The alarm goes off and for Junior Brian Kondor, it’s still too early to get out of bed. He goes through his morning routine of stumbling around and pulling on a Transformers shirt and a pair of jeans.

By the time he’s completely ready for the day, it is 6:45 a.m. He runs out of his house, hops onto the bus, and realizes he didn’t grab anything to eat. His stomach begins to rumble.

Arriving at school, he wanders the building looking for something to munch on. Eventually his search leads him to the cafeteria.

Since March 2007, Tabb’s Cafeteria has run an a la carte breakfast program. It is run by the Aramark Corporation and serves foods that appeal to the tastes of high school teenagers such as waffles and biscuit sandwiches. Although all students know about the lunch program, many students are not aware of its breakfast counter-part.

“It felt weird being there so early in the morning,” Kondor said. “I walked up to the counter and asked what was good. The lady told me the sausage and cheese biscuit was the top seller and that she recommended it to everyone who asked.”

A study published in Physiology & Behavior, a notable scientific journal, shows that children who eat breakfast perform better in school. The type of breakfast someone eats also affects performance.

Eating a breakfast consisting of soda or sugary cereal raises your blood sugar quickly and then causes it to crash, creating the feeling of a tough morning. Eating a more rounded meal high in grains, such as oatmeal and toast, lets blood sugar rise and fall more slowly.

A cycle like that will give a student the energy he needs to get to lunch without his stomach rumbling in class. It also enables the student to focus on the tasks at hand.

Seniors Jaime Keene and David Anton, who understand the importance of eating a healthy breakfast, are regular customers.

Keene said, “I find it convenient because as long as I show up there in the morning, and David feels like buying me food, I will not go hungry.” Anton frequently buys his friend breakfast.

“The food is pretty good. It can vary in temperature and quality, but overall I’m satisfied,” Anton said. “It is a bit pricey but I’m willing to pay to feel full in the morning. I’d have to say the best part of breakfast is the free jelly. It tastes really good and I think you can eat as much as you want, as long as you buy a biscuit.”

Program manager Dianna Kemp said the menu usually contains items such as French toast, hash browns, and the high-selling sausage and cheese biscuit. They do sell other breakfast sandwiches such as a ham and cheese biscuit and plain bagels for jelly or cream cheese.

Kemp said that the price of a meal at breakfast is comparable to that of a lunch meal. “Both well rounded meals cost about two dollars,” she said.