Breakfast Club
Mission
The mission of the Breakfast Club is to ensure equitable access to good, healthy food in Virginia school breakfast programs.
Overview
The Breakfast Club is a collaboration of nutrition and equity professionals from multiple Virginia sectors including non-profit organizations, government agencies, and school nutrition directors from across the state. The shared goal is to promote recommendations and best practices to improve the nutritional quality of school breakfast. The Breakfast Club was initiated in 2019 as a subgroup of the No Kid Hungry Virginia Breakfast Stakeholders. The collaboration has developed into quarterly meetings to build partnerships, promote breakfast celebrations, and advocate for best practices
The group focuses on relieving the barrier of hunger for students to focus on learning. Each Breakfast Club meeting works towards the Virginia Department of Education’s goal to achieve 70 percent average daily school breakfast participation among free and reduced students compared to school lunch participation. The Breakfast Club's best practices address: removing barriers to breakfast access, increasing consumption of high quality protein foods, reducing consumption of sugar, and increasing participation by providing new, innovative menu items.
Internal Resources
External Resources
- School Nutrition Association’s National School Breakfast Week Information
- USDA’s School Breakfast Program Overview and Fact Sheets
- USDA’s School Breakfast Materials for Nutrition Professionals, Families, and Teachers
- No Kid Hungry Implementing Breakfast After the Bell
- Institute of Child Nutrition’s Recipe Box
Contact Information
For more information on the Breakfast Club and how to get involved, contact the VDOE Wellness Policy Specialist, Laura Burns, via email at Laura.Burns@doe.virginia.gov.