My name is Stephanie and I am currently a senior at Christiansburg High School. This is my third year in Y Street and my second year on the Y Street Leadership Team. This is also my third year working on Great Starts with Breakfast Campaign.
High school students skip breakfast everyday because they don’t have time in the morning, their bus doesn’t get to school in time, their friends don’t get breakfast in the morning, and some students don’t even know where to get breakfast. These students are missing the most important meal of the day. Schools can adopt alternative breakfast models such as a grab and go breakfast, breakfast in the classroom, or a second chance breakfast; which I personally have worked with.

Great Starts with Breakfast is a great Y Street campaign that assists schools in adopting new breakfast models so that every student has the chance to start their day off right. Great Starts with Breakfast recently had a day of action through Feeding America. Two of our Y Street members dressed up as popular breakfast items, eggs and bacon. Students lined up to take their pictures with the mascots. As students filled out MOPs, they were eligible to pick a plastic egg from a carton with a number underneath. The numbers corresponded with ton of cool prizes. We received nothing but positive feedback from the student body. My school adopted the alternative breakfast model, second chance breakfast. Having a second chance breakfast between first and second period has been a huge success! I cannot stress enough the importance of breakfast on all of our academic futures. Without breakfast students are grumpy and no one wants that. Although you can’t force someone to eat breakfast, any Y-Ster can and should encourage students to participate in breakfast beyond our Great Starts events. Together we can help all students own the day with an awesome breakfast!