Children across our country will face hunger this year. It’s not a problem that makes the news very often, but it poses a terrible threat to the lives and futures of 13 million kids in America.
It’s a complex problem. To feed all those children you need food, funding, trained staff and equipment. But there is something that solves all of those problems, and its right in front of us.
It’s school breakfast.
Almost every child facing hunger attends a public school, where they get a healthy lunch, for free or at a reduced price, every day. The system, the staff and the infrastructure to feed daily meals to kids is already in place, in our neighborhood schools.
Most importantly, federal funding already exists to pay for not just lunches at school, but breakfast too.
So why aren’t kids eating a free breakfast at school? A couple reasons.
-- It’s hard for any parent to get their kid to school early, when breakfast is served, and low-income families are even less likely to have extra time and resources at their disposal.
-- It can be embarrassing to not have enough food to eat, and kids are especially sensitive to that pressure. “At lot of times, kids don’t want you to know that they’re hungry,” explained Aggie Reyes, who works at a low-income school in Texas.
So what do we do? It’s simple. Instead of serving breakfast in the cafeteria before the bell, we make it part of the regular day, served in the classroom after school starts. Every kid is already there, and if everyone gets whole grain cereal, fresh fruit and orange juice, then no one feels singled out.
The solution is simple: Instead of serving breakfast before the bell, make it part of the school day.
Most importantly, eating breakfast has real, powerful effects for kids. Research shows that students who eat breakfast score significantly higher on tests, and miss less days of school. Those improvements mean those kids are more likely to graduate.
This isn’t just an idea. It’s really working.
As we celebrate National School Breakfast Week, we’re proud to say that more than 3 million more kids are eating breakfast at school since No Kid Hungry started. Thanks to the commitment of teachers, parents and community leaders, along with our local partners across the country and other great national organizations, we have seen real change for kids.
Breakfast, such a small thing, turns out to be a big solution.
Does your child’s school serve breakfast as part of the school day? If not, get involved. Learn more at NoKidHungry.org/Breakfast.
