by Fatima Jawaid

Adequate nutrition is essential to each child’s development as it can impact every aspect of their life. Each meal or lack thereof – can have physical, emotional, and cognitive impacts on kids. A skipped or partial breakfast may lead a child to feel frazzled and anxious during an exam or become disruptive in class halfway through the day. These small every day challenges can lead to bigger behavioral or educational outcomes over time – as we know this child may fall behind in class and could ultimately impact their graduation outcomes  due to a lack of essential nutrition and energy during their educational journey in school.

During the month of November, we want to highlight the importance of breakfast as a powerful anti-hunger tool. The fourth annual November School Breakfast Challenge kicked off Thursday, November 1st! Almost fifty schools–representing 23 school districts and 15 counties across the state–will be participating in the effort to boost student participation in breakfast and help schools achieve great results through school nutrition.

Please join us and celebrate these schools that are working hard to boost their breakfast participation! Each participating school is working on different strategies such as: getting the word out about breakfast both at school and in the community, trying out new menu items, and adopting new models to serve breakfast to their students. Each participating schools will receive resources, support, engagement toolkits, and will receive shout outs across the state. The goal is to have the greatest increase in participation comparatively to November 2017. Cash prizes for four winning schools include: $2,000, $1,500, $1,000 and $500.  

As a reminder, here are wonderful things that schools were able to accomplish in last years’ November School Breakfast Challenge: In 2017, participating schools achieved big results: 10,775 kids ate breakfast each day in November a 14 percent increase from 2016. Sixty-three percent of participating schools boosted their breakfast numbers – that’s over 1,300 more kids connected. Let’s aim for for another great year!

The November School Breakfast Challenge is a collaborative effort by the Let’s Do Breakfast, Oregon! Campaign, Partners for a Hunger-Free Oregon, Oregon Dairy and Nutrition Council, and Oregon Department of Education Child Nutrition Programs.