That's a Wrap: Millis Teens Win School Breakfast Video Contest
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
By: Project Bread

Teens presented with $1,000 for winning video, "The Breakfast Wrap"

(Boston, MA – May 30, 2012) Millis Public Schools have some future directors, actors, and singers on their hands as teens from Millis High School won the school breakfast video contest, “School Breakfast: Eat. Film. Screen,” sponsored by Project Bread and the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (MDESE).

The winning video, “The Breakfast Wrap,” which uses a high-energy hip hop music message, will be used to promote the school breakfast program throughout the state. Four Millis High School Students, all juniors at the time of production, appeared singing their message with smiling food service workers supporting them in the cafeteria. They won for creativity, style, and for showing the range of healthy food options shown at school. The Millis students will receive a grand prize of a $1,000 gift card and their video will appear on the WHDH-TV show, “Urban Update” in the fall.

Danielle Mannion, the TV Production Teacher at Millis High school who instructed the winning class, explains: “We are very grateful to Project Bread and the MDESE for the opportunity to participate in this contest. The students are researching new equipment to purchase with the prize money earned. The PSA not only won them the prize, but the winning team received free school breakfast for one week from our cafeteria! I know this experience will continue to have a positive impact on future productions!”
 
In March, students were asked to participate in the School Breakfast video contest by submitting a 30-second video PSA promoting the benefits of school breakfast and encouraging peers to eat a healthy breakfast before classes begin. The videos were uploaded to SchoolTube.com, a safe online space for teachers and students to share media, and the public voted on the videos.
 
The contest, in its second year, received 51 entries from 17 different high and middle schools across Massachusetts. Walpole High School’s “Breakfast Can Change Your Life” was the second place winner with a student narrator encouraging a clueless fellow student to eat, and will receive a $300 gift card. Milton High School’s Group B, which created its message using the black and white styling of silent movies used in the recent Academy Award winner, “The Artist,” won third place and a $200 gift card. Honorable Mention was given to Lowell High School’s entry, “Eating a Healthy Breakfast,” which used a split screen to argue compare the success of a student who eats with one who does not, and to the Robert J. Coelho Middle School in Attleboro, MA which created “Top Ten Reasons to Eat a Healthy Breakfast.”
 
“We see through this program that students are some of the most effective spokespersons for carrying a message to other students,” said Ellen Parker, executive director of Project Bread. “They have credibility, energy, and impressive creativity. We’re delighted that so many are responding to our contest and hope to continue it as an annual event!”

 
About Project Bread
 
As the state’s leading antihunger organization, Project Bread is dedicated to alleviating, preventing, and ultimately ending hunger in Massachusetts. Through The Walk for Hunger, the oldest continual pledge walk in the country, Project Bread provides millions of dollars each year in privately donated funds to support hunger relief through emergency programs, schools, community health centers, farmers’ markets, community suppers, home care organizations, and other programs that protect the individual and strengthen our community food security. For more information, visit www.projectbread.org.

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