John and Lorraine Millan are parents from El Monte, Calif., a multi-ethnic, working-class city near Los Angeles. Lorraine is a stay-at-home mom, while John works as a driver in the nearby city of Anaheim.
In this interview, they talk about what the free breakfast program has meant for their son . (The interview has been edited for length and clarity.)
Your son Nathan is in the fifth grade, and he eats breakfast here at school. How does that help?
Lorraine: The school breakfast really does help us financially, because with two growing boys they can eat a lot, and having just that alone helps us budget our finances later on in the week or in the month or whatever it is that we need to set a foundation for, what we need to spend that month.
What do the kids say about the breakfast at school?
John: They look forward to it. It gives them time to sit down with their friends and their classmates, building that unity, sort of family and community within the classroom and just having small talk in the morning.
Lorraine: We talk to Nathan when he gets in the car. What did you have for breakfast? What did you guys eat today? And he tells us what his favorite breakfast is or what he had. His teacher puts on music and it kind of helps them calm down a little bit and everybody gets to sit down and get ready for the day. So I do see the benefits and it does help them out.
What do you worry about, as parents?
Lorraine: There's always the worry of 'Are we providing enough?'. Do they get what they need? Do they have everything that other kids are offered? It's definitely a balancing act trying to get for them what they need and what they want but we have made it work.
With programs like this, the free lunch and the free breakfast, it definitely helps a lot. It's the difference between do we have to wait because we have to pay this bill, that bill.
Do you ever worry about not having enough money for food?
John: Yes. You know sometimes the bills are higher and we need to pay bills or we won't have electricity or gas. We have to go to the 99-cent store to get vegetables or snacks for the kids. We always make it work.
Does Nathan know other kids who are struggling with hunger?
Lorraine: From time to time he brings up issues where some of his friends maybe are having a hard time at home. We've noticed that with our other son as well. You never know what kids are struggling with. You know, just because they act a certain way, it's not because they're bad, it's sometimes that they are a product of their environment.
John: Those are some of the reasons why we are very involved in the classroom and the school. We know that not everybody has a mother and father at home. I like to come and be a positive male figure. I've even had student come and say 'I wish you were my dad', something like that. It really touches me.
It sounds like the breakfast program has been good for the kids here.
Lorraine: I think it should be available to every student everywhere. I don't see any negative effects of it, just positive, not only in the classroom but for school as a whole, for every student.
You know some kids don't have the advantage of having a homemade breakfast every morning, or the option to go buy food, so they do wait until lunch time. And that's pretty tough for a kid to have to concentrate in school, being hungry. That's a really tough tough issue. Just having the breakfast available to all students is pretty amazing.
And it does help them be a community; serve, sit, eat together and not many kids may have that at home. So when they do have it at school, it kind of touches their heart in a little way.
