Start the Day Right: A guide to healthy and successful school breakfast clubs

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1 Start the Day Right: A guide to healthy and successful school breakfast clubs Background Breakfast is important because it provides the body with fuel after an overnight fast and having a healthy breakfast provides our bodies with the nutrients and energy needed to get through the day. Much research has been done into the benefits of eating a healthy breakfast as well as looking into Australian children s current breakfast habits. Research has highlighted that: Eating breakfast can have a significant effect on a child s ability to learn, pay attention and retain information One in four children go to school hungry (the reasons for this vary) One in five primary school children who are overweight do not eat a nutritious breakfast One in three children from low socio economic backgrounds who are overweight do not eat a nutritious breakfast People who eat breakfast have better eating habits than people who skip breakfast as they are less likely to snack on high fat/sugar food items during the day. Encouraging children to eat breakfast and providing them with the opportunity to do so is important for a range of reasons including health, success at school and overall wellbeing. For children who are not able to have breakfast at home, alternatives such as a school based breakfast clubs may be helpful. Reference: The University of Sydney National Children s Nutrition and Physical Activity Study, School based breakfast clubs can these help? Often school based breakfast clubs are developed in response to anecdotal need responding to perceptions of hunger and inadequate nutrition. Successful school based breakfast clubs generally have the following characteristics: They are developed in response to clearly defined needs They are designed to meet a clear aim/s They are well managed They are evaluated in terms of outcomes e.g. number of students attending, nutritional adequacy, school attendance, community/partnership support, social interaction.

2 Planning for your breakfast club When planning a school breakfast club there are several key things to consider: What do the students need? How will food and drinks inline with the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating (1998) be provided? Where will ongoing funding come from? Who will staff and manage the breakfast club e.g. existing staff or volunteers? How will families and the community be involved? Establishing the aim of your breakfast club An important first step in planning a breakfast club is being clear about what you are aiming to achieve. This is important to keep everyone on track and to be able to clearly explain to parents the intention of the breakfast club. Most importantly, having a clear aim will help you evaluate the success of the club. For example, are you aiming to: Help improve student s concentration and learning capacity? Improve attendance? Educate students, parents and the community about the importance of healthy eating? Provide food to students who come to school without breakfast? Promote a healthy school environment? Things to consider when setting up your breakfast club Venue and equipment Minimal facilities are required to successfully run a breakfast club. The venue for the club could be the school canteen or any other area within the school that has appropriate kitchen facilities and a secure storage area that can be easily accessed. Consideration should be given to whether there is sufficient space for students to sit and enjoy breakfast together. Staffing who is going to organise and run the breakfast club? Successful breakfast clubs usually have a coordinator who is responsible for attracting, organising and training volunteers, managing budgets and acting as a community liaison. This could be incorporated into an existing role e.g. Canteen Manager and be supported by other staff members, volunteers or students.

3 Points to consider: Provide training or assistance in safe food handling, first aid and menu planning If volunteers are working in the breakfast clubs ensure police checks are conducted if appropriate Brain storm ways of recognising/rewarding volunteers such as certificates, thank you lunches and letters of appreciation. Involving students and the broader community Involving a variety of people from within the school and the broader community in your breakfast club will ensure that a range of skills, expertise and advice are available to assist in the efficient running of the club. Consider inviting some of the following people: School management team Students Parents Other school staff and volunteers Representation from any organisation providing funding or donations to the breakfast club Other community groups and organisations. Menu and food quality The food provided at breakfast clubs should be consistent with the Dietary Guidelines for Children and Adolescents in Australia and based on the five food groups shown on the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating plate (1998) right. These food groups include: Breads and cereals Vegetables Fruits Milk and dairy products Meat and meat alternatives Make sure you offer a range of everyday foods from the five food groups at breakfast club. These foods provide a wide variety of nutrients, including fibre and are generally low in saturated fat and/or salt; this ensures that students get off to a healthy start for the day. Limit occasional foods such as cordials, chocolate spreads, high sugar, low fibre breakfast cereals, sausages or hash browns. See Table 1 for ideas for your breakfast club menu, this may be useful to print, laminate and display in your breakfast club area.

4 When selecting the breakfast club menu, the food items should be based not only on nutritional content but also student preferences, facilities available, budget and the labour intensity. Other things to consider: How to deal with any students who attend breakfast club that suffer from a food allergy or intolerance (make links with your school allergy policy) You may need ideas to ensure that your menu caters for children from culturally diverse backgrounds (the Community Nutrition Unit ph can assist with providing these ideas) Look for opportunities to include educational activities to promote healthy eating and the importance of breakfast. Make links with your schools health and wellbeing curriculum. It is important that your breakfast club is consistent with other school initiatives around health and wellbeing. For example, the food provided at breakfast club should support the healthy eating messages taught in the classroom and be consistent with the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating, (1998). If your school is a Move Well Eat Well (MWEW) school, make connections between the breakfast club and other MWEW initiatives and policies.

5 Table 1. Ideas for your breakfast club menu: Food Group Ideas to Consider Breads and cereals Cereals - look for wholegrain cereals that have >5g fibre per 100g and <20g sugar per 100g (or <25g sugar if they contain dried fruit) e.g. porridge, natural muesli, wheatflake biscuits (e.g. Weetbix ), cereal flakes with dried fruit. Bread - choose high fibre white, wholemeal, multigrain or rye. Offer other bread products to include some variety on the menu e.g. English muffins, crumpets, fruit bread or fruit buns, Turkish bread, pancakes. Vegetables All fresh, frozen or tinned vegetables are good choices. Look for low sodium varieties. Try: Baked beans on an English muffin, creamed corn, tomato or pineapple in a toasted sandwich, grated zucchini and mushrooms in an omelette. Fruit All fresh, tinned fruit in natural juice or frozen fruit is a good choice. Dried fruit is high in fibre, but it is also high in natural sugar. Keep serving sizes of dried fruit small e.g. 1 tablespoon of sultanas on cereal. Try: breakfast cereal with fresh, tinned or stewed fruit, fresh fruit with yoghurt, fruit smoothie made with fresh fruit, yoghurt and milk. Milk, yoghurt and cheese Reduced-fat varieties of milk, yoghurt and cheese are encouraged for children over the age of 2 years. If using soy or rice milk for students make sure there is at least 100mg calcium per 100ml milk. Meat and meat alternatives This can be a challenging food group to include at breakfast time. Try including foods from this group to add variety. Try: eggs (scrambled, hard boiled, poached), omelette and frittata (with vegies), baked beans, canned tuna, sardines or salmon in spring water, lean roast beef, chicken and lean ham. Drinks Tap water or plain reduced-fat milk are encouraged as the main drink choices. Fruit juice has less fibre than fresh fruit and is a concentrated source of energy. If offering fruit juice choose 100% juice, limit to one small glass per student and ideally dilute 50:50 with water. Tea, coffee or coffee flavored milk drinks are not encouraged for primary school aged children. Other Use small amounts of the following spreads: o Reduced salt margarine e.g. canola, olive, sunflower etc. o Yeast based spreads e.g. Vegemite o Honey o Jam - choose 100% fruit spreads o Peanut butter and other nut spreads* - choose low salt versions. * Check the school policy regarding the use of nuts. Acknowledgement to: Breakfast Boost A Guide to providing breakfast in the school setting. Queensland Health, School based Feeding Programs A Good Choice for Children? Information Partnership, Victoria BC, 2000.

6 Food safety A safe environment and hygienic food handling practices are necessary to reduce the risk of foodborne illness and to encourage healthy eating. Food borne illness is caused by bacteria; the illnesses caused by these bacteria are avoidable by following simple food handling tips: clean, cook, cover, chill. Some very simple food safety ideas include: Wash your hands before handling any food and/or equipment (especially after going to the toilet) Wash utensils and scrub chopping boards between preparing raw and cooked food Keep the fridge clean The only time food should be uncovered is when it s being cooked Ensure your fridge is operating at a temperature of between 2 and 4 0 C. The Environmental Health Officer at your local council should be able to provide support and practical advice on all areas of food safety. This may include training for staff and assessment of food storage/preparation areas. Marketing and promotion Launching the new breakfast club in your school will be an important step to ensure the school community is aware of this new service. This could be incorporated into a sports day or another special event in the school. Longer term it is vital the breakfast club is promoted in a range of ways. This can be done through the school newsletter and parent information evenings. Other promotional ideas include: Asking club members, staff and/or students to speak at school assemblies Encouraging school involvement e.g. having a name the club competition; this could extend to developing menu boards and a logo Inviting significant community members to breakfast e.g. local sporting identity Inviting family members to breakfast e.g. Mums to celebrate Mother s day Inviting businesses that support the breakfast club to breakfast. How to tell if the breakfast club in successful? Monitoring and evaluating your breakfast club is useful for: Keeping track of how your club is running and looking for ways to improve Identifying if your club is meeting its intended aim/s Reporting back to the school community, partners and/or funding body.

7 It is important to think about the types of information you might need to collect before you open your breakfast club to students. The type of data you collect will depend on what you are aiming to achieve. For example if one of your aims is to improve attendance you will want to monitor school attendance rates. Other types of data that you may want to collect include: Number of breakfast clubs held Attendance or punctuality rates Types and quantities of food served Cost Acceptability of the club to students Staff perceptions of the impact of the club on student behaviour Students perceptions of the impact of the club on them Parents and other key stakeholder feedback. To make evaluation useful and to keep improving your breakfast club, try to make time during the year to get feedback on how the club is running. It does not need to be overly complicated; simply listening to the needs of students and families can help improve your club. Consider how students could be involved in collecting and presenting this information e.g. designing questions and graphing responses. Keeping it going Embedding the breakfast club into the school environment is vital to ensuring the club s long term success and sustainability. This may mean updating and reviewing the menu, changing the club format and varying the activities offered. As described under the evaluation section, obtaining information about all aspects of the club and acting on these is very important and should be done regularly (every 6 to 12 months). The most successful clubs have implemented a range of strategies to ensure a sustainable program for their school. Some of these strategies include: Identifying and fostering partnerships (e.g. with the school canteen, with fruit and vegetable retailers in your local area, with local sporting clubs etc.); think broadly about these, they are only limited by your imagination. Some partnerships may be short term, try also to work on longer term partnerships that offer benefits to both partners. Linking the club with other projects/initiatives in the school (e.g. school or kitchen gardens). Succession planning whilst having a central coordinator is important, sharing elements of this role with other staff members shares the burden and responsibility. Encourage participation think broadly about who the key stakeholders are and try not to turn people away. Allocate time (and support if needed) to planning and evaluation.

8 Where to go for more help For support in relation to the planning and development of your breakfast club, the following resources may be helpful: Community Nutrition Unit, DHHS Tasmania Contact for more information and support. Best Practice Guidelines for Establishing Breakfast Clubs in Schools. Counties Manukau District Health Board, Breakfast Boost A Guide to providing breakfast in the school setting. Queensland Health, School-based Feeding Programs A Good Choice for Children? Information Partnership, Victoria BC, Acknowledgement to: Best Practice Guidelines for Establishing Breakfast Clubs in Schools. Counties Manukau District Health Board, Breakfast Boost A Guide to providing breakfast in the school setting. Queensland Health, School-based Feeding Programs A Good Choice for Children? Information Partnership, Victoria BC, November 2012