SALT LAKE CITY — Students attend school to learn, but when their stomachs aren't full, research says education falters.
And according to a recent report on school breakfast offerings, Utah doesn't seem to be doing too good of a job feeding kids who might be missing out on that "most important meal of the day" at home.
"We are good about having breakfast programs available in our state," said Marti Woolford, a Utahns Against Hunger advocate. "We do have them, but they're in the cafeteria and they're offered before school starts at most of our schools. That's not a successful way to serve breakfast if you want high participation."
Schools that give students different options to access food for breakfast are getting more eligible participants involved, collecting more federal reimbursement dollars and are having more success overall, Woolford said.
"When kids get a proper breakfast, they're more ready to learn, their test scores are higher and attendance rates are better," she said. "Improving participation rates in breakfast is an obtainable goal and will lead to healthier and hunger-free children."
James E. Moss Elementary School is one of several in the Granite School District and about 70 schools across the state that has implemented delivery of breakfast to classrooms after school has started. Woolford said the alternative process eliminates a barrier for students who would rather play with friends before the bell rings, instead of going to the cafeteria with kids labeled as "the poor kids" to get breakfast.
"A lot of kids choose not to eat when their parents might think that they are," she said, adding that teenagers "are notorious for not being hungry in the mornings." Some middle, junior and high schools in Utah offer kiosks in the hallway where kids can grab nutritious items for breakfast between classes in the mornings.
"There's a lot of benefits for school breakfast being offered that helps students' lives, not only nutritionally, but academically as well," said Lori Andersen, an assistant professor of health promotion and researcher at Utah State University, whose main focus is on school nutrition programs.
Andersen said participation in school breakfast helps kids who don't get fed enough or don't have access to a wholesome breakfast at home. She said studies have shown eating breakfast leads to improved dietary intake, lower body mass index, decreased hunger throughout the day, improved academic performance and even better behavior. Having access to the food kids need to learn and grow, such as whole grains, fruits and vegetables and dairy products, Andersen added, also leads to higher attendance, a decrease in tardiness and a decline in disciplinary issues at school.
"Generally, kids who are fed and not worried about hunger issues have an easier time concentrating on the academic tasks they need to be successful students," she said.
A recent transplant to Utah, Andersen said she was shocked to learn that Utah — a generally healthy state — had low rates of participation in school breakfast programs.
On an average school day during the 2014-15 school year, 60,605 eligible Utah students participated in the state's school breakfast program, according to a report released in February by the Food Research and Action Center, a national anti-hunger organization that tracks habits of programs across the United States. In contrast, 174,160 students eat free or reduced-price lunches at Utah schools.
Utah's rate is well below the national average, as nearly half of kids who eat free or reduced-price lunches at schools across the country eat breakfast there, as well.
Federal free and reduced-price lunch programs were created in the 1960s "to fill nutritional gaps and help families stretch limited budgets so all students can start the day ready to learn," the report states. Children in low-income homes, as well as foster youth, migrant and homeless children, runaways and Head Start participants are eligible for the programs, which are managed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The Food Research and Action Center claims that in addition to lost academic potential and possible health benefits for students, states not maximizing school breakfast participation are missing out on "significant potential economic activity that comes with millions of dollars' worth of additional federal resources coming into the state and local communities."
Utah, the report points out, could glean $16 million in federal reimbursements if the state could double school breakfast program participation rates.
Participation rates have increased at James E. Moss Elementary School due to the new, alternative serving method practiced there. Teachers who were initially leery of losing valuable teaching time have since realized that serving breakfast to kids who need it after the bell rings only helps those students concentrate more, Woolford said.
"Even if your kid is coming to school fed, their classmates maybe are hungry and disruptive because of it and that is affecting the whole class," she said.
The federal government has also recently enacted the Community Eligibility Provision, which allows schools to make breakfast and lunch available at no cost to all students at high-poverty level schools. Utah has 68 schools that are eligible for such funding bumps, but the program is only in effect at 22.
Woolford and Andersen are members of a group called the Utah Breakfast Expansion Team, whose aim is to get more eligible kids to eat breakfast at school. The group is putting together a survey to gather parental perceptions of existing breakfast programs in Utah schools. The hope is to identify why more kids aren't participating, but also educate the public and reduce the stigma that is associated with both the school breakfast and lunch programs.
"We want to emphasize the importance of breakfast," Andersen said. "It's about nutrition. It's about fighting obesity. It's about hunger."
Woolford said it just "makes sense" to feed kids when they're settled in the classroom. And because kids can take what food they want, anyone who wants or needs it is served.
The programs are available year-round. "Childhood hunger is a year-round issue," Woolford said, adding that some schools hand out food on Fridays to help kids make it through the weekend at home.
For more information on child nutrition programs offered in the state, visit schools.utah.gov/cnp.
Email: wleonard@deseretnews.com
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