Anne Arundel County Public Schools in Maryland Awarded Silent Hero Grant From got breakfast?(R) Foundation

WOODBURY, N.Y., April 29 /PRNewswire/ -- The got breakfast?® Foundation recently awarded Anne Arundel County Public Schools (AACPS) in Annapolis, Maryland, one of eight Silent Hero grants that recognize, encourage, and reward those silent heroes who help children by participating in the national School Breakfast Program.  The $5,000 award will be used to implement its innovative "Breakfast with Class" program.

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Supervisor of Food and Nutrition Services for AACPS Jodi Risse says they will use the grant money to fund the classroom breakfast program at Rippling Woods Elementary School and for a promotional campaign designed to increase program participation.  With a combined enrollment of 3,300 students, a total of seven schools, including Rippling Woods, currently participate in the Breakfast with Class program, which has proven to have a positive impact on achievement and morale in the classroom.  

"We find that there are numerous advantages of this program over the traditional cafeteria serving model," says Risse.  "Students are in the classroom on time for morning announcements, serving time is improved, there is less food waste and fewer visits to the school nurse.  In addition, multipurpose rooms are available immediately for instructional use and the stigma that breakfast at school is only for students who receive free and reduced price meals is eliminated.  Also, many teachers choose to eat with their students and serve as healthy role models."

"We were impressed by the Anne Arundel County Public Schools' commitment to increasing participation in its Breakfast with Class program," says Sonya Kaster, R.D., L.D.N., S.N.S., Grant Administrator for the Silent Hero Program.

All eight of the Silent Hero grant winners will be implementing breakfast in the classroom.  According to the Food Research and Action Center's School Breakfast Scorecard for 2008-2009, districts using breakfast in the classroom have the highest participation rates.

The got breakfast? Foundation received many applications representing school districts from 33 different states requesting more than $2 million in funding.  The winners were each awarded a grant ranging from $2,500 to $10,000.

The Silent Hero Grant Program was created to encourage schools and non-profit organizations to expand the reach of underutilized child nutrition programs, most notably the School Breakfast Program.  While 19 million low income children participate in the National School Lunch Program each day, only 9 million participate in the School Breakfast Program.

"We launched the Silent Hero Grant Program in the hopes of it acting as a catalyst for schools to give classroom and/or alternate site breakfast a try," says Kaster.  

For information about the got breakfast? Silent Hero Grant Program contact [email protected] or visit the www.gotbreakfast.org website.

SOURCE got breakfast? Foundation