Looking for Clues to Solve School Breakfast Challenges?

March 3­7 is National School Breakfast Week. According to the School Nutrition Association, the National School Breakfast Program served a whopping 2.5 billion meals in 2024! Thanks to the NSBP and child nutrition pros like you, over 15 million children—many of whom may not otherwise have the means—get to start their school day with the comfort, energy, and alertness that comes with a nutritious breakfast. That alone is cause for celebration!

As you know all too well, serving school breakfast is no simple task. This year’s SNA theme for National School Breakfast Week is “Clue in to School Breakfast.” In honor of this special week, we’re sharing our best tips (or clues, if you will) for choosing equipment and supplies to help you support your breakfast program.

Clue #1: It’s versatile across dayparts and menus.

Breakfast program? Check! Lunch program? Check! Snack program? Check!

The more dayparts you can use it for, the better!

The Hatco Glo-Ray® Designer Merchandising Warmer keeps hot wrapped foods like breakfast sandwiches and burritos at proper serving temperatures. 

The slanted shelves make it easy for staff to load from the kitchen while students retrieve their hot food as they walk through the serving line.

The Oasis Refrigerated Self-Service Dual Sided Case keeps the lines moving on both sides with an efficient way to serve milk and other cold grab’n go items. 

This versatile Structural Concepts merchandising case enables you to serve double the students in the same amount of time in a footprint than is just a little larger than a single-sided case.

Delfield Shelleysteel serving lines can be customized with flexible solutions for serving and merchandising with individually controlled hot/cold/freeze combination FlexiWells and hot/cold (frost) combination merchandising FlexiTops. 

Clue #2: It’s mobile.

Who in child nutrition doesn’t have the need for speed? Whether you’re retherming, holding, and/or serving in decentralized locations to serve your students closer to the classroom and before the bell, these portable equipment options help you keep service moving.

The New Age Industrial Ultimate Mobile Breakfast Cart #54161ELEM was designed to simplify operations and enhance the overall breakfast experience. 

With ample storage space, folding shelves, fold up tray slides, and an easy-to-maneuver 6-caster design, it’s the perfect solution. Three fold-down shelves accommodate laptops, additional condiments, utensils, or supplies, while two fold-up tray slides provide a convenient spot for trays. Two open, accessible solid shelves display ready-to-grab breakfast items for quick and easy service.

Rethermalization Ovens by FWE provide fast, high volume heating of pre-cooked foods without overcooking or dehydration—perfect for ensuring food quality when quickly reheating packaged breakfast items. These versatile retherm ovens cook and hold food whenever or wherever it’s needed. 

The RH-B Series Full Sized Rethermalization Oven is designed specifically to accommodate baskets. The Retherm heat system heats evenly and automatically switches from Retherm mode to a lower holding temperature.

Clue #3: It saves cleaning labor.

It’s a rare employee who actually enjoys cleaning, but hygienic equipment and supplies are a necessity. Self-cleaning equipment and dishwasher safe supplies get the dirty jobs done without the labor.

The Convotherm Maxx Pro Oven with the ConvoClean fully-automatic cleaning system makes cleaning as easy as touching a button, a big plus for an already-awesome oven. 

This combi oven/steamer provides multiple cooking modes to support evolving menus throughout the day and the year with hot air, steam, combi‐steam, and retherm. 

Looking for a hygienic home for small consumable items like condiments and plastic cutlery? TableCraft Simple Solutions Straight-sided Bowls are the perfect alternative to fragile, hard-to-clean dollar store baskets. 

These dishwasher safe melamine bowls are offered in versatile black and white in a variety of sizes.

The Bi-Line Vortex Power Three-compartment Sink lets employees drop soiled pots and pans into the agitating wash basin and move on to other tasks while the sink does the scrubbing. 

The standard Vortex system comes with a soiled drain board, scrap sink with a heavy duty removable scrap screen insert, agitating wash basin, and rinse and sanitize basins. 

Custom options such as a sheet pan racking system and heavy duty utensil basket accessories are available to tailor the system to your operational needs. The powerful Vortex system frees up so much labor that it provides an impressive average return on investment of 9 to 12 months.

 

Clue #4: It improves workflows.

Organizing supplies and maximizing workspace is an investment that pays off every time.

Quantum Foodservice’s broad selection of wire, epoxy-coated wire, and Millenia polymer shelving systems help you stretch your budget with strong, hygienic systems to meet the specialized needs of each of your storage areas. 

Store Grid Mounted Systems provide versatile storage, utility, and display systems that maximize efficiencies of underutilized spaces and empty walls. 

Need a little more workspace? Available in standard and custom sizes, Aero Stainless Steel Work Tables provide the commercial grade construction needed for safe, hygienic, and comfortable food prep. 

A built-in backsplash and marine edges on the front and sides of the table inhibits spillage and minimizes cleaning time. Stainless steel legs have adjustable stainless steel feet to keep the work surface level, even if the floor isn’t. Aero Hemmed Safety Edges™ on tables and undershelves prevent cuts from rough edges.

 

Clue #5: You can use it to scratch cook if you want to.

Perfect Grip Utensils by TableCraft feature comfortable, ergonomic handles that resist slipping for safe use—even with wet hands. 

The Perfect Grip Line includes 24 dishwasher safe tools, including paring knives, graters, peelers, melon ballers, corers, spatulas, and more. 

Perfect Grip utensils are made of Stainless Steel, provide a hole for hanging, and are NSF listed.

Prep fresh fruits and vegetables fast with the Edlund ARC XL Manual Fruit & Vegetable Slicer. 

The ARC XL uniformly slices almost anything, from apples to zucchini, without electricity. It even slices super-sized onions, full heads of iceberg lettuce, large tomatoes, and more with minimal effort.

It’s a grill, it’s a griddle, it’s a kettle. It’s the Cleveland Power Pan Tilting Skillet, and it will give you menu flexibility like no other single piece of equipment. 

Use it to grill sandwiches for breakfast and lunch, brown ground meats, sauté veggies, simmer sauces, soups, stews, and more.

Available in two, four, or six burner models, the Garland Master Series Heavy Duty Range can meet your cooking needs, whatever the size. Choose from open burners, front fired hot tops, or even-heat sections.

We wish you and your students a great National School Breakfast Week. We’re here to help you solve your operational challenges to increase participation, generate revenue, and support child nutrition and learning all year long. Contact us!