School Breakfast Programs Show Promise When Meals are Brought to Classrooms

July 3, 2013- Since Middle school principal Sean McElhaney launched an alternative breakfast program that brings the morning meal directly into classrooms, he’s seen a difference in student performance: Discipline problems at his school, Old Mill Middle School North in Anne Arundel County, Md., are at an all-time low, and academic achievement has improved, The Nation’s Health reports.

One student at Old Mill had complained that he couldn’t concentrate on an exam because he hadn’t eaten since the day before.

“We always say breakfast is the most important meal,” said Molly McCloskey, MEd, Maryland director of the No Kid Hungry campaign.

When low-income students have access to a healthy breakfast, there’s the potential to improve not just their health but their academic success and long-term future, according to a national analysis released earlier this year by the No Kid Hungry campaign. If 70 percent of elementary and middle school students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunches also ate breakfast at school, that could result in 4.8 million fewer school absences per year and 807,000 more students graduating from high school, according to the campaign, part of Share our Strength, a national hunger organization.

“Millions of kids struggle with hunger, but less than half of kids getting a free or reduced-priced lunch are getting a breakfast,” said Josh Wachs, chief strategy officer for Share Our Strength and No Kid Hungry.

Improving the reach of school breakfast programs hinges on moving breakfast out of the cafeteria, research shows. A pilot project by the American Association of School Administrators found that a top barrier to schoolchildren eating breakfast is the stigma that only “poor kids” eat breakfast in the cafeteria. Another barrier is transportation, since some children arrive at school too late for a cafeteria-served breakfast.

The Association project showed that by offering alternative breakfasts, including breakfast in classrooms, vending machines that offer a balanced breakfast and grab-and-go carts in school hallways, breakfast reaches far more kids.

In fact, schools in all four of the pilot-project districts saw increases in school breakfast participation, with one New York school district seeing an increase from 17 percent to 42 percent in its school breakfast program.  

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