DePue wins award for breakfast program

Nutrition educator Jennifer DeHoog (center) presents DePue School District's cafeteria director Elizabeth Fox with an award check at Wednesday's school board meeting. DeHoog praised Fox for creating an innovative breakfast program and said DePue won the grand prize out of 25 applicants. DeHoog called DePue's 26 percent increase “amazing.” (BCR photo/Barb Kromphardt)

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DEPUE — The breakfast program at DePue School is not just the rage of students and staff anymore. The program was recently recognized by the statewide Expanding Breakfast Awards Program funded by the Midwest Dairy Council and St. Louis District Dairy Council with a $4,000 award.

Cafeteria Director Elizabeth Fox said she applied for the grant, which was started in 2007, for the elementary school, though she could have also applied for it for the high school.

“To win this was something we never expected. Our school is so small, we figured we didn’t stand a chance,” she said. “Just winning on the elementary level was fantastic.”

The Expanding Breakfast Awards Program was started to call attention to the importance of alternate school breakfast; offering breakfast outside of the cafeteria increases participation, which means more students start the day ready to learn, a release said.

In fact, DePue Elementary witnessed a 26 percent increase in breakfast participation since implementing their program. Teachers have also seen an increase in test scores and a reduction in disciplinary problems, since changes were made to the breakfast program.

Fox said the award will enable them to purchase a glass front milk merchandiser and a cooler display case for yogurt, cheeses, fresh fruit and salads.

Fox said the breakfast program has had a big impact on the school. The school offers breakfast for the LaSalle-Peru vocational program, which as a result, increased the amount of high school students who take advantage of the breakfast program, she said.

Fox said on a low day, they have around 80 students who utilize the breakfast program up to around 125 students, which include elementary, junior high and high school students. Breakfast begins at 7 a.m. to allow the vocational students to eat before boarding the bus.

“We offer a variety of eggs, quesadillas that have sausage, bacon and eggs and are individually wrapped to make it more sanitary. We have breakfast pizza and breakfast corndogs,” she said. “We have the grab-n-go breakfast which are a very big item with the kids. They like that a lot.”

The grab-n-go breakfast is served Monday, Wednesday and Friday, while the hot breakfast is served on Tuesday and Thursday. The school also offers breakfast in the classroom.

Fox said she was notified they would be receiving the award the day prior to the school’s Christmas vacation, and she received the check in the mail the day they returned from break.

Fox said she hopes to present the pricing information on the cafeteria machines to the board at its meeting Wednesday for them to take action on.

The DePue School Board and cafeteria workers were presented with a giant check by members of the St. Louis Dairy Council and Midwest Dairy Council at Wednesday’s  board meeting.

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