Denise Fitzgerald
HCA/250
April 2, 2011
April Doctor-Smalls
Health Promotion Program
Before School Breakfast Club
GOALS
• To promote health and wholeness by providing a healthy breakfast for students during the school week.
• Only healthy choices will be made available thus promoting good nutrition and healthy eating choices.
• Students will be shown the link between eating a healthy breakfast and improving grades and test scores.
• Students who cannot afford to pay for breakfast will be covered under the free/reduced lunch program. Today many students come to our schools without eating breakfast. They are tired and by the time classes get started most of them are thinking about their stomachs. Studies have shown that students who do not eat breakfast have a harder time concentrating and not being able to work at their full potential. Studies have also shown that children who consistently go without eating a healthy breakfast are more likely to be obese and have a palethera of health problems. According to the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health there are four main benefits of creating a breakfast club in the schools and they are as follows:
• “Improving health and nutrition”
• “Improving children’s education”
• “Meeting children’s social needs”
• “Improving and supporting parent and family life.” (Chartered Institute of Environmental Health 2009)
The targeted group that will most benefit from a breakfast club are students who come from homes where either their parents need to leave early for work and therefore have time constraints , or there is a lack of interest in the students to eat breakfast let alone a healthy breakfast. Then there are students whose families are struggling and cannot afford to provide healthy choices for their children i.e. single moms, unemployed, etc. One of the most important aspects of this program is that the foods that are offered will be nutritionally balanced. Because
References: Campbell, Dennis. 32% of pupils skip breakfast before school, study finds. August 16, 2010. “The Guardian”. Retrieved April 2, 2011 from http:www.guardian.co.uk Chartered Institute of Environmental Health. School Breakfast Clubs 2009. Retrieved on April 2, 2011 from http: www.cieh.org Hilleran, Heather MBA. Achieving a Profitable School Breakfast Program 2009. Retrieved on April 1, 2011 from http: www.dpi.state.wi.us/fns/pdf/sbp_cost_benefit_analysis.pdf