Another Breakfast Benefit: Healthy Weight!

According to a recent study, teenagers who eat breakfast regularly tend to weigh less than those who skip the meal. The researchers theorized that breakfast helped teens control their appetite better throughout the day and kept them from binge eating at lunch and dinner. The study of more than 2,000 adolescents in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area found that those who skipped breakfast weighed as much as 5 pounds more on average than the teens who ate breakfast on a regular basis. Study author Mark Pereira of the University of Minnesota also noted that the kids who ate breakfast every day are "much more physically active…have lower fat intake, lower cholesterol intake, higher fiber intake."

Approximately 25 percent of US children regularly skip breakfast, so let’s do our part to help by consistently promoting school breakfast to your students.

Timlin MT, Pereira MA, Story M, Neumark-Sztainer D. Breakfast Eating and Weight Change in a 5-Year Prospective Analysis of Adolescents: Project EAT (Eating Among Teens). Pediatrics. 2008;121:638-645

Here Comes the Sun

Below are several articles about the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP), a federal nutrition program that provides free meals to children 18 years and under in eligible communities

Calling All SFSP Sponsors

Help us identify more kids who could benefit from free summer meals!

As you know, many students in your district rely on free or reduced priced school meals during the academic year. These children may experience hunger and malnutrition if their families cannot absorb the additional meal costs during the summer. Communities that are eligible to participate in the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) can provide free meals to children 18 years and under during the months that school is out of session. Despite the benefits of the SFSP, it is still an underutilized program.

Though many summer meal sites are located at schools, there may be programs that operate in your schools during the summer that are still unaware of the SFSP. Whether you sponsor, vend, or promote the SFSP in your community, you can increase summer meal participation by identifying these school programs and connecting them with either the SFSP sponsor in your community or the MA Department of Elementary & Secondary Education’s Child Nutrition Outreach Program to determine program eligibility.

To help you identify potential school programs we have created a sample letter and form for you to distribute to all school administrators and staff including principals, teachers, nurses, secretaries, guidance counselors, coaches, custodians, etc. Put the letter and form in staff mailboxes, ask the principal to distribute them at staff meetings, and/or make a morning announcement to notify staff that all summer programs should be reported to the school principal.

The Department of Elementary & Secondary Education’s Child Nutrition Outreach Program at Project Bread is available to assist you in your efforts to increase participation in the Summer Food Service Program. Please direct all questions about the SFSP to us 617-723-5000 or email cnop@projectbread.org. Our staff can provide technical assistance as well as provide free promotional materials.

Promoting the Summer Food Service Program

Lack of awareness is one of the greatest barriers to a successful SFSP, so you need to promote your program as much as possible! Every year, CNOP produces free SFSP promotional materials and offers them to sponsors as well as organizations such as churches, schools, libraries, and food pantries across the state. You will notice that all of the materials have a consistent look and feel, similar to the national USDA materials. This is important to ensure that people recognize the program when they see these items in various places. Look out for our mailing in early May which will include an order form for these materials. You can also order directly from our website. Below is a list of our offerings.

• Tear-off Pads (English/Spanish and English/Portuguese)
• Door Hangers (English/Spanish)
• Posters (English/Spanish)
• Multilingual Flyer (Black &White; English/Spanish/Portuguese/Haitian-Creole/Russian/Chinese/Vietnamese)
• Site list Flyer (English/Spanish/Portuguese/Haitian Creole and English/Russian/Chinese/Vietnamese) These Black & White flyers will be available in mid-July and are customized to your community.

NEW THIS SUMMER:

• Informational Brochures (English/Spanish) These brochures describe the SFSP and its many benefits.
• Newspaper Ads Templates (5" x 8.5" and 3" x 3.75") These can be downloaded from our website. Customize them with your community information and submit them for publication in your local newspapers.
• Cable PSA Templates (English, Spanish, and Portuguese) These can be downloaded from our website. Customize them with your community information and submit them to your local cable tv stations.

May/June 2008

Menu Bytes: Bite size bits for your school menus

Use this month's tidbit to promote breakfast during MCAS:

Part of preparing for the MCAS testing this spring is making sure that your child eats a healthy breakfast every morning. Research ha s shown that participation in the School Breakfast Program is correlated with higher MCAS results for both Math and English in schools where 60-79% of students are eligible for free or reduced price meals. So why not encourage your child to participate in school breakfast every morning to ensure he or she has all the tools needed for academic success.

It’s Always Time to Collect School Meals Applications

School districts do a really great job soliciting School Meal Applications at the beginning of the school year, but it’s important to remind families that they can still apply for free and reduced price meals throughout the year. This can be especially important if their household income or family size has changed, if they are new to the district, or if they didn’t submit an application earlier in the year.

Obtaining updated School Meals Applications from your students not only gives those students the opportunity to get free or reduced priced meals until the end of the school year, but it can also provide increased resources for your schools and community! The School Meals Applications are used to gather demographic data about the school district and can determine eligibility for state, federal, and Title 1 funding. It can also determine area eligibility for the Summer Food Service Program when 50% or more of a school’s students are eligible for free or reduced priced meals. Since summer is just around the corner, it’s crunch time!

The best way to solicit School Meal Applications throughout the year is to remind families that they can re-apply. Encourage principals, teachers, and school nurses to join you in the promotion of the School Meal Applications so you can spread the word more effectively. parent newsletters, flyers, and phone blasts are great ways to help you get out the message. We have also created a wide variety of School Meals Application promotional materials for you to download.

Summer Meals Just Got “Better”

Last summer, five communities participated in Project Bread’s Better Summer Meals Initiative to improve the nutritional content of the meals they serve through the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP). Participants included SFSP sponsors and vendors in Barnstable, Fitchburg, Gloucester, Greenfield, and Worcester. The guidelines created by Project Bread are above and beyond the current USDA guidelines for the SFSP and emphasize whole grains, fresh produce, and low fat dairy. Meals that are both high in fiber and low in sugar and saturated fat are also encouraged.

In order to evaluate the initiative, CNOP distributed surveys to all SFSP sponsors participating in the Better Meals Initiative for distribution to site participants and site supervisors. By and large, the surveys showed that the children liked the “better” meals as much as the meals served last summer. Sixty-six percent of the kids rated the meals as “very good” or “good”, the two highest ratings on a 5-point scale. The amount of waste was the same, if not better, than last year and 63% of the participants threw “none” or “not much of their meal” away. Because one of the guidelines required sponsors to serve fresh fruit and vegetables everyday, many of the children were exposed to foods they had never tasted before. In response to a question about healthy items they would like to see on their menus in the future, fresh fruit including strawberries, cantaloupes, grapes, and watermelon was suggested 86% of the time.

If you are interested the Better Summer Meals Initiative, or if you would like to serve healthier meals this summer, please contact CNOP at cnop@projectbread.org or 617-723-5000 for further information.