Local Success Stories
Mahanoy School District receives big breakfast boost
Treating students as she would her former catering customers comes as second nature to Mahanoy Area School District SFSD Joyce Ciarla. Just as she listened to her former clients, she believes in listening to students and giving them quality products and service.
The Mahanoy Area School District, a small district of 1,200 students in Schuylkill County, Pa., received a big breakfast boost this past year, as Ms. Ciarla developed pilot alternative breakfast programs for the middle school and high school.
The Mahanoy School District has a 57 percent participation rate of free and reduced, and the district recognizes that the school feeding programs play an integral role in total student development. For some students, the food they receive at school may be the only meals they get all day. With the help of an expanding breakfast grant from the Mid-Atlantic Dairy Association, Ms. Ciarla and the school district were able to create some breakfast alternatives to make certain students were being fed.
For the middle school, Ms. Ciarla implemented a grab-and-go breakfast. With this, students go to homerooms, are dismissed by homeroom to the cafeteria to get a bag breakfast, and then take the bags back to their classroom to eat. As an added incentive for picking up a breakfast, high school students - including popular basketball players - assist in handing out the breakfast bags. Since the pilot program began, participation in breakfast has increased 40 percent. In addition, visits to the school nurse decreased after the alternative breakfast service began.
For the high school, Ms. Ciarla opted for breakfast in the classroom as well as a grab-and-go option. The breakfasts are dictated by strong cultural influences - anything with eggs, such as breakfast pita pockets and French toast, are student favorites. The program has been successful. On a regular daily basis, 24 percent of the students eat breakfast in the high school. When breakfast is served in the classroom after first period, 80 percent of the high school students participate.
According to Ms. Ciarla, the programs are successful thanks to the support she receives from everyone from the superintendent on down. The school principals and cafeteria staff work together for a common goal and are able to make breakfast a fun and nutritious start to the school day.