The Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) awarded Osbourn Park High School with the Virginia School Breakfast Award. This award recognizes schools achieving success in school breakfast, including expanding breakfast access to students, maintaining the nutritional integrity of foods offered, and serving more scratch-cooked foods. Osbourn Park High was one of three recipients this year.

Nidia Bruno, cafeteria manager at Osbourn Park, shared her excitement surrounding the award. "I feel so thankful and so happy for my team. We all work so hard and being recognized like this keeps us going,” Bruno shared. "At the end of the day, the most important thing for us is to feed our kids at Osbourn Park. We have a good family here."

Andrea Early, director of Food and Nutrition, said Prince William County Public Schools (PWCS) is serving more breakfasts per day compared to last year with Osbourn Park seeing an increase in breakfast participation by about 30%.

"All of our schools in PWCS do such a fabulous job with breakfast service. We are serving about 2,000 more breakfasts per day this year compared to last year," Early said.

She commended the Osbourn Park cafeteria team for ensuring a smooth breakfast process for students.

"Nidia and her team have really responded to this school being added to the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) Program,” Early shared. “CEP means that all students receive free breakfast and lunch but if they have to wait in long lines, they may not access breakfast. This team has worked hard to open extra breakfast lines so that they can get kids the good nutrition they need.”

Along with expanding the breakfast program, PWCS school breakfast menus offer a wide range of choices such as hot and cold food options and a seasonal smoothie for middle and high school students.

Members of the VDOE plan to visit Osbourn Park to present the award during School Breakfast Week, which is held the first week of March.