There are plenty of ways you can recognize the importance of breakfast in your cafeteria! Every year, schools across the country get creative by serving special menu items, holding events, and encouraging fun activities, all to bring attention to their school breakfast programs and educate parents about the options that are available.

Here are a few breakfast-tastic ideas to get you started:

  • Decorate your cafeteria with NSBW posters and related artwork. If the school principal allows, consider creating a mural or hanging up permanent artwork for year-round display. Focus on designs that promote nutritious food choices, particularly breakfast foods.
  • Contact a local celebrity, such as an athlete, news anchor, musician, business owner or elected official to come have breakfast with students one morning. If you can’t find a local celebrity, consider having the school mascot or a volunteer dressed up as a popular character from a movie or TV show.
  • Invite teachers, administrators or even your school principal to stand in as guest servers for breakfast one morning.
  • Offer a tasting of new breakfast menu items and talk to students about the nutritive benefits they get from certain foods, such as strong bones from the calcium in milk or energy from the complex carbs in oatmeal.

Making NSBW a fun-filled occasion at your school will get students excited about your breakfast program and increase participation. Some students might be missing out simply because they (or their parents) don’t realize school breakfast is an option!

Is it any wonder this tradition has been going strong with schools across the country since 1989? If your school hasn’t participated before, let this be the year you start!