MENTOR-ON-THE-LAKE, Ohio — Tyler Hayes wakes up to a schoolhouse breakfast and says he noticed early morning cafeteria changes at Elyria High School.
“They got it more organized,” said Tyler, a 16-year-old 11th grader. “You can make a sandwich and have yogurt now. You can get your sandwich and tell them the toppings you want on it. You also can get cereal.
“The sandwiches and yogurt are good. I don’t eat cereal.”
Chef Scott Teaman, the Sodexo food services director at Elyria City Schools, said students responded positively this fall to experiments with breakfast food offered at the high school.
“We increased 100 to 125 breakfasts a day over the past two weeks,” Teaman said. “We have our staff making the breakfast sandwiches fresh in front of them, so the kids know it’s fresh. We don’t have it in the back where it’s hidden anymore.”
Teaman expects to increase a current rate of 325 to 330 breakfasts served a day to the lunch rate of 1,000 a day now that students communicated their preferences.
On Thursdays the breakfast team launches a specialty sandwich students rave over, Teaman said.
“(Sept. 18) it was chicken and waffles. They want it back again,” Teaman said. “It’s a chicken breast patty between two waffles with a little cup of syrup to dip it in. (Sept. 25) it was a Pioneer Griddle, which is two pancakes with eggs, cheese and sausage between them.
“We’re trying to see what the kids like, and we’re bringing it on certain days of the week, so they know that is the day they can have this sandwich,” Teaman said. “The problem we had here and throughout America, really, is kids get up and they just come to school. Not very many of them eat breakfast. This is hot. It’s made their way