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Did You Know...
You can offer Meat/Meat Alternate every morning for school breakfast?
FACTS:
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The School Breakfast Program Meal Pattern allows menu planners to offer meat/meat alternates every day to accommodate local preferences. Meat/meat alternates aren’t required at breakfast, but USDA allows program operators to count meat/meat alternates towards the weekly grain requirement as long as the program operators offer 1 ounce equivalent (oz. eq.) of grain, a meat/meat alternate may also be offered at breakfast. In addition, meats/meat alternates may be offered as “extra foods”, as long as the weekly dietary specifications for calories, saturated fat, and sodium are met.
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Sample School Breakfast with Optional Meat/Meat Alternate Component
Food Component Meal Pattern Contribution to Meet Daily Requirement
Fluid Milk 1 cup
Fruit 1 cup
Grain 1 oz. eq.
Meat/Meat Alternate Option 1: 1 oz. eq. credits toward the Grain component.
Option 2: Offer as an extra food item
Breakfast Ideas:
- Scramble up your breakfast offerings with a Vegetable Frittata. Perfect for grab and go!
- What’s going to bring students back for breakfast tomorrow? Turkey bacon or Turkey Breakfast Sausage! Make it lower sodium so you can serve it again and again, if you’d like.
- It’s cheesy but true – cheese and eggs go together like Stars and Stripes!
- Spice up breakfast with a southwest black bean omelet or a Beef and Bean Tamale Pie and serve two servings of meat/meat alternates to students!
- Feeling fancy? Layer yogurt, berries, and granola for a yogurt parfait treat!
- Get the blender ready, because yogurt smoothies are a great way to serve a meat alternate for breakfast! Yogurt may be credited as a meat alternate in smoothies for all meals, including snacks.
- Are you nuts? Nut and seed butters are a simple and cost-effective way to include a meat alternate at breakfast.
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Cost Saving Tips:
- Check the USDA Foods Available List to find meats or meat alternates to offer at breakfast! USDA Foods include a varied selection of high quality, domestically produced foods.
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Offer Versus Serve (OVS) can help you stay in budget. Although OVS is optional at breakfast for all grade groups, some schools use it to increase participation and reduce food waste and costs. A meat/meat alternate may be included in the menu to offer four food items for OVS at breakfast.
Resources for Menu Planning:
- The Menu Planner for School Meals guides school nutrition professionals through the development of healthy, safe, affordable, and appealing school breakfasts, lunches, and snacks that meet the meal patterns.
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USDA’s Team Nutrition Recipes are delicious, appealing, and kid-approved. They are standardized to provide crediting information to help meet the meal pattern requirements.
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