Grab n Go

Launched in 2005 by Balboa High School in the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD), Grab n Go is a program that aims to reduce the number of students who do not eat breakfast or who eat junk food for breakfast in order to improve overall healthiness and educational receptiveness. Traditional school breakfasts require that students arrive 30 minutes prior to school to have a sit-down breakfast in the cafeteria. In contrast, Grab n Go is served in the cafeteria, as early as 30 minutes before school and until class starts. Students have the choice to eat in the cafeteria before class, as many do, or to grab a nutritious breakfast and eat during the first 10 minutes of class if they do not arrive early to school. The Grab n Go breakfast meets not only USDA standards, but also the stricter SFUSD student nutrition policy, and includes milk and fresh fruit or 100% fruit juice in every meal.

The goal of Grab n Go's is to ensure students begin the day with a healthy meal, in turn affecting overall health and education of students.

Prior to program implementation, around 80 students ate breakfast at Balboa High School. Moreover, in a survey of 250 students, around 25% indicated they never eat breakfast, while another 50% said that they sometimes eat breakfast. In less than two years of implementation of Grab n Go, participation in the breakfast program increased to 230 students in February 2007, of 1080 students enrolled at Balboa. A new Point of Sale (POS) system was developed in 2006. The new POS system eliminates use of cash, making for a quicker transaction. Parents can put money on students' ID cards, and the ID card is swiped to validate transactions. This also reduces the stigma around getting a "free" breakfast, by using the swipe of an ID to validate both reimbursable meals and paid meals. In addition, the POS system allows for more mobile distribution of breakfast: two weeks prior to the February 2007 evaluation, POS system was used to distribute breakfasts from the school lobby, where all students pass through, to allow students who come in at the last minute to also have breakfast. This garnered additional students, raising participation from an average of 175 students to 230.