The regular price for the middle school breakfast will be at 80 cents. Students qualifying for both free and reduced lunch prices, will receive the breakfast for free.

The district’s two elementary schools – North and South – already have a long-established breakfast program, the district having begun its breakfast program in about 1994. The high school will remain without breakfast. Breakfast can’t currently be served at the high school since the school store would be open at the same time and federal programs can’t be in competition, Princeton School District Director of Business Services Carol Breitkreutz said.

The Princeton district’s food service director, Teresa Danner, recommended the breakfast plan for the middle school, which has grades 6-8. Click here to continue reading.

It’s been around since the late 1990s. But now a new documentary is showing how the program is working here in Minnesota.

We went to Hopkins West Junior High School where the system has been in place since 2009.

Hopkins West Junior High is one of 160 Minnesota school districts that are participating in the farm to school program.

Barb Mechura, director of nutrition services, has made it her mission to push for fresh produce.

“I think the Farm-to-School program is important because it really connects children with where their food comes from,” said Mechura. “The program helps our health crisis. These foods are so much more nutrient dense, we’re giving them minerals and nutrients that our body needs.” Click here to read more

Bertrand Weber still remembers his reaction years ago when he toured the assembly line producing meals in plastic containers for Minneapolis schools: “Why are we sending TV dinners out to kids?”

At the time, Weber was being hailed among the state’s school lunch directors the changes he’d made in the Hopkins district, introducing fresh, nutritious ingredients that gave students a choice. Now after six years supplying districts in the private sector, Weber has taken over as the Minneapolis district’s nutrition director, overseeing the Plymouth Avenue food facility and bringing big plans to transform what city kids eat.

Students will get wider choices and fresher ingredients, more of them from regional farmers. They’ll get more real vegetables — squash and sweet potatoes, spinach and broccoli — instead of constant French fries. The district is looking for land for an urban farm that will educate students about what they eat. Click here to continue story.