United Way of King County’s 2018 Breakfast Challenge wraps up this week. The official data from the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction shows some big successes! The recipients of our four awards are:

• Madrona Elementary in Highline School District for Highest Overall Breakfast Participation, with 80.18 percent of students eating school breakfast. Madrona will take the $1,500 grand prize!
• Sanislo Elementary in Seattle Public School District for Most Improved Breakfast After the Bell, with an increase of 31.29 percent or about 70 more students eating breakfast every day at school. Sanislo will receive a $1000 award.
• Cascade Elementary in Renton School District for Most Improved School Overall with a 54.63 percent increase in school breakfast participation. That’s an additional 6,125 breakfast meals served compared to March 2017! The school will also receive a $1000 award.
• Renton School District for Most Improved School District with an overall increase of 3.47 percent increase in breakfast participation across all schools. Renton will receive equipment and supplies to help continue increasing breakfast participation in their schools.
• Honorable Mentions to Auburn High in Auburn School District, Park Orchard Elementary in Kent School District, Lake Grove Elementary In Federal Way Public Schools, and Beacon Hill Elementary in Seattle Public Schools

Last Friday, students and teachers gathered at Cascade Elementary for a special assembly to celebrate their incredible increase in participation. Greeted by waving fruits and veggies, students gathered in the cafeteria where they learned that they were the winners of the The Most Improved School award. The students were very excited to hear this, and exhilaration increased when they learned that they also were getting a special visit from Animal Encounters to see and learn more about different animals native to Australia. Students shrieked with glee as animal handler Kim Connolly of Animal Encounters pulled out the first animal – a carpet snake! After assuring the kids that the snake was not venomous, Connolly shared that for breakfast, the snake like to eat large mice, earning an enthusiastic “Eww!” from her audience. She shared another snake, two lizards, and a skink before moving on to mammals, which received a much warmer welcome from students (the wallaby was the a crowd favorite). The assembly ended with applause for everyone who worked hard to help Cascade implement a delivery model for Breakfast After the Bell.

United Way would like to thank all the schools and districts who participated in the 2018 Breakfast Challenge for their excellent work in increasing both awareness and participation by encouraging students to eat school breakfast. We also want to thank the generous sponsors of the 2018 Breakfast Challenge: No Kid Hungry, Safeway and Albertson’s Foundation and HUNGER IS, Employees Community Fund of Boeing, Farmers Insurance, Seattle Children’s Hospital and the Seattle Sounders Rave Foundation.

For the next Breakfast Challenge, United Way hopes to expand and include even more schools to ensure students are getting a nutritious start to their day!