Kansas City Public Schools and Operation Food Search are ready to celebrate their joint efforts to help children get the most important meal of the day so that they can focus on the important work of learning.

KCPS received $477,742 in grant funding for 25 schools serving 12,500 students to introduce Breakfast in the Classroom (BIC) breakfast service. The expansion is jointly funded by General Mills Foundation and the Partners for Breakfast in the Classroom, a consortium of national education and nutrition organizations including the Food Research & Action Center (FRAC), the NEA Foundation, and the School Nutrition Foundation, which is funded by the Walmart Foundation.

KCPS recently implemented the program at six schools: Harold Holliday Sr. Montessori School, James Elementary School, Longfellow Elementary School, Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School, Trailwoods Elementary School and Troost Elementary School. These sites have seen a significant increase in the number of students who eat breakfast at school since the program was launched. 

The program is designed to serve nutritionally balanced breakfasts that meet the current USDA nutrition standards for the School Breakfast Program (SBP). The BIC program is an in-class model that encourages all students to participate in breakfast.

March 4 through 8 is National School Breakfast Week (NSBW). This weeklong celebration launched in 1989 to raise awareness of the availability of the SBP, a federally assisted meal program operating in public and non-profit private schools and residential child care institutions since 1975.