Cincinnati Public Schools Recognized As An All-Star Breakfast Champion

Press release from Cincinnati Public Schools:

September 25, 2020

Cincinnati Public Schools (CPS) was recognized as an All-Star Breakfast Champion for their innovative and collaborative school breakfast practices, including their commitment to increasing school breakfast participation and empowering students to make healthy choices.

CPS focused on making sure secondary building students had access to a healthy, delicious and nutritious breakfast each morning. The Student Dining Services Department applied for and received grant funding from No Kid Hungry to purchase kiosks and marketing materials placed at strategic locations as students entered the building. This strategy of offering breakfast in multiple location and various times proved to be a success, and in six months, breakfast participation at secondary schools nearly doubled from 20 to 37 percent.

An additional 40 CPS schools were presented Breakfast Challenge All-Stars school-based awards for their strong breakfast participation in the 2019–2020 school year. Only 307 Ohio schools were recognized, and CPS led the state in schools winning recognition. Ohio has more than 3,500 public schools.

The Ohio School Breakfast Challenge mission is to increase access and participation in the School Breakfast Program, ensuring Ohio students start each day ready to learn. The Ohio Department of Education, American Dairy Association Mideast, Children’s Hunger Alliance, Ohio Action for Healthy Kids and Ohio School Nutrition Association are proud sponsors of the Ohio School Breakfast Challenge.

Research shows that students who eat breakfast perform better in school, get higher test scores and show better behavior. Students who eat school breakfast have been shown, on average, to attend 1.5 more days of school per year and score 17.5 percent higher on standardized math tests.

More information about the Ohio School Breakfast Challenge.

This press release was produced by Cincinnati Public Schools. The views expressed here are the author’s own.