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A new national report shows that many of Colorado’s low-income children continue to needlessly start their school day hungry. Despite a national trend of increased participation in the School Breakfast Program among low-income children, there was no increase in Colorado this year. While over 59,000 children in Colorado received free or reduced price meals, there was no increased participation of low-income children eating breakfast at school compared to the prior year. In fact, more than 113,000 low-income Colorado children who participate in school lunch go without school breakfast. A main reason for this is that in Colorado over a third of the schools that offered school lunch did not participate in school breakfast. These results are part of the School Breakfast Scorecard which the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) released last month.
Rick Rank, President of the Colorado Anti-hunger Network said, "Schools have a large responsibility for assuring children’s intellectual and physical development, both of which require proper nutrition. It is crucial that low-income children be given as many opportunities to receive nutritious food as possible. There is no better way to reach children at risk of hunger than through school and community organizations. Their food options elsewhere are likely to be more limited and less nutritious."
FRAC President James Weill said, "No child should have to start the school day hungry to learn, but unable to do so because of a hungry stomach. The states and schools that are leaving behind millions of hungry children need to act now. And this is the perfect time, since Congress has told them to address student wellness problems this year."
Getting the most out of school breakfast means more schools offering breakfast, and more children participating when their school does offer it. In Colorado in 2004-2005, over a third of the schools that offered school lunch did not participate in the School Breakfast Program.
School Breakfast Program performance among the states varied widely. FRAC identified Colorado as being among 12 states that had the worst results in 2004-2005 in reaching low-income youngsters with school breakfasts.
FRAC estimated that if Colorado provided access to school breakfast at the level achieved by the top three states (a ratio of 55 out of 100 low-income students), the program would serve an additional 35,612 children and provide a total of $7.2 million each year in additional federal funds to Colorado schools.
State laws that mandate participation and appropriate funds to support breakfast expansion can make a difference. The state of Virginia appropriated $1,172,020 to establish an incentive program to increase student participation in the School Breakfast Program and breakfast participation increased by 11 percent statewide. In contrast, the lack of a mandate, or state appropriation by the Colorado legislature to support breakfast expansion in poor-performing schools, most likely has contributed to the lack of progress. In these times of linking school funding to how well students perform academically it is important to look at obstacles to learning that accompany poor nutrition. The Learning Connection: The Value of Improving Nutrition and Physical Activity in Our Schools is a report that links poor nutrition among school age children with low achievement. The report points out, "Skipping breakfast leads to poor concentration and poor test scores and eating poorly leads to absenteeism."
| | Kathy Underhill from Food Bank of the Rockies said, "We were raised hearing the adage that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Now there is research to back that up, including a Harvard Medical School study that found that breakfast eaters are a third less likely to be obese, a serious consideration in the link between poverty and obesity. Since the time between dinner and breakfast is the longest without a meal, breakfast plays an important role in stabilizing blood sugar levels which regulate appetite and energy." Through the Food Bank of the Rockies Kids Cafes, which offer an evening meal to low-income children attending after school programming, Underhill said "we see the impact meals have on children’s behavior and concentration levels. We realize that adding a meal program at schools is an undertaking, but believe it is an investment in our future as a State--one that could pay off in lower health care costs and higher earning potential."
Making sure schools participate, conducting outreach, and connecting breakfast to local wellness policies are among strategies that can help increase breakfast participation, according to FRAC Senior Policy Analyst Randy Rosso, the principal author of the FRAC Scorecard. Those states with the lowest proportion of their schools in the program generally have the fewest children in the program.
Local school wellness policies are being developed in school districts across the nation in response to a new law requiring their implementation in the 2006-2007 school year. The Colorado Senate passed legislation in 2005 encouraging school districts to adopt model wellness policies, and the State Board of Education published an implementation guide which includes resources about school breakfast including the FRAC School Breakfast Scorecard. "The purpose of local wellness policies is to improve children’s nutrition and prevent childhood obesity," said Lynn Parker, FRAC’s Director of Child Nutrition Programs and Nutrition Policy. "Because the School Breakfast Program contributes to the achievement of these nutrition and health goals, making school breakfasts available to all students and promoting their participation in the program are vital ingredients for all local wellness policies."
The School Breakfast Program provides cash assistance to states to operate nonprofit breakfast programs in schools and residential childcare institutions. The program operates in more than 72,000 schools and institutions, serving a daily average of some 8.4 million children. It is administered at the federal level by the United States Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service. The Colorado Department of Education administers the program in Colorado and local school food authorities operate it in schools. Schools are reimbursed for all or part of the cost of every meal, depending on the incomes of participating children’s families.
Editor’s note: A copy of the School Breakfast Scorecard: 2005 is available on the Food Research and Action Center’s web site at www.frac.org. The Colorado Anti-hunger Network (www.coloradoantihunger network.org) is a statewide organization of private, public and non-profit agencies working to alleviate hunger through advocacy, food policy, research and resource development. The Food Research and Action Center (www.frac.org) is the leading national organization working for more effective public and private policies to eradicate domestic hunger and under-nutrition. |
