Thayer Central to offer ‘breakfast on the go’

The Thayer Central school district has received a grant that will allow them to offer more breakfast options.

According to  Susan Dishman, Thayer Central food service manager, the Hunger Free Heartland organization has given a $3,500 grant to allow the school district to offer “breakfast on the go.”

Currently Thayer Central offers a hot breakfast option with cereal and other choices similar to that, but students must walk to the high school to get it out of the cafeteria. This new program would be set up in the intermediate school and allow students to select from choices like cereal, pop-tarts, muffins, fruits and juices.

“Kids can come pick what they want and if they want to go and eat it while they participate in the walking program they can,” Dishman said, “or they can even take it to the classroom and eat it there.”

The price to participate in this new program will be the same as getting a hot breakfast from the cafeteria which is currently set at $1.60.

Once the program is set up in the intermediate school, Dishman hopes that the program will also be available in the primary school a few weeks later. Although, there will be some slight changes to how the program is run in the primary school compared to the intermediate school. In the primary school, students won’t get to pick what they want. Instead, pre-made sacks will be put together with a few breakfast items in them and students can take those sacks to their classroom.

The program won’t be offered in the high school because students already have these options available in the cafeteria.  The current hot breakfast program will still be available for any student wishing to eat breakfast in the cafeteria.

Last year, Thayer Central won the Healthier U.S. Challenge Award. By earning this, the school was eligible for new grants like breakfast on the go.
If more students start eating breakfast, the school would be able to get to the next level of the Healthier U.S. Challenge. This in turn would open up doors for more grants similar to breakfast on the go.

Thayer Central’s goal with this new program is to get more students to eat breakfast, because when students eat breakfast they come out with more than a full stomach.

“Kids learn better when they have eaten breakfast,” Dishman said.