Lights, camera, action!
This spring, national nonprofit No Kid Hungry visited the El Monte City School District (EMCSD) to produce a video on its Breakfast in the Classroom (BIC) Program. The EMCSD BIC program is a universal free breakfast program that has been serving students in grades K-6 since SY 2013-2014. It is complimented by a Grab N’ Go Program for students in grades 7-8.
The visitors were up bright and early to watch EMCSD Child Nutrition employees prepare breakfast for students at Cherrylee and Shirpser schools. The crew then visited classrooms to see how students in El Monte use the first 10 minutes of their days to have a healthy meal, while also preparing for their academic lessons. After the classroom visits, the film crew interviewed principals, teachers, students, parents, and Child Nutrition staff on camera to learn about the ways BIC implementation has impacted the school community. The video production was a nice reminder that breakfast in El Monte is a team effort. Everyone from community liaisons to
secretaries to student leadership teams were engaged to make the two days of filming successful!
The video was also a way to say thank you to Robert and Susan Downey. Their Random Acts Funding provided EMCSD with a generous breakfast refresh grant to update their BIC equipment. The acclaimed actor was the first to share the finished video on his personal facebook and twitter accounts, posting “Thanx @NoKigHungry for keeping my El Monte Cali superheroes #powererdbybreakfast!” The video had over 300,000 views in the first week it was live. The hope is that this video—and other similar videos—will create buy-in for breakfast-after-the-bell programs in other school districts.
School Breakfast Makes Every Kid a Superhero