What are your experiences with breakfast programs in your school districts, if any? What do the districts you know of do to protect kids with food allergies?
What would you recommend to a district thinking to adopt a breakfast program?
I assume you mean where the kids eat, not having an allergic kid eat the stuff?
DS's class is food free. The kids pick up the "breakfast" in the cafeteria then eat at a table right outside and they wash hands as soon as they enter the classroom. HTH
What would you recommend to a district thinking to adopt a breakfast program? That they adopt food allergy awareness into the program at its inception?
Meaning:
1. Awareness of priority (and locally meaningful) allergens.
2. Awareness of cross-contamination risk as a result of the program (that is, maybe the cafeteria is "pn-free" but a child's CLASSROOM may not be if the breakfast program is handing out granola bars each morning, KWIM?
3. If at all possible, keep food OUT OF CLASSROOM spaces-- instructional space has to be safe for students with food allergy. Adding a second food service to the school day can jeopardize that by introducing additional complexity for parents, staffers, and students.
4. If food MUST be consumed in classrooms, consider:
- Is it possible to reduce reliance on priority allergens like milk, nuts, eggs?
- adoption of cleaning protocols for classrooms, desks, etc. and a person responsible for DOING that in each instructional space
- handwashing for students who participate
- policies prohibiting instruction (or contact with shared instructional materials) during breakfast food consumption
5. Will a nurse (or other trained individuals) be on staff during the time when the participating students are eating food?
How are they going to resolve USDA nutrition requirements if/when they conflict with a cornerstone in the typical USDA plan like cow milk? Notice I wrote how are they going to resolve and not how should they resolve. At what point will they consider a substitution for milk if they plan to serve food in the classroom? I've never seen a breakfast program that wasn't served in a classroom for elementary kids. I think it was Head Start that gave me grief over "what we do for all the milk allergic kids." It was sidelined into a nutrition issue, and one of my kid's medical vs. socio-economic service to other kids. Nevermind the nutritional content merely needs to be the same, it doesn't matter the exact food for delivery.
My son's elem school had it in the cafeteria before the start of the school day, but after the buses arrived. Good thing ds ate at home. There was nothing offered that he could eat there for breakfast.
Thank you. I wonder the following.
1) If you have a breakfast program in the classroom, how much class time does it take? Are students doing educational activities during it or just eating? Are classroom tables and students' hands cleaned afterward?
2) If you have a breakfast program in the cafeteria, how much time does it take? Is your school able to fit all students into the cafeteria? If not, do they have several waves of students eating in the cafeteria?
3) Does your school fit into some other category?
4) Is the program offered to all students or just those who have a financial need?
I'm not sure if milk is a required component the way it is for primary grade snack and lunch at all grades. Does anyone know if it is required in breakfast programs?
USDA specific. I've been presented with the special exemption forms required for individual substitutions. They may be of use if anyone is going to challenge that nutritional mandate.
The last time I worked with federal lunch redemption programs, milk was required to be served at breakfast as well.
Breakfast program at school was always offered in the cafeteria prior to first bell being rung - busses had to arrive by a certain time so everyone could take advantage of it. Students participation was optional - they had need based as well as the ability to purchase if wanted.
It's the main reason they wanted DS1 to eat in the clinic or somewhere other than the cafeteria. If I didn't want his allergens to be used in the classroom as learning elements than obviously he couldn't handle being in the cafeteria since they served eggs and gluteny items. ~)
I will tell you that our former middle school pulled the PBJ's out of the Grab and Go (as a menu option) for the kids (concession to us and our 504), but that did not solve for anyone with other LTFA than peanut.
I did tell them they'd HAVE to revisit for the individual needs of other LTFA kids . . . but then we left to homeschool and I have no idea how they worked through this. There was supposed to be classroom clean up and hand washing . . . I'm not sure that really was happening.
Also, we found that LOTS of kids chose this Grab and Go as did families -- whether or not they had financial need for the sponsored meal. If they did not qualify financially, they just were a full-paying customer. This was considered a way to get ALL kids to eat breakfast who normally would have skipped at home, gone to McDonald's drive through, OR needed a 4th meal (some athletes). Just a heads up on this!
While we did have a cafeteria, there was NOT time for kids to sit down to eat due to the long bus trips due to rural areas in that county. (NO walking kids -- all were bus or car arrivals.)
Wanted to be clear -- the school did NOT literally remove the PBJ from the kids' hands . . . they lined out the PBJ as an option in the Grab and Go offerings.