How Minneapolis Public Schools successfully reduced added sugars at breakfast

They say breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and for students at Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS), it’s now one of the healthiest as well. 

Over the past couple of years, the nutrition team has been working to reduce added sugars in the morning meal, especially on its elementary school menus. 

“We basically took off five items that had averaged 15 grams of sugar and replaced them with different things that were made in-house and that contained protein instead,” says MPS Menu Administrator Amanda Ewest. 

Older students have also seen changes to their breakfast offerings with the addition of new scratch-made options like breakfast burritos and egg bakes. 

The teams’ efforts at revamping their breakfast offerings have paid off and they were recently awarded a Breakfast Trailblazer Healthy Meals Incentives Recognition Award from nonprofit Action for Healthy Kids and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in recognition of their accomplishments. 

Bringing breakfast in-house 

The five items that the team removed at the elementary level were mostly manufactured, grain-based items that included breakfast bars and more. 

In their place, the team has introduced dishes such as breakfast sandwiches and pancake stackers, which Ewest describes as “pancake sandwiches made with protein.” 

In addition, the team has taken off a handful of its cereals with higher added sugars and has replaced its yogurt with one that has less sugar and is sourced locally. 

While the menu changes were a little upsetting for some students initially, the team made an effort to gradually take away and replace the old menu items one at a time, so it wasn’t too overwhelming. 

“Because we did it slowly, it wasn't such a shock to them,” says Ewest. 

Upper-school students have also seen changes to their breakfast offerings over the past few years. Like at the elementary schools, Ewest and the team have leaned into serving more protein-focused dishes. 

They recently found a local turkey supplier to make turkey chorizo, sausage and more which is used in items like breakfast burritos, breakfast quesadillas, breakfast tacos and egg bakes. 

Alongside the protein-heavy menu items, Ewest has also introduced a series of housemade baking mixes. The mixes are prepared at the district’s central kitchen and then delivered to the school kitchens where liquids are added and then baked into a variety of pastries and breads. 

Unlike pre-bought mixes, the in-house versions allow the team to have control over how much sodium and sugar end up in the finished product, according to Ewest. It also allows them to play around with different ingredients.

For the first three months of the school year while zucchinis were in season, for example, the team used one of their mixes to create a bread made with zucchini that was sourced locally. 

Zucchini season is now over, so starting this month, students will get to enjoy an apple-cinnamon breakfast bread instead. 

Significantly reducing added sugars at breakfast can be an overwhelming task for any school nutrition operator, Ewest says. 

For Minneapolis Public Schools, the trick was to go slow and a gradually introduce the new menu items so both students and staff could get used to the new routine. Ewest recommends other school nutrition operators do the same, even if it may seem like those shifts aren’t making a difference. 

“Small changes add up,” she says.