Schools celebrated National School Breakfast Week during March 7th-11th

NSBW was launched in 1989 to raise awareness about the availability of the School Breakfast Programs across the country.  Each year we celebrate this week with a fun theme to help increase awareness of the importance of breakfast. Eating a nutritious breakfast can help children maintain a healthy weight and has been proven to be linked to academic success.
This year’s NSBW theme is:

SCHOOL BREAKFAST DETECTIVES

Follow the clues to eating right!

Lot’s of great prize’s and giveaways
We would love to see some new faces in our breakfast line!!!
Menu Items will include:
“Chase Me” Cheese Omelet
“I Spy” Pop Tarts
“Private Eye” Pancakes
“Break The Case” Breakfast Pizza
“Get-A-Clue” Breakfast in a Bag

Close to 100 staff, students and parents attended a district wide food show hosted by the Nutrition Service Department on January 11th. Vendors showcased foods that are being considered for next year's school menu, the attendees sampled a variety of menu items and then completed surveys to indicate their preferences for next year's school menu.  The food items included, breakfast wraps, chicken, beef and pork entrees, yogurt and bread items as well as many pasta and rice dishes that were complimented with a variety of healthy and nutritious sauces.  The vendors answered questions about nutrition, ingredients, preparation methods and more.  This event also helped to educate our staff, students and community about the nutrition integrity of many of the menu items as well as helping them understand the steps that have to be taken to develop a new school menu each year.

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SCHOOL NUTRITON PROGRAMS AWARDED GRANTS

In December,  the Canon City School Nutrition Program  applied for and received a $2000 breakfast grant from the Western Dairy Association.  This grant will  help us expand our current breakfast program at CCHS.  We have many ideas of how to create a breakfast program that will give more students access to school breakfast each day and are excited to work with the administration and teaching staff at CCHS to create a successful program.  Because we believe in breakfast….the CCHS kitchen staff is excited and willing to do whatever it takes to make our new program successful!

-Additionally, the Harrison Kitchen Staff recently received  a $500 Colorado School Nutrition Association Grant.  What was special about this grant was that the kitchen staff  created the ideas and wrote the entire grant.  The focus of the grant was to write about how the $500 would be used to promote wellness in their school/kitchen.  Robin McCluskey and her staff wrote a fantastic grant and was chosen as 1 of only 3 schools in Colorado to receive the $500. Washington School also submitted  a well written grant and they were a close contender for the money….hopefully next time!   We are proud of the staff at both locations and am looking forward to hearing  how Harrison will spend their money…yes it is THEIR moneyJ GREAT JOB LADIES!!!

Nutritious (and yummy) Crunchy Yogurt Parfaits were introduced for breakfast in Canon City cafeterias this year and the kids LOVE them! The cereal, yogurt and blueberry concoction had the students scraping their cups clean, telling their friends to try them and telling the staff that “this is the best breakfast ever!” 

Introducing new items such as the Yogurt Parfaits have been a focus for the Nutrition Services Staff this school year and so far we have had great success at getting the kids to try the new (and healthy) items.

We will continue to make it a priority to give the students access to new and exciting items and encourage them to try them….who knows they just might like them as much as they did the parfaits!!

HAVE A NUTRTIOUS BREAKFAST RECIPE YOU WOULD LIKE TO SHARE…email buserp @ canoncityschools.org and just maybe we can give it a try!!

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The new school year is underway and once again Nutritional Services is proud to continue to offer fresh fruits and vegetables everyday for every meal!  The children are eating up their colors and learning about new types of produce through our Harvest of The Month Program.

 In addition to offering fresh fruit or vegetables everyday, we also offer a Harvest Bar at all of our schools every Friday.  This bar offers a variety of fresh items for the students to choose from to accompany their entrée.  We ask parents to support our efforts by offering fresh produce to their children around their own dinner table.  The key to getting kids to eat healthier it so simply give them access to healthy selections.