What programs support school breakfast’s?
- The United States Department of Agriculture is the agency that supports the school breakfast program, just like it does the school lunch program. This program is part of a program called Team Nutrition.
- What is team Nutrition?
- Team Nutrition is a United States Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service program directed toward child nutrition programs by providing technical assistance to food service nutrition education for children and caregivers, and community and school support for healthy eating and physical activity.
- The Food Guide pyramid (mypyramid.gov) and the Dietary Guidelines for Americans are the underpinnings of the program’s philosophy.
- According to a statement by USDA, “This plan involves schools, parents, and the community in efforts to continuously improve school meals, and to promote the health and education of 50 million school children in more than 96,000 schools nationwide”,
One part of the USDA Food and Nutrition Service is the School Breakfast program. Many times parents ask why it is important that children have a school breakfast, or even why the government and not the parents, should provide the breakfast. These are debatable points in terms of who should pay for what. However, there is much evidence to support the notion that children who have a school breakfast do better.