FRANKFORT, Ky. — It’s National School Breakfast Week and schools around Kentucky have been highlighting how eating a nutritious breakfast helps students fuel up for success in the classroom and beyond. The Kentucky School Breakfast Champion Challenge is also celebrating the school leaders who work tirelessly to ensure students start each and every day with a healthy meal.
Kentucky schools are performing exceedingly well when it comes to making sure every child is served the most important meal of the day. According to the Food and Research Center’s February 2020 School Breakfast Report, Kentucky ranks fifth in the nation when it comes to serving school breakfast.
A key to this success is school staff and administrators that are willing to get creative to feed more kids each day. The Kentucky School Breakfast Champions Challenge is a collaborative effort between the No Kid Hungry Kentucky campaign and The Dairy Alliance that celebrates and highlights leaders across the Commonwealth who go above and beyond to make breakfast happen for Kentucky kids.
“Anyone can be a school breakfast champion, because it takes collaboration and teamwork to see school breakfast numbers increase,” said Alan Curtsinger, Manager of Youth Wellness for the Dairy Alliance. “Food service staff are key to implementing innovations in school breakfast, but strong partnership with school leadership and staff are essential to ensuring more children are fed.”
This year, thirty School Breakfast Champions were chosen to be in the Class of 2020, a group of inspiring food service directors, cafeteria managers, principals, and teachers that understand the importance of breakfast. The Class of 2020 was nominated by their peers and each will receive a prize pack and other recognition.
From the Class of 2020, three Breakfast Champions received additional prizes. Jackie Graves, the cafeteria manager at Graves County Middle School, was awarded the School Leadership prize. Graves has worked hard to find innovative ways to feed students and now serves breakfast in the classroom. Said Graves, “Our goal is to feed every child in the school. I was totally blown away the first year when we went from 95 to 500 kids eating breakfast.”
Dalla Emerson, the Rising Star Champion and Food Service Director at Bowling Green Independent Schools, has a similar outlook when it comes to feeding as many students as possible. Emerson was instrumental in starting Grab N’ Go Breakfast carts at Bowling Green Junior High School and has increased their breakfast participation from 33% to 81% students. When asked why school breakfast is important, Emerson said, “It is important to erase the stigma of school breakfast. Some of students are dealing with things no kid should ever have to deal with. We are there to support them, nourish them, and help them grow and become strong leaders.”
Nourishing students is a top priority for Food Service Director of Madison County Schools Scott Anderson. “One out of six students don’t know when they will eat next,” said Anderson. “I don’t want any student in Madison County to go hungry while I am the food service director. When a child gets up and has nothing to eat, they can’t study or listen to the teacher. If I can feed them and they get better grades, maybe they will go to college and that will improve their lives, as well as the city of Richmond. Breakfast is the most important meal they will eat.” Anderson was named the Statewide Breakfast Champion this year.
Learn more at kyschoolbreakfastchallenge.
— Feeding Kentucky
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