A healthy breakfast is the only way for Adelaide Crows players to start each day.

As an elite athlete Scott Welsh knows that eating a nutritious breakfast is the basis for a healthy mind and body.

Welsh, along with team mates Nathan Bassett and Marty Mattner joined school children from Hendon Primary School in Adelaide's west as they tucked into their weetbix and fruit earlier this week.

The trio, representing the Crows Foundation, were on hand to help launch the Australian Red Cross 'Adopt a School program".

Last year the Crows Foundation launched the Red Cross Good Start Breakfast club in South Australia.

The Breakfast Club runs three days a week in 11 schools across SA providing breakfast on average to 30 students per school.

According to the Red Cross, the number of children who attend school in Australia without a nutritious breakfast is alarming. The Breakfast Club program works to ensure young nutritionally at-risk children are given an opportunity to get a good start to their school day.

This week the Crows Foundation became the first organisation in SA to adopt a school, Hendon Primary, involved in the Red Cross Good Start Breakfast Club.

There are more than 40 schools across SA on a waiting list to become involved with the Good Start Breakfast Club.

Nathan Bassett has thrown down a challenge to other businesses and organisations in SA to follow the lead of the Crows Foundation by adopting a breakfast club school in their local community.

Currently funded by government and community support, the Adopt a School scheme is a way for local business to get involved in the program.

Apart from the funding, the “Adopt a School Breakfast Club” program also provides organisations with a unique opportunity for their staff to engage in community volunteering.

The Crows Foundation was launched in May 2005 with the primary focus of the Foundation to oversee and co-ordinate activities that raise funds for causes involving children in need. Every dollar of funds raised through the Crows Foundation is donated to nominated beneficiaries.

Over the past year the Crows Foundation has raised over $100, 000 which has been distributed to numerous charities including the Juvenile Diabetes Research Fund, Camp Quality, the Bone Growth Foundation, Danny Ross Foundation, Cranio Facial Australia and the Red Cross "Breakfast Club" program.