This is the third in a three-part series of K-12 districts that are doing mobile serving right. Read on to find some inspiration for ways to get started or revamp your current program. Click to read Part 1 and Part 2 here.

Sleepy kids often skip breakfast. Carmen Fischer discovered this to be true with the students at Rockwood School District in St. Louis County in Missouri. As the director of child nutrition services, Fischer knew that she needed to find a way to increase participation for breakfast and to increase revenue as a whole. Here is what she did.

Second Chance to Eat

At the middle school level, Fischer launched “Second Chance” breakfast. Served in the 6 minutes between first and second periods, fully reimbursable breakfast is served from Grab-N-Go stations using the Versa Food Bar and other carts. “This allows students the opportunity to wake up during first period,” Fischer says. They take breakfast back to their second period classroom and eat there.

The result is more students buying and eating breakfast. In two years, breakfast participation increased from an average of 52 students served each day to 128 per day.

Boosting Overall Participation and Revenue

Sometimes, students are just going to bring lunch from home, for a variety of reasons. But Fischer knew that she could still get these kids to buy something from her foodservices operation, and that incremental revenue would help tremendously. So she decided to boost a la carte sales, selling more grains, fruits and veggies at the elementary level. It worked.

“Students who bring their lunch often purchase fruits and veggies to accompany their lunch from home,” Fischer says.

Click to connect with a Cambro Representative for additional school foodservice solutions.