According to the Missouri School Breakfast Report released on March 8 by Empower Missouri and Operation Food Search, more than 247,000 low-income children in Missouri participated in the national School Breakfast Program on an average school day in 2016–2017.
“School breakfast means less hunger, better health, and improved educational outcomes for our children,” said Jeanette Mott Oxford, executive director of Empower Missouri. “The many schools in Missouri that offer breakfast at no charge to all students and serve breakfast after the bell are ensuring that children start the school day ready to learn. We strongly encourage other schools to follow their lead so that more children may benefit.”
The report finds that 59.4 percent of low-income children in Missouri ate school breakfast for every 100 that received free or reduced-price school lunch during the 2016–2017 school year. This is slightly above the national average of 56.7 percent of low-income children eating school breakfast for every 100 who received school lunch, as determined by the national anti-hunger group Food Research & Action Center (FRAC).
FRAC has set a goal of reaching 70 low-income children with school breakfast for every 100 receiving school lunch. Out of approximately 550 school districts in Missouri, 111 school districts achieved this goal. A full list of top-performing districts can be found in the report.
Mott Oxford said that Missouri’s strong school breakfast participation can be attributed to two key strategies: community eligibility, which allows high-poverty schools to offer breakfast and lunch at no charge to all students; and “breakfast after the bell” models that move breakfast out of the cafeteria and after the first bell, such as breakfast in the classroom.
Offering breakfast after the school day starts helps schools and students overcome common barriers such as late bus arrivals, tight household budgets, and the stigma associated with school breakfast as being only for low-income children, she said. “Used together, these two approaches can continue to move the needle on school breakfast participation throughout Missouri,” she said.
Read the report at http://empowermissouri.org/breakfastreport.
