By Tarrah Westercamp, RDN, SNS
Throughout the National Peanut Board's Power Up with Peanuts school breakfast toolkit, we incorporated proven strategies from school breakfast champions across the country. A successful school breakfast program starts with utilizing the best operation model for your students. School breakfast meal service models consist of breakfast in the classroom, grab and go, second chance breakfast, and universal breakfast to name a few (looking for more detail on each? Click here.).
Access the Free Toolkit HereMarietta City Schools
Cindy Culver, Director of School Nutrition at Marietta City Schools, has seen the benefits of breakfast after the bell, or second chance breakfast, at the high school level.
“The high school breakfast participation grew by over 100 per day and continues to climb. We continue to serve breakfast as the students arrive but then go around to each classroom during the first block. Students have the time to wake up and they appreciate having the service coming to them.” -Cindy Culver
Cincinnati Public Schools
Cincinnati Public Schools has seen high school level breakfast participation increase to 60% by engaging students in a fun competition. Cincinnati Public Schools used a No Kid Hungry grant innovatively to encourage students to become involved in school breakfast. Student groups, like the Student Council, were tasked with marketing school breakfast monthly, and the group that had the highest month-over-month participation received money to use toward their group’s goals. The focus of increasing participation was identifying volunteers, principals, students, and any stakeholder’s thoughts on how to reach every student - not excluding anyone. Involving multiple stakeholders in your school breakfast program brings the school environment together to create the best program for students (interested in identifying your stakeholders? Click here for ideas.).
"Breakfast is a great way to reinvent and invest to grow your overall department. Don’t give up on it, and get creative to identify how breakfast can be marketed to reach everyone.” -Jessica Shelley
Once the proper stakeholders and breakfast meal operation has been identified, now it is time to build the menu (or recipes!). There are many options to include, like smoothies or breakfast sandwiches. Our school breakfast champions developed and tested some of our new favorites.
New York City Public Schools
Nicole Bonica, MS, RDN, CDN, and New York City Public Schools school nutrition team’s recipe development process involves compliance and student preference. During recipe ideation, students are able to try the various recipe versions for the school nutrition team to identify the one that students love. Recipes are formatted according to the department’s standardized recipe format. Then, recipes are shared citywide with field-based staff including School Food Service Managers and Cooks. Additionally, Menu Management organizes a citywide meeting before new recipes are featured on the menus, allowing everyone to get a first taste and provide feedback.Through this recipe development process, the Apple Peanut Butter Rollup was created.
Richland-Bean Blossom School Corporation
Richland-Bean Blossom School Corporation, an HMI Grantee, is working toward meeting the USDA Final Rule by reducing added sugars and sodium on their breakfast menus. The staff taste-tested the Peanut Butter Overnight Oats in the secondary schools.
“I love them. Definitely a top 3 breakfast recipe.” -High School Student from Richland-Bean Blossom School Corporation
Alexandria City Public Schools
Jason Tepper, Executive Chef at Alexandria City Public Schools in Virginia, created a tasty on-the-go option called Peanut Greek Yogurt Popsicles. Chef Jason focuses on global cuisine, promoting, planet-forward food, which these popsicles are a perfect vegetarian-friendly option.
“The staff are loving this, and so are our students!” -Chef Jason Tepper
DeSoto County School District
Alex Hallmark, Child Nutrition Director for the DeSoto County School District, and team taste tested multiple peanut-powered recipes to add to their school breakfast menu. One of the favorites is the build your own bagel concept. The DeSoto school nutrition team put allergy awareness in the forefront of their recipe tasting.
“Incorporating peanut butter into various school breakfast recipes helps us to diversify the menu and meet the USDA nutritional standards. We introduced these recipes with proper labeling and allergy safety protocols.” -Alex Hallmark
Georgia Department of Education
To assist you and your team in navigating recipe development, the toolkit provides best practices for creating powerful school breakfast menus without breaking the bank. Identifying ingredient and tray costs is a helpful way to see how to best utilize product and areas of opportunity. As Chef Rachel Petraglia, Culinary Specialist for the Georgia Department of Education’s School Nutrition Division/Student & Community Engagement, points out, “understanding ingredient cost is so helpful because this can assist with lowering food cost without eliminating an entire recipe or item. For example, if fresh blueberries are expensive, serve them in a fruit mix with other fruits that lower the overall cost.” There are additional small changes that can help budget constraints, such as semi-scratch cooking methods.
“Parfaits can be expensive to achieve the crediting needed. Try switching from purchased granola to house-made granola, where granola can be made in bulk and stored for quick use. This small change can reduce overall costs while maintaining the integrity of the entree.” -Chef Rachel Petraglia
Now we can't wait to see how you power up your school breakfast program with peanuts! For more marketing materials, allergy management processes, recipes, and more - check out our website. The National Peanut Board is dedicated to helping school nutrition professionals create fun, tasty and safe school breakfasts for every student!
Tag us on social @nationalpeanutboard with your Peanut Powered #NSBW25 recipes and celebrations!
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Tarrah Westercamp is the Owner of Westercamp Consulting LLC providing exceptional service for school districts and other organizations working within Child Nutrition Programs at the state and local level. Tarrah is a Registered Dietitian with over a decade of experience in Child Nutrition Programs encompassing USDA regulations, meal pattern requirements, school food service operations, obtaining stakeholder buy-in, and innovative implementation strategies to increase meal access to students.
Tarrah holds a master’s degree in food and nutrition from Ball State University and School Nutrition Specialist credential from School Nutrition Association (SNA). Tarrah is passionate about school nutrition. In her free time, Tarrah enjoys spending time with her husband, John, traveling, cooking, and sipping iced coffee.