Toms River Schools Make Breakfast Easy For High School Students

TOMS RIVER, NJ — Grabbing breakfast is often the last thing on a teenager's mind on a school day. So the Toms River Regional School District is trying to make it easier — and more likely — for high school students to eat breakfast with its Mobile Breakfast Academy.

The Mobile Breakfast Academy brings breakfast to students where they’re at it-- coming in from the bus or parking lot, the district said in a news release. The program, funded through a $4,000 grant from Sustainable Jersey for Schools, aims to encourage more students to eat breakfast.

"Our department has been hoping to enact a program like this for some time," said Pete Brattan, the district's Food Services director. "This grant provided us the perfect opportunity. Being able to bring breakfast directly to students rather than hoping they make it to the cafeteria is going to result in higher breakfast participation, and that means more well-fed, alert, and successful students.”

The "academy" theme of the mobile breakfast program is a nod to the district’s implementation of three Career Academies at its three high schools at the start of the school year, and the accessible grab-and-go option is intended to mirror the pace and culture of the professional world, the district said.

The high schools also have notably early start times-- 7:15 a.m.-- and it’s not unusual for students to lament not having enough time for breakfast at home or at school before classes begin. In addition to providing a healthy meal, Mobile Breakfast Academy hopes to be the start of a “breakfast after the bell” initiative through which students will be allowed to eat breakfast during first-period classes, "fostering a type of higher education environment and a culture of individual responsibility," the district said.

When it comes down to it, what we’re really trying to do with Mobile Breakfast Academy is to eliminate any obstacle that might prevent a student from having breakfast," Brattan said. "Whether that be time, distance, lack of convenience … whatever. We want to ensure every student has full and easy access to a complete breakfast."

With the grant funding, the Food Services Department plans to purchase additional mobile carts to fully implement the program at all high schools by early 2018. High School North has hosted a soft rollout since early fall, and the program premiered at High School South Dec. 11. Food Services plans to fully initiate the program at High School East and add a second mobile cart at HSN by mid-January, the district said.

The Sustainable Jersey for Schools grant award was part of its 2017 Health and Wellness Cycle, which is funded by the New Jersey Department of Health and its regional partners. The district’s partner in this program is EmPoWER Somerset, an organization that encourages prevention with education and resources.

The Health and Wellness Cycle grant marked the second Sustainable Jersey funding award the district earned in 2017. In early spring, through Toms River Township and its Green Team, Toms River Regional Schools earned a $20,000 grant to revamp its Poseidon Academy downtown. The district currently has six schools registered with Sustainable NJ, five of which have pending grant applications for Sustainable NJ’s most recent grant cycle.

High School South students and Food Service reps gather by the Grab and Go breakfast cart that promotes the school’s Mobile Breakfast Academy. Photo by Toms River Regional School District