CVSD offering yogurt parfaits as healthy breakfast option

At North Pines Middle School on Monday morning, students had a chance to try a new healthy breakfast choice and enter for a chance to win an iPad Mini.

The Central Valley School District has added yogurt parfaits to its breakfast menus one day a week to encourage kids to participate in breakfast and give them a healthy option many of them can make at home.

“It’s a great healthy snack or breakfast,” said Denice Kwate, nutrition services director for the district.

To kick things off, the district partnered with the Washington Dairy Council for recipes and it sponsored the “iBreakfast” drawing. Students who eat breakfast on the day they get the parfaits get one raffle ticket. Students who choose a parfait will get two tickets. Each week, three students in the district will win iTunes gift cards worth $15. After eight weeks, three students will win an iPad Mini.

Kwate said the parfaits give students protein from the yogurt, vitamins from the fruit and carbohydrates from the granola.

“It gives you everything you need for a great morning,” Kwate said.

The district’s five middle schools began the program Monday morning. Elementary students could choose the parfaits today. Barker High School and Summit School received them Wednesday. The parfaits have always been on the high school menus, and the promotion starts Friday.

Students have a choice of blueberry, strawberry or a mix of the two at the bottom. If students don’t want granola, they can select a parfait without the granola and get a package of a low-sugar cereal to pour on top.

“They’re yummy,” said Riley Gilliland, a sixth-grader trying a parfait for the first time.

Kaylee Pilgrim, another sixth grader, said cinnamon rolls are her usual favorite school breakfast.

“I’m usually not a big fan of yogurt,” she said, but she did think the parfait was good. “I have to say I like the cinnamon rolls better.”

Cinnamon rolls are a popular option at North Pines. Seventh-grader Suzanne Moehle said she likes them, too, as well as breakfast bars.

“It’s good,” she said of the parfait.

Robin Meier, lead cook at North Pines, said about 120 to 130 students eat breakfast at school every day. During Monday’s breakfast, strawberry seemed to be the most popular flavor.

“That surprises me, because they’ve been having strawberries every Tuesday for lunch,” she said.

For breakfast, students choose three items. There is milk, fruit or juice, a grain and a dairy option.

Breakfast is $1.95, students who receive free or reduced lunch get breakfast for free. At North Pines, 65.8 percent of the 505 students receive free or reduced lunch.

The parfaits proved to be a popular option for the students. Of the 80 Meier made, there were just a few left by the time students headed to class.