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

PHILADELPHIA, Feb 26, 2009 (BUSINESS WIRE) --
RMK | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- ARAMARK Education, a leading provider of food and nutrition services to
more than 400 school districts nationwide, is celebrating the School
Nutrition Association's "National School Breakfast Week," March 2 - 6,
2009, by making it easier for students to have breakfast at school,
while encouraging school districts to take advantage of federal funds
that are currently underutilized.

"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

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