Charles County Public Schools (CCPS) will celebrate the success of the school breakfast program next month by offering students free meals to start their school day. Beginning Oct. 2 and ending Oct. 27, all CCPS students will get a jump-start to the day with a free healthy breakfast. Items will include milk, cereal, juice and fruit with an additional option of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for high school students.
This is the second consecutive year that CCPS has celebrated the growth of the school breakfast program by providing free meals to students in October. The goal of the initiative is to spread awareness on the benefits of eating breakfast and ensuring students have access to healthy meal items.
“A nutritious breakfast is beneficial for everyone, including our youngest learners to our high school seniors. When kids are hungry, they may find it hard to concentrate in class and participate. By providing our students with a healthy start to the school day, we are helping to model good eating habits and demonstrating how easily breakfast can be part of a daily routine. Fueling our bodies ultimately helps to fuel the power of learning,” Superintendent of Schools Dr. Kimberly Hill said.
The CCPS school breakfast program has more than doubled over the past five years. Since 2011, the system has seen an increase of nearly 1.1 million breakfasts served to students. At the end of the 2010-2011 school year, breakfasts served totaled 734,789. At the end of the 2016-17 school year, a total of 1.8 million breakfasts were served.
CCPS staff attribute the increase to several factors including the expansion of breakfast offerings and opportunities for students to buy breakfast. This includes additional areas in schools for students to buy breakfast at walk-up kiosks and the offering of a second time for students at some high schools to buy breakfast in the morning.
The free breakfast initiative does not include a la carte items at middle and high schools. Breakfast offerings for students that attend schools enrolled in the Maryland Meals for Achievement (MMFA) program will not change next month. Thirteen schools participate in the MMFA program, at which free breakfast is served to students all year.
Menu options, including breakfast, lunch and a la carte choices, are posted on the CCPS website at http://ccboe.nutrislice.com/.
Last school year, CCPS food and nutrition services staff served more than 4.4 million breakfast and lunches to students.
