Pizza, frozen yogurt and grilled cheese is the breakfast of champions, or at least good students at Tahoma Junior High.

Tuesday morning as eighth graders prepared to take the Measurement of Student Progress, or the MSP, they munched on slices of pepperoni and cheese pizza from Garlic Jim’s or slurped frozen yogurt from tubes.

Kim Walley, a mom who is president of the Parent Teacher Association at Tahoma High, first organized a pre-test feeding program for high school students in April for the days they took the High School Proficiency Exam, the successor to the Washington Assessment of Student Learning that teens must pass prior to graduation.

Walley wrote in an email that she was approached by Diane Fox, a vice principal at the high school, “about the idea of having breakfast in the mornings before HSPE testings.”

“We agreed at our PTA meeting that we wanted to support Breakfast HSPE style,” Walley wrote. “The staff and students… thought it was an amazing idea. The teachers commented that the students came in relaxed and focused. Our goal was and is to feed the body so the brain can focus.”

During the pre-test breakfast program at Tahoma High, Jo Haverfield volunteered two days and saw how much of an impact it had, so as the president of the PTA at the junior high she asked Walley to help her organize a similar program at TJHS. Like Walley, Haverfield has students at the junior high and the high school.

“The thought process from the PTA perspective is that studies show kids do better if they eat before a test,” Haverfield said. “It got rave reviews at the high school. I volunteered a couple mornings (at the high school) and I thought it went really well. The junior high heard what they did and the PTA wanted to implement it here.”

Students were appreciative of the PTA’s efforts to make sure they sat down at their desks with full bellies during MPS testing.

Brionna Timmerman said she was surprised when she heard about the pre-test days breakfast scheduled this week.

“I was surprised that they would spend all this time and money to provide us breakfast,” Timmerman said. “I was pretty excited. Some kids don’t actually have breakfast so this is good for the kids who don’t.”

Eighth grader Aharon Lutgen said, “I honestly was excited because I thought it would help me focus on the test. I work better on a full stomach.”

Lutgen explained that he doesn’t always eat breakfast and has found he does better on tests when he does.

“I think this helps,” he said. “I feel like I’m going to do pretty good, amazing, if you will.”

Emily Whatcott said she immediately thought of her best friend when she heard about breakfast “because I know she doesn’t eat breakfast a lot.”

“Also, I was excited,” Whatcott said. “You’ll feel more focused and relaxed. I’m really thankful to the PTA for all that pizza. It’s like 50 zillion boxes.”

According to Haverfield it was more along the lines of 45 boxes of pizza each day along with 150 grilled cheese sandwiches, 192 frozen gogurts along with toast and peanut butter. PTA volunteers also provided gluten free food as well as a nut free zone with those food sensitivities.

After six days of testing, Haverfield said, the PTA will have gone through 82 loaves of bread, 250 pizzas and 1,200 tubes of frozen yogurt.

Jeremy McCaffrey said he wished there was some fruit to balance out the breakfast offerings.

“I thought that it would be really nice to have pizza,” McCaffrey said as he sat at a table with a number of his fellow students.

“It’s a nice thing to do for kids who don’t have money for breakfast. I think it would be better to have some nutritious things like oranges and apples but overall I think it’s good.”

Pizza seemed like an interesting choice to Maddie Minor, who was sitting with McCaffrey, “but I think it will help kids stay focused because not every kid eats breakfast.”

“I know it will help me stay focused,” Minor said. “It makes me less worried. It makes me more calm and ready to take the test.”

What Kyle Peck noticed during breakfast was what seemed like an odd visual of TJHS principal Rob Morrow.

“I thought it was kind of weird because Mr. Morrow was handing out yogurt with pizza,” Peck said. “That’s kind of an interesting combination.”

Peck said he appreciated the opportunity to eat breakfast at school with his friends.

“It really relaxes me to have all my friends here,” he said. “And to have a full stomach.”

At the end of the first breakfast service at TJHS Tuesday, more than 350 students had been fed, and it was a total team effort.

Haverfield wanted to thank Walley for organizing the effort, Lorri Owens for supervising, “Keith Corsack, freelance executive chef, for grilling 150 cheese sandwiches each day, Steve at Garlic Jim’s pizza for supporting our breakfast efforts and having 45 pizzas delivered by 7:45am each day, and all of the parent volunteers who helped serve or donated items….”

After all the kids had eaten, Haverfield said, “I think this is the start of a new tradition.”