereal
Oatmeal
Breakfast pizzas
Bagles
Milk
Juice
Hot chocolate
And in the highschool hot tea and cappuccino
The schools I went to for MS and HS in the east offered breakfast if you go there early. Eggs/muffins/cold cereal with milk. That sort of thing. Where my DD goes to school, breakfast is served as well and in her case, it's offered in the class the first 15 minutes between bells (before school actually starts) for all students. Probably because they are a Title 1 school. It varies, but I've seen whole wheat pancakes, juice, milk, breakfast wraps, and cinnamon rolls. DD eats at home and eats at school if she feels like it. Usually just gets a drink.
the school serves breakfast but you have to pay (unless you apply for low income/free meals). I occasionally drop them off in time for breakfast if I have an early meeting. Breakfast starts at 8am but school starts at 845am. We did not have the option when I was younger.
When I was growing up my school offered breakfast for students who arrived early enough and wanted to have it there.
My daughter's school offers free breakfast to all students. First thing in the morning all students (except pre-k, who are dropped off in their classroom) gather in the cafeteria if they want it, or the gym if they don't. About 10 minutes after all the "big" kids start class, my DD's entire pre-k class goes to breakfast.
They serve different things... Usually more traditional breakfast offerings like oatmeal, scrambled eggs, breakfast meats, breakfast burritos, French toast sticks, fruits, etc.
My DD loves eating breakfast at school with her friends. I think she also oves that she gets more choices... At home, we usually default to oatmeal, cold cereal, or eggs. Lol.
In our district (an urban district with a high poverty rate), they have always offered free breakfast for every child - in fact, I believe they do that statewide, not just in our district. However, this year they received a federal grant in our district to also give every student free lunch. We have approximately 75% of the kids on free or reduced lunch, so the district qualified for this grant and it takes the burden off local taxes. Regardless, my kids hate the school breakfast and lunch and refuse to eat them. I will say, though, that in our area, for some kids, they have no other healthy food during the day. In fact, there are summer programs that continue the free lunch for kids, and snow days are few and far between because they want the kids to get fed - if there's no school, some don't eat. The breakfast in our school consists of cereal, juice, milk and fruit. There are other options like peanut butter and jelly graham sandwiches, too, instead of cereal. The kids MUST take one of each thing for the breakfast to be counted. Many of them pick up all four things and then return one or two items to a table at the end of the line. The school wants them all counted and encourages all students to participate so they don't lose funding.
My freshman in high school is contemplating it. He has to leave the house at 0625 - so he's up between 0545 and 0600 - and he doesn't like eating that early...we're figuring it out.
Our schools serve:
yogurt with fruit
french toast (not every day)
Fruit and/or Fruit Juice
Bagel w/Cream Cheese and Jelly
Banana or Zucchini Bread
Mini Pancakes w/Syrup
Beef Sausage Sandwich
Cereal w/Graham Crackers
Pancake and Turkey Sausage on a Stick
Egg and Cheese Breakfast Sandwich
Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich
We have a great variety of food!!
Yes, they eat it.
Our school has breakfast every morning. It's 1.50
There is a breakfast menu published every month.
They have a very wide variety of entrees--waffles, pancakes, cereal, sausage, bacon, fruit yogurt, rolls, etc.
I can't quite figure it out though because the time from the doors opening to homeroom is about 10 minutes...
For some people it's part of the free "lunch" program. Our schools have a snack recess at 10:00 am (it's called "brunch" at the middle/high school level) and many kids don't eat until then.
Some of us don't like to eat first thing in the morning, especially people like me, prone to car/bus sickness. At snack recess or brunch my kids might eat a bagel, or yogurt or a granola bar, something like that, that they bring from home.
We also have a breakfast program at our schools. This year the district received a grant that all children (regarless of income) receive free breakfast and lunch. My daughter (6) doesn't really like it so I will let her eat breakfast at home because of the lag times between her brother leaving for school and the time she has to be there. But my son, who will eat anything and everything, goes to breakfast for school. And I also make them eat the school lunch unless it's something I know they don't like. Their schools have a pretty healthly lunch menu (thanks to Michelle Obama) so I'm not worried about what their eating.
All the schools around here serve breakfast. I've never sent my kids to school with the intention of buying, but last year discovered that my son was frequenting the cafeteria several times a week because they had so much time after the bus dropped them off, lol. We had a good talk about that.
This year I might actually have the kids eat at school a day or two a week. They have cross country practice at 6:15 till 7:15 and school starts at 7:45 - so it might be easier for them to buy some days. It's a new school and breakfast options are pretty limited; yogurt & granola, bagel & cream cheese, oatmeal, etc.
Our district does a full breakfast, which is available to all students. Cereal, eggs, bacon, sausage, toast, pastries, bagels, muffins, fruit, biscuits, French toast, pancakes...and yes, the kids eat it and love it. To me, it's totally worth the $1.25 spent.
Our schools have breakfast the ones in our neighborhood have very few poverty students, but breakfast is pretty popular.
Our daughter is not a breakfast eater, especially so early in the morning so she used to try to eat or drink something on the way to school. I know some parents had to drop their children off super early, so the breakfast came in handy.
Some parents found it easier to not have to deal with breakfast at home.
They have a variety. Cold cereal was always available with fresh fruit.
Scrambled eggs, french toast, pancakes, Sausage and biscuits, Breakfast tacos, juice and milk.
Here is a link to the Austin Independent lunch and Breakfast menus.
http://www.austinisd.org/nutritionfoodservices/menu-
information?level=elementary&language=English
The district we are in offers free breakfast to all students (regardless of income) and all students in our area take the bus (we live in a very rural area) or get dropped off. My kids take the bus and have about 30 minutes before school starts so they have breakfast then go outside and play until the bell rings. It's pretty standard protocol at our school, the majority of students take the bus and have breakfast at school.
There is a menu sent home so occasionally my youngest will choose to grab something to eat on the way to the bus stop.
I can't remember many of the bfast items but some are:
bfast sandwiches (egg, sausage, muffin)
pancakes, sausage
oatmeal and fruit
waffles
french toast sticks
yogurt parfaits
cereal and fruit are always available if they don't want the hot bfast.
my kids school does have breakfast at school but you have to be there early and it's not free. It's cheap though. Maybe $2 or so. But my kids eat breakfast at home. I can not even take a shower with out eating breakfast first. If I don't then I feel weak and grouchy and I just NEED to eat first thing after I wake up. I can't imagine making my kids wait an hour or so to eat in the morning
It's part of a national program. In lower income areas, it is free to all students; in areas not so low in income, it is paid for by the student (family) - just like the lunch program. The schools that have the program really encourage you to take advantage of the program because if not enough kids eat breakfast, they will stop the program. They have to have so many kids participating to receive funds.
I don't know what they serve - my kids sometimes have breakfast at school but I gave up looking at the menus long ago. They look at the menu and decide where they want to eat.
My kids don't have a breakfast program at school, but there are a couple of schools in the division that do. This is a government program that provides free breakfast to schools in lower income neighbourhoods. Our schools don't have cafeterias, so the breakfast program serves things like cereal, toast, fruit and yogurt. In some of the lower income areas there were too many kids who couldn't concentrate because they were hungry so they started these programs.
My daughter's school started doing free breakfast for all students a few years ago (before that, it was available but wasn't free for all). I have her eat breakfast at school because it makes our mornings easier...she's slow getting up, off task getting ready, slow and picky eater and I have to get to work so I can't have her missing the bus. She's less picky for them then she is for me...and it's free....win win!
I was surprised by the breakfast thing too! Our school has it. We're in a poor, rural, white area. Its super unhealthy at our school. Today was cinnamon bun (fully synthetic gas station kind, not real baked or anything). Tomorrow it's a pop tart. Lunch is equally unhealthy. I keep the kids home for breakfast. It's cheap and free to needy kids, but it's so icky. One thing though, my kids keep missing bus and then I drive them to school (1 mile) because they take so long eating all groggy. Sometimes I'm tempted to just throw them on the bus and let them eat breakfast at school. But nah, too unhealthy.
Personally, I think it's unnecessary in our particular town. Most of the kids would not starve without the tiny unhealthy breakfast they serve. And the people who qualify also have govt. assistance so they could get the same pop tarts and cinnamon rolls for home too...but at least the kids don't have totally empty stomachs if their parents are to negligent to hand them a terrible snack in the morning.
My daughter eats breakfast at daycare before school. I drop the kids off at 7:15, she eats breakfast (he's an infant), then they take her to school. It works out for both of us, because I'm not a breakfast eater myself.
Since it's proven that children who eat breakfast do better in school. Our school district has a large population that qualifies for free or reduced lunch. Unfortunately, the bottom line is that there is a huge amount of parents who just do not care and do not provide, including preparing or just keeping food in the house, breakfast. So now the school offers it. Not sure of all the options, but cereal, bagels and cream cheese, fresh fruit, milk are offered. What's ridiculous is that you can feed your child for less at home than the reduced price.
And NO, my kids never ate breakfast at school. They never at school cafeteria food.
Well, I discovered recently that my children are having second breakfast at school. We live just around the corner from the school, and my children do not leave home until 8.45 am - after they have had their breakfast at home. A 'breakfast club' operates at the school for four days per week. It was set up for children who through neglect/poverty etc did not have breakfast at home. No child is turned away. Turns out my three amigos were helping themselves to the toast and fruit that's on offer at the school before heading into class. They had no idea it was for kids whose parents couldn't provide them with breakfast - they just thought it was a great bonus at school! Now the kids can volunteer with the breakfasts and get paid in extra toast.
We live near San Francisco. It is an option here.
Our kids do not eat breakfast at school. They eat breakfast at home and bring a lunch from home.
The breakfast served at school is a full on hot breakfast with options. I believe it is offered because there are so many before school day care kids and also a small low income population.
Our school serves free breakfast, regardless of income. My kids prefer to eat at home--they're really picky.
The kids I know who eat at school all get it for free because their families generally do not have a lot of money.
Breakfast is not offered in my district, though we do offer a free and reduced lunch program for families that need it.
Breakfast in schools has been around since I was a child and I'm 30 now. I always ate at home but I remember a lot of kids ate breakfast at school.
Breakfast is offered at my daughter's school (in Iowa) and at my nieces' schools in PA. At one niece's school it is free to all children because of the number of low income students.
At my daughter's school they always offer whole grain cereals, whole grain toast, assorted fresh fruits, 100% fruit juices, 1% milk. Then they offer a different choice each day. This week is ham and egg sandwich, french toast sticks, yogurt with muffin, bagels, and breakfast pizza.
Some days she eats at school and some days at home. She gets dropped off by my husband on his way to work so she is there with plenty of time in the morning and finds she would rather eat at school since she has about 25 minutes to fill before she needs to be in class. Like with lunch, my daughter looks at the menu and decides if she wants to buy breakfast/lunch or eat at home/pack.
our elementary school did have breakfast, but we never used it. much as i've always been averse to early rising, i liked to have that time with my boys in the morning. i didn't give them a hot breakfast or anything, but cereal and a breakfast story were part of our routine while they were still in school.
khairete
S.
Both the daycare and elementary school my kids attend serve breakfast. I need to be at work by 7:45 so I often drop them off and have them eat breakfast at either their daycare or school. It is more of a convenience thing and has nothing to do with money although I know it is offered at a reduced rate for families that qualify- which is a great option to have...the meals that I have seen are REALLY good and healthy, always served with fresh fruit. I've also found that my kids are now less picky.
Yes, the school does serve small breakfasts. My children have to get up early so I always feed them some cereal before we leave. They go to a before care program that has cereal if they choose. Breakfast at school is provided to all of the kids for no charge. Sometime my kids eat it and sometimes they don't. It is usually easy fix stuff like waffles, French toast sticks etc.. Either way, there is no way that a child should ever go to their first class hungry.
Every school is supposed to offer breakfast as part of their nutrition program. Unless they are a private school I think they are supposed to offer breakfast.
I don't know of any schools in my state, other than private, that don't serve both breakfast and lunch.
It's also part of the reduced/free lunch program. To have that program in their school they have to offer both meals.
I think it's across the board federally. Maybe I'm wrong but I thought it was something that most schools do.
My kids eat breakfast at home, but all the schools in the district serve breakfast. If you get free/reduced lunch you also get free/reduced breakfast.
I do not remember if there was breakfast at my schools when I was a kid; we ate at home. I checked the website for my hometown school and they serve breakfast. They are running a trial program this year where breakfast is free to all students. The info also said that they are eliminating the morning milk/snack time.
A teacher friend in Milwaukee said that a few of the schools there went to free lunch for All recently.
We are not in the lower class, but a lot of people in our area are. Our school offers free breakfast for elementary AND middle, I just found that out this week since my daughter just started middle.
My kids have the option to eat at home or school, but so many do not have that option. All of the schools in our district offer breakfast, but only a handful of the schools provide it for free to everyone.
