Help us celebrate School Breakfast Month! Remember, BREAKFAST = SUCCESS!

It’s that time of year again: School Breakfast Month! Every year in March, the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance recognizes the importance of school breakfast in helping our kids be healthy, active, and ready to learn.

Thank you, Governor Sanders, for proclaiming March as School Breakfast Month! We appreciate our partners at the Arkansas Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s Child Nutrition Unit and the Arkansas School Nutrition Association for their support. We also thank this year’s School Breakfast Challenge sponsor, VCC Cares Foundation, as we encourage school districts across the state to “DIG IN-to School Breakfast” and participate in the Challenge in one or more of these award categories with these prize amounts to go to the winning districts’ child nutrition departments: First-$1,500, Second-$1,000, Third-$500 in each of the 3 categories:

1. Most innovative breakfast promotion
2. Most popular or creative breakfast food (with recipe)
3. Largest breakfast participation increase (comparing February 2023 to March 2023)

Challenge winners to be announced in April, contact Vivian Nicholson, vnicholson@arhungeralliance.org to participate.

About Arkansas School Breakfast Month:

For over a decade, the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance has requested the support of the Governor’s office and key child health and education advocates to celebrate March as School Breakfast Month to highlight the role that the USDA’s School Breakfast Program plays in ensuring that all Arkansas students are healthy, active, and ready to learn every day so they can thrive. According to the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC), school breakfast leads to reduced food insecurity, improved student health, and better attendance and behavior in the classroom.

School Breakfast programs have been essential in reducing food insecurity for students in Arkansas, and Breakfast After the Bell programs have been especially successful in making sure more students have access to healthy meals.  According to the AR Department of Education, the number of breakfast meals served in Arkansas schools has increased by 27% since 2011. And the Food Research and Action Center reported that in the 2020-2021 school year, the rate of low-income Arkansas students participating in school breakfast compared to lunch increased to 73.6% – exceeding the long-time goal of 70%!

We hope you will join us in celebrating School Breakfast Month and encouraging students to “DIG IN-to School Breakfast”! Contact Vivian Nicholson at vnicholson@arhungeralliance.org for more information about the Challenge. Remember, breakfast really does equal success!