Mix It Up at Lunch

Mix It Up at Lunch Day - to be held on November 13, 2008 - is a simple call to action: take a new seat in the cafeteria. By making the move, students can cross the lines of division, meet new people and make new friends.

Make a move and organize Mix It Up at Lunch Day in your school! Remember, Together we Stand - Divided we Fall!

Organize. Mix It Up at Lunch Day is a school-wide effort. Be sure to involve students, teachers, counselors, staff, administrators and school clubs in planning the day. Mix It Up at Lunch Day is most successful when students and adults work together.

• Pull together a group of students who also want to challenge the social boundaries at school and form a planning committee.
• Ask administrators to put Mix It Up at Lunch Day on the school calendar.
• Meet with the cafeteria staff to help organize the events.
• Be creative. Everyone takes a lunch period in school, even if it's not in the cafeteria. If you have an open campus, for example, encourage students to have lunch with a different group while off campus and report back on their experiences.
• Rewards and incentives work, so create a way to honor students who participate.

Planning. Set a meeting schedule and stick to it. Brainstorm ideas with the planning committee about how to make the day work at your school. Consider these pointers:

• Use the Mix It Up Survey (PDF) to see what social boundaries exist at your school.
• Involve students outside of the planning committee to help increase awareness about the day.
• Involve teachers and administrators! Check out these great tips for working with adults.
• Conduct activities before and after the event to drive the lessons home.

Publicize. Promoting Mix It Up at Lunch Day allows students to prepare for the day, understand its purpose, and volunteer to help or ask questions. Download and use our free fliers, stickers, web banners and much more! Take advantage of school media — newspapers and intercom announcements, for example. Visit classrooms to explain the event. Create your own promotional materials, too. Check out these ideas from organizers who planned successful Mix It Up at Lunch Days:

• Teachers and students used daily announcements to promote the day. "At our school, the P.E. coaches performed a skit over the intercom each morning to build anticipation."
• Most schools displayed the FREE Mix It Up posters before the day. Some even created banners, posters and fliers unique to their schools. "We created a Mix It Up mural in the main hallway. Everyone signed the banner committing themselves to take a new seat in the cafeteria."
• Organizers also raised awareness by writing about the day in the school newspaper, newsletter, news broadcast or website. "We put it on the school web page, and we used commercials at school." "We promoted the day on our 25-minute news program we do every Friday."
• Student and teacher organizers held assemblies to talk about the day and get students motivated. "Our PTA organized an assembly with community leaders like a police officer, a news anchor and the coach from our minor league baseball team. They talked to the kids about friendship, cooperation and not bullying."

Educate. Get students and teachers to buy-in by educating them about Mix It Up at Lunch day. Use our free activities, and ask teachers for support.

Act. Go ahead, make the move, and do the day! Mix up lunchroom seating on November 13, 2008. In prior years, Mix It Up at Lunch Day organizers have used these successful ideas:

• Provide each homeroom teacher with a variety of bookmarks containing the image of flags from various countries around the world. The teacher should randomly distribute the bookmarks to students and as they enter the cafeteria, have them locate the table with the coordinating flag indicating where they should sit that day.
• Arrange for the cafeteria to serve sack lunches and host a Mix It Up Olympics outdoors or in the school gym. Much like a field day, students can enjoy a picnic-style lunch and have fun participating in games like a three-legged race; an obstacle course; jump rope contests and more!
• To get the students even more excited, invite local TV news personalities, radio DJs, musicians and other members of the community to participate, too.
• Have students wear white t-shirts to school that day and have new friends autograph their shirts after they introduce themselves.
• Host a Mix It Up assembly the following morning to access student engagement. During this time recognize participants, distribute awards to event organizers and to individuals or groups who truly stood out mixing it up.

Beyond the Day. Remember for Mix It Up to be effective, it has to be treated as more than a one-day activity. Bring the planning committee back together to celebrate and evaluate how things went. The Mix It Up Planner (PDF) will help you Mix It Up beyond the day.