WASHINGTON, DC - Strawberry French toast may not have been on the school breakfast menu when I was in school, but the kids at Smothers Elementary School in Northeast Washington, DC, were served it in celebration of National School Breakfast Week. The week-long event highlights the importance of nutritious breakfast for students and gets children excited about produce consumption.

“Fun, on-trend recipes like Strawberry French Toast encourage kids’ curiosity and enthusiasm for a healthy breakfast that includes fresh fruit. It is our mission, and our joy, to create opportunities for more young people to access fruits and vegetables, while also teaching healthy eating habits,” said Alex DiNovo, Board Chair of the International Fresh Produce Association (IFPA) Foundation for Fresh Produce and President of DNO Produce.

IFPA, along with DC Public Schools (DCPS), DC Central Kitchen, and the United States Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service (USDA FNS), partnered to bring this fun, tasty, and nutritious, new breakfast recipe to DC students, a release reported. DiNovo sat down for breakfast with the students on behalf of IFPA, which organized the meal.

Strawberry French Toast is one of the 10 recipes featured in the Foundation’s new resource, which highlights 10 fruit and vegetable-forward breakfast recipes tailored specifically for K-12 school nutrition programs. The recipes are designed to assist school foodservice professionals in meeting the newly proposed updates to the USDA's school nutrition standards for added sugar limits.

The recipes feature nutritional information, crediting information to align with meal pattern requirements, and guidance on serving these fruit- and vegetable-forward meals in various school breakfast settings, including grab-and-go and breakfast in the classroom.

To read more about these organizations’ efforts, click here.

As the industry works hard to promote fresh produce, AndNowUKnow will share the latest updates.