here - Healthy Cities Illawarra

Chapter
12
Promoting the Breakfast Program
Children’s breakfast programs are established
in response to an identified need. Their aim is
to encourage every student to eat a nutritious
breakfast before school in an effort to maximise
potential to learn, and improve educational
outcomes. So why are some breakfast programs
not sufficiently patronised whilst others are
bursting at the seams? The value of breakfast
is not in dispute. Obvious obstacles to the
success of a breakfast program revolve around
staffing and funding issues, however even when
a program is up and running smoothly, barriers
to their use often need to be overcome. Those
barriers can originate from teachers, parents,
and even students themselves.
A strong promotion strategy can overcome
potential barriers to attendance, and will
significantly increase the breakfast program’s
chance of successful implementation, support,
and sustainability. The strategy will need to
focus on four different ‘target groups’; the
children at school to encourage their attendance;
the parents of the children to encourage them
to volunteer (and to support their children
attending); teaching staff, and community
business and other organisations to encourage
them to support your breakfast program. A
key factor to consider for all four groups, is the
need for persistence and repetition to help build
familiarity, and to increase the likelihood of the
breakfast program message being ‘received’ at
the right time (which is often not the first time).
To Students
It is important that the breakfast program be
promoted and offered to the entire school to
reduce the possibility of stigma being attached
to the program. Clearly, most children eat
breakfast before leaving home, however studies
show that on any one day up to 40% of children
1, 2
will not have eaten breakfast . As discussed
in Chapter 1, The Importance of Breakfast for
Children, financial difficulty is only one reason
that children do not eat breakfast. Casting the
promotional net wide, across the whole school,
will bring in those children who, for whatever
reason, have missed breakfast. In so doing,
those children whose families are experiencing
financial hardship will be included without being
identified as such.
Much of the attraction of the program for the
children will depend on how it is presented and
how it is ‘sold’ to them before they even get in
the door. Make the breakfast program sound
(and be!) appetizing, eg.; ‘Come along for Great
food & Great company’, ‘Start your day full of
energy’, ‘Fruit, Toast, & Fun Times’. Promote
it as a happy place; ‘Happy, Healthy and…not
Hungry!’, ‘Brekky with your Besties’, ‘Chill and
eat your fill’… Try to focus away from the health
aspect and more on the enjoyment; promote as
‘good to eat’ rather than ‘good for you’.
Involving students in the establishment of
the breakfast program from the beginning
will increase their sense of ‘ownership’ and
be an encouragement to attend in itself. Ask
the children to name the program, develop a
logo, or make posters or promotional flyers.
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