Breakfast: The Right Start for Rhode Island
Why school breakfast?
Researchers agree: school breakfast increases attendance, decreases tardiness, and improves student performance in the classroom. If children don’t have breakfast, teachers and nurses say, they aren’t ready to learn at the start of the school day.
Studies have shown that school breakfast:[1]
- Improves school-, behavior- and cognitive performance
- Helps students focus and learn more effectively
- Improves concentration and attentiveness
- Increases standardized test scores
Why a universal program?
Universal school breakfast programs ensure that all our students eat the most important meal of the day. Universal programs reduce the stigma of traditional programs, which single out underprivileged children.
In Rhode Island, 60% of eligible students are missing out on the proven educational, economic, and health benefits of school breakfast programs. In fact, the state ranks 35th in the nation in breakfast participation by eligible students. More students in Rhode Island than in neighboring states are starting their day with a handicap to learning.
Isn’t a universal program too expensive in these hard financial times?
No. In fact, periods of economic slowdown are when our children and our state will need this program most.
We know that Rhode Island can’t afford to increase its $400 million deficit. Fortunately, universal school breakfast can be implemented at high-need schools at almost no additional cost to the state. Almost 90% of the funding for school breakfast comes from the federal government. Districts receive reimbursements as high as $1.61 per meal for qualifying children in the poorest districts-on average, for every 12 cents that the state puts in, Washington kicks in a whole dollar. That means that the school breakfast program helps Rhode Island financially by funneling federal money into our state. Currently, over $5 million of federal money comes into Rhode Island’s economy through school breakfast.
Breakfast: a smart investment
- There is nothing more basic than breakfast, and in challenging times like the ones we face in Rhode Island today, the solution can also be quite basic. An expansion of the universal school breakfast programs has the proven ability to improve our students’ education and health, power our economy today, and ensure a prosperous future for tomorrow.
[1] (Massachusetts General Hospital, 1998; Action for Healthy Kids, 2000; Food Research and Action Center, 2002); Shemit, 2004; (J. Michael Murphy, EdD; Maria E. Pagano, EdM; Joan Nachmani, MS, CNS; Peter Sperling; Shirley Kane; Ronald E. Kleinman, MD, 1998 etc. )
THE SCHOOL BREAKFAST COALITION
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