As the culinary director for a restaurant group that includes hotels and all-day cafes, I take breakfast seriously. We create baked goods and dishes that fuel our guests for the day ahead – because you can’t run on an empty gas tank.
But with 1 in 6 kids in America living with hunger, too many kids face the school day without the nutrients they need to learn and grow. So what’s the solution?
I recently joined a dozen chefs from across the country and spent two days in Boston witnessing how No Kid Hungry and their partners help kids get breakfast at school. All Boston Public Schools offer breakfast, but only a fraction of kids who qualify for free breakfast actually receive it. No Kid Hungry has a simple solution: serve breakfast in the classroom as part of the regular school day, not in the cafeteria before the bell.
We saw this in action at Curtis Guild Elementary in East Boston. Principal Karen McCarthy spoke about implementing breakfast in the classroom during the school year and the impact that followed: kids making fewer visits to the school nurse and even behaving better in class. Essentially, they were fueled up and ready to learn.
We also met members of the greater Boston community: leaders from Boston Public Schools, the Mayor’s Office of Food Access, and other nonprofits engaged in ending hunger, like FoodCorps and Project Bread. We met students who ate breakfast in the classroom and received a nutritious snack through afterschool programs. I was encouraged to hear the progress No Kid Hungry has made nationwide, including in my home state of Texas. Since the launch of No Kid Hungry nine years ago, 98,000 kids in Dallas alone now receive a healthy breakfast in their classrooms!
In addition to seeing these programs in action and hearing from those involved, I truly enjoyed speaking with other chefs about our work and charitable efforts, as well as wealth and poverty in our communities. I returned home to Austin feeling connected to a network of generous and passionate culinary professionals – and energized to play my role in ending childhood hunger in America for good.
Learn more about how school breakfast fuels kids to meet their full potential here.
Chef Amanda Rockman is a No Kid Hungry supporter and culinary director at New Waterloo in Austin, Texas.
