The Breakfast Club

When you take care of your body you take care of your soul.  Coming out of the Covid-19 shutdowns and returning to our new normal, the Muhlenberg County Cooperative Extension Service staff discussed the need to reconnect to the teens in our county.  The 4-H agent for youth development along with the Nutrition Education Program assistant identified a healthy way to reach out to our teens.  The Breakfast Club come from this brainstorming session.  The Breakfast Club combined mindfulness, physical activity, and health eating with the 4-H Teen Club.  The youth signed a healthy breakfast challenge, they pledged to eat healthy breakfast options at their monthly meetings and forgo the traditional doughnuts served at their meetings, committed to five-minute mindfulness, and challenges to increase their physical activity.  

 According to the Choose My Plate website only 36% of teens eat breakfast each morning.  Breakfast is just that, break the overnight fast.  A healthy breakfast replenishes and boost energy levels and alertness while providing essential nutrients for good health.  As a part of the Breakfast Club teens were taught to prepare quick and healthy breakfast options like, one minute oatmeal, fruit and yogurt parfaits, egg and spinach burritos, scrambled eggs in a cup.  Lifelong cooking and money saving skills were achieved through this component of the club.  As the teens made the switch from sugary breakfast options to more nutritious breakfast options they stated they felt better and had the feeling of being full longer.

Mindfullness means paying full attention to what you’re doing, slowing down to really notice what you’re doing. Youth were encouraged to take five minutes to practice being mindful.  Mindfullness for  youth helped them to stay calm under stress, be more patient, be less distractable, and generally get along better.

At the conclusion of the Breakfast Club eighteen of the twenty five students completed the NEP pre and post evaluations.  According to their pre and post evaluations 100% of youth in grades 9-12 showed improvement in one or more core areas.  The group requested the healthy breakfast options for their 2022-2023 club year as  well.