Miami Dade County Public Schools Department of Food and Nutrition Ms. Penny Parham, Administrative Director Mrs. Wanda Pedraza, Director Staff Development, Nutrition Ed, Marketing, Grants
Dear Principal and Food Service Manager, The Department of Food and Nutrition invites you to celebrate National School Breakfast Week (NSBW) 2010 (March 8 12, 2010) with the theme, School Breakfast Ready, Set, Go!. Celebrating NSBW will help to promote an increase in participation in your School Breakfast Program and promote a positive effect on student learning. Research shows that eating breakfast makes a significant contribution to a student s nutritional intake, and that students who participated in the School Breakfast Program scored higher on achievement tests and were better prepared for learning. We have developed a packet of suggested activities for your use and encourage you to participate in the NSBW activities outlined. We hope that you will use the information provided to promote your School Breakfast Program. This packet is intended for use by food service managers, teachers, and staff to make the NSBW 2010 a success for the students of Miami Dade County Public Schools. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Mrs. Wanda Pedraza, Director, Department of Food and Nutrition at 786 275 0454. We look forward to hearing about many successful activities promoting NSBW March 8 12, 2010. Good Luck and Much Success, Penny Parham, M.S., R.D. Administrative Director
Participation Form In order to participate in certain NSBW 2010 activities, you must submit a participation form that will ensure that you will receive the correct amount of prizes. Please fill out the form below and fax it to Dianne Carruth at (786) 275 0840. Thank you! School Name: Location #: Manager/Satellite Assistant: Staff #: Average # of Breakfasts Served: Activities your school wishes to participate in: Fact of the Day Announcements Take Your Parent to Breakfast Days Kitchen Tours Creative Writing Contest Please submit participation form by February 24, 2010.
Take Your Parent to Breakfast Day As a way of promoting the sale of school breakfasts in our schools, the parents need to know how delicious and wonderful our food really is! Let s invite the parents to sample our food and have breakfast with their children. Go out of your way to make sure that everything is perfect for new potential customers. For this event, consult with your principals; teachers must be notified so they can send notices home to parents. Parents may purchase a school breakfast meal for two dollars ($2.00) each and share a healthy breakfast with their child. Remember breakfast for all M DCPS students is no charge every school day. Capture the moments with pictures!
Tour of the Kitchen Throughout National School Breakfast Week, Food Service Managers/staff are encouraged to offer tours of the kitchen to teachers and students. This is your opportunity to shine!! Suggested topics for the tour include the following: How is the food prepared? What s all the large equipment for? Health benefits of school breakfast. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day! Allow teachers the opportunity to bring their classes to the kitchen to learn what it s like to serve so many breakfasts! If time allows, older students may be offered the opportunity to help with the preparation of simple items. All grade levels are encouraged to participate. Capture the moments with pictures!
Fact of the Day Announcement The purpose of the Fact of the Day announcement is to create awareness of the National School Breakfast Program as well as good nutrition practices. This activity may be done at all grade levels and is encouraged for all schools. The procedures are: each morning when the announcements are read via the intercom, the Food Service Manager or designated staff member will read one of the following messages once each day of National School Breakfast Week: The theme of this year s National School Breakfast Week is School Breakfast Ready, Set, Go! Eating breakfast positively impacts weight management as there is less risk of becoming overweight and/or obese for children who eat breakfast. School Breakfast helps to build lifelong healthy eating habits. On any given day, 51% of students go to school without breakfast. Miami Dade County Public Schools serves approximately 75,000 breakfasts daily. Breakfast is free every day for all students enrolled in Miami Dade County Public Schools.
School Nutrition Association (SNA) Art Contest What does School Breakfast get you Ready for? New this year is a drawing contest, where students will have the opportunity to answer the question What does School Breakfast get you ready for? by completing the blank School Breakfast Ready Set Go! and illustrating their answer on the contest entry form. Three national winners will receive a prize pack. The local contests will run January 1, 2010 to March 12, 2010, and national entries are due March 31, 2010. Contest Overview The Ready Set Go! contest has local and national rounds of competition. All entries by students must be made to a local competition (to be organized by and held in schools). Please note that the only way to enter this contest is through a participating school, you cannot enter the national contest directly. The art contest centers on the student s concept and artwork. Students (from grades 1 12) should fill in the blank School Breakfast Ready Set Go! and illustrate their answer on the official contest entry form using a traditional drawing or sketch. Entries must be original, not plagiarized and not evocative of any existing commercial characters so as not to infringe any copyrights or trademarks. The School Nutrition Association (SNA) is encouraging schools across the nation to hold local Ready Set Go! contests. School Nutrition Professionals or other participating school officials can enter 3 overall winners per participating school to the national contest. Please note that students cannot enter the national contest directly, they must be nominated by a School Nutrition Professional or school official. To judge the national contest, a panel of judges will select three overall winners, based on pre established criteria which will be published as part of the official contest rules. Three national winners will receive a prize pack. Local school contests can run from January 1, 2010 to March 12, 2010, and national entries are due March 31, 2010. Contest Overview, Student Entry Form, National Entry Form and Official Rules may be found by clicking on the following link: http://docs.schoolnutrition.org/meetingsandevents/nsbw2010/content_drawing.asp