ARAMARK Makes Having Breakfast at School Easier for Students and School Districts

"There is a direct connection between eating breakfast and a child's ability to learn," said Dennis Maple, President, ARAMARK Education. "By making it easier to have breakfast at school, we have served two million more breakfast meals to students this school year and, in turn, have helped school districts secure more federal funding. We are dedicated to providing students with a nutritious meal to start their day so they can be more alert and perform better in the classroom."

While the benefits of breakfast and good nutrition are well documented, the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) reported in its annual School Breakfast Scorecard that only 46 percent of eligible low-income children started the day with a healthy morning meal during the 2007-2008 school year.

For the School Breakfast Scorecard, FRAC measured the reach of the School Breakfast Program by comparing the number of low-income children receiving school breakfast to the number of such children receiving school lunch. Nationally, if the number of low-income children who participated in the School Breakfast Program increased from 46 to 60 for every 100 who participated in the lunch program, almost 2.5 million more children would eat a healthy school breakfast every day, and states would receive an additional $561 million in child nutrition funding.

ARAMARK Education's AMP-Up with Breakfast program offers easy-to-implement breakfast delivery options for classrooms, cafeterias and/or portable stations, with a focus on convenience. It features over 400 grab-and-go products to build a new breakfast program menu or enhance existing breakfast offerings. Students are enjoying great-tasting, morning favorites, such as fruits, wholesome hot foods, cereals, breakfast snacks, yogurt, smoothies and juice beverages.

New this school year, portable breakfast carts further enhance service of breakfast for students on the go. Findings from pilot testing of the portable breakfast carts showed, on average, 1,000 more incremental meals per month were served in middle and high schools because the cart was able to be placed in hallways and areas where access is convenient for the students.

Following are a few examples of ARAMARK Education-managed school districts that have seen an increase in breakfast participation:

-- Healthy nutrition sacks are offered in three Appleton School District (WI) elementary schools during the "nutrition break" time in the morning, in between first and second period of the school day. The nutrition sack includes choices such as string cheese, freshly-made blueberry muffins, cinnamon sticks, hard boiled eggs, fresh fruit, juices and milk. Breakfast participation has increased up to 300 percent at these schools.

-- At Flowing Wells School District (AZ) students at two elementary schools are offered grab-and-go breakfast bags, with a hot breakfast sandwich, banana and milk. Breakfast participation at these schools has already increased by 60 percent since the program was introduced in January.

-- Starting this school year, students at seven Lansing School District (MI) schools are now having breakfast in the classroom, served at no cost to students. By moving this meal time into the classroom, participation has increased an average of 84 percent. At one school, participation is up 144 percent.

-- High school students at Lorain Southview High School, part of Lorain City Schools (OH), began having breakfast in the classroom and breakfast participation increased 300 percent, from 200 students to more than 650 students per day.

-- Midland Borough School District (PA) was recently named the top performer for the third consecutive year in the Pennsylvania Hunger Action Center's Pennsylvania School Breakfast Report Card, a comprehensive review and rating of school districts in Pennsylvania based on their participation in the federal school breakfast program. Midland had nearly an 85 percent breakfast participation rate.

-- Millcreek Township School District (PA) introduced a grab-and-go breakfast in the classroom program at a middle school, intermediate high school and high school. The students can now eat their breakfast during homeroom period. During the 2007-2008 school year, participation was almost 150,000 breakfast meals served, an increase of almost 20 percent over the prior year.

About ARAMARK Education

ARAMARK Education provides a complete range of food, facility, uniform and other support services to more than 500 K-12 school districts in the U.S. It offers public and private education institutions a family of dining and facility services including: on-site and off-site breakfast and lunch meal programs, after-school snacks, catering, nutrition education, retail design and facilities management services, including maintenance, custodial, grounds, energy management, construction management, and building commissioning. For more information on ARAMARK Education's K-12 food service programs, please visit www.aramarkschools.com.

About ARAMARK

ARAMARK is a leader in professional services, providing award-winning food services, facilities management, and uniform and career apparel to health care institutions, universities and school districts, stadiums and arenas, and businesses around the world. In FORTUNE magazine's 2008 list of "America's Most Admired Companies," ARAMARK was ranked number one in its industry, consistently ranking since 1998 as one of the top three most admired companies in its industry as evaluated by peers and analysts. ARAMARK also ranked first in its industry in the 2007 FORTUNE 500 survey. ARAMARK seeks to responsibly address issues that matter to its clients, customers, employees and communities by focusing on employee advocacy, environmental stewardship, health and wellness, and community involvement. Headquartered in Philadelphia, ARAMARK has approximately 260,000 employees serving clients in 22 countries. Learn more at the company's Web site, www.aramark.com.

SOURCE: ARAMARK

ARAMARK 
David Gargione, 215-238-3559 
gargione-david@aramark.com