The Mississippi Department of Education’s Office of Healthy Schools partnered with SUDIA in fall 2015 to conduct a statewide Breakfast Challenge.
The purpose of the Breakfast Challenge was to motivate schools to implement innovative breakfast strategies and promote breakfast participation in order to increase the number of children in Mississippi who have access to and who participate daily in the national School Breakfast Program.
School breakfast and other school nutrition programs provide students with the proper amount of nourishment—not only for growth and development, but also as the foundation for academic success.
The Mississippi Breakfast Challenge was successful with a total of 313 schools participating throughout the state. The winning schools used various strategies to increase breakfast participation. Knowing the importance of breakfast and the amount of time students spend each day commuting, child nutrition directors and principals in the Claiborne County, Jefferson Davis County and South Delta school districts required students to go to the cafeteria for breakfast each morning after getting off the bus. North Pike School District conducted their own breakfast challenge at North Pike Middle School, encouraging all students to participate in breakfast each morning. The grade level with the highest participation won a dessert with their lunch. Many schools also conducted student surveys to determine breakfast menu items students liked the most to ensure breakfast participation.
Congratulations to all the winners!
Statewide 1st Place Winners
- Elementary School Non-CEP – Pass Christian Elementary (Pass Christian School District) – 8.73 percent increase
- Elementary School CEP00 – E. Johnson Elementary (Jefferson Davis School District) – 9.73 percent increase
- Middle School Non-CEP – Gautier Middle (Pascagoula School District) – 3.925 percent increase
- Middle School CEP – South Delta Middle (South Delta School District) – 8.405 percent increase
- High School Non-CEP – South Jones Academy (Jones School District) – 7.425 percent increase
- High School CEP – South Delta High (South Delta School District) – 10.555 percent increase
- K-12 School – Itawamba AHS (Itawamba School District) – 11.49 percent increase
Visit our Schools resource page for more information about school breakfast programs.