School Breakfast Week

I was real skinny in high school. I was real fast and explosive. I just didn’t really have a good nutrition plan; I didn’t understand how important it was to be healthy. I was eating hot fries, potato chips in the morning, Capri Sun. That was like my breakfast. That changed when I got to college – I put on 20 pounds of muscle.

Antonio Brown

Nutrition in public schools has been an ongoing conversation since the beginning and in most recent times, finding a proper diet in schools that have low funding can be a difficult task to accomplish.

School Breakfast Week is a holiday that helps change that tune by bringing the conversation about children’s health to the table.

History of School Breakfast Week

School Breakfast Week began in 1989 when the School Nutrition Association launched the holiday nationwide to help promote the importance of healthy breakfast choices through getting parents and students involved.

The SNA began in 1932 when during the Great Depression, stockpiles of food were being stockpiled to schools in need. When National School Lunch Act was launched by President Harry Truman a few years later, this began a streamline of events, conventions, and organizations working together to create the School Nutrition Association, establishing it was first headquarters in 1955.

Monumentally, the beginnings of the holiday stemmed from federal cuts to children’s nutrition programs that were made in 1981. This event sparked the holiday as a way of encouraging parents to learn about their schools’ nutrition programs and what schools are doing to keep their students healthy.

However, much of the issues faced by those advocating for children’s nutrition slowly dissipated after President Barack Obama signed the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act in 2010. Today, the SNA has been encouraging healthier food in schools through its National School Lunch Program and has been a successful source of funding for schools.

School Breakfast Week encourages parents to advocate for their children’s health and encourages schools to do the same by reforming their meal plans and helping students make better eating choices each day.

How to Celebrate School Breakfast Week

Are you looking for great ways to celebrate School Breakfast Week? Start by advertising the holiday in your local schools by requesting SNA logos and artwork through the organization’s main website. Begin a campaign by working with your school’s social workers, and teachers plan a week of educational fun for parents and their students.

If you’re a member of your local school board, request a meeting with your cafeteria faculty about initiating a better food plan for each year.

Nevertheless, no matter how involved you are with your community, you can easily participate by using the hashtag #SchoolBreakfastWeek and tell people about this holiday through your favorite social media websites.