18th
Souders students filled up free of charge each morning
© Michelle Bollman
Published Summer 2007, Suburban News Publications
It’s been said that breakfast is the most important meal of the day.
That’s why Souders Elementary School students and staff no can have a grab-and-go breakfast each morning, free of charge.
As a requirement to receive its Title I federal grant, the school must start a new breakfast program. In order to receive the Title I grant, a school must have a least 20 percent of students enrolled in the free or reduced-price lunch program; Souders Elementary has 24 percent enrollment in the program. The grant requirements state that the new breakfast program must be developed and launched by the beginning of the 2007-08 school year.
The school started offering breakfast May 14 in an effort to get students used to picking up breakfast before they walk to their classrooms. The program will continue for the rest of the current school year and into next school year as required.
All Souders students and staff are invited to pick up juice, milk and various healthful breakfast snacks as they walk to their classrooms each day. On the first day of the program last week, students were served healthful mini cinnamon rolls.
Two long tables have been set up in the entry hallway, designed to make the morning meal easy and quick for everyone. The breakfast foods are on a 10-day cycle so students won’t have to eat the same breakfast each day.
Although the school was required to implement the program, all cost of the program are being paid back to the school through the Title I grant; therefore the program comes to the school at virtually no cost.
“All of the kids said the breakfast was good,” said Lisa Grunewald, Big Walnut school board member. “The best thing is that they don’t really know that it’s all nutritious for them.”
Students who eat breakfast are able to focus during class time and be more successful and productive during the morning hours, Grunewald said.
“Many of the teachers said that the classroom during the students’ morning deskwork time was very quiet because of the breakfast they were eating,” she said.
District Superintendent April Domine said she was pleased with the program
“The grab-and-go system is a very efficient model that worked for the students,” she said.
The program has helped students and staff realize the importance of breakfast and what a difference it can make for the elementary school students, Domine said.
