Research;and;Action Center, 2013).
There are many reasons kids who
need school breakfast aren’t getting
it; the most common are stigma and
timing. In many schools, breakfast is
aimed primarily at students who are eligible for free- and reduced-price meals.
Many kids are embarrassed at leaving
their friends to sit in the cafeteria and
eat with the “poor kids.” And busy
mornings at home or incompatible bus
schedules mean some students miss
out because they can’t get to school
early enough to eat breakfast before the
morning bell.
The No Kid Hungry campaign has
been helping communities overcome
these barriers. One solution is to
move school breakfast out of the cafeteria and make it part of the school
day. Innovative breakfast models like
Breakfast in the Classroom (which
makes healthy breakfast items available
to all students in classrooms at the
beginning of homeroom or first period)
and Grab ’n’ Go breakfasts (easy-to-eat
items students pick up to munch in
class) go a long way toward increasing
participation.
The state of Maryland has been
increasing school breakfast participation by moving school breakfast into
the classroom. Analysis shows that, in
Maryland, schools serving breakfast in
their classrooms experienced as much
as a 7. 2;percent lower rate of chronic
absenteeism, and students in schools
serving breakfast in their classrooms
were 12. 5;percent more likely to achieve
proficiency on standardized math tests
(Deloitte & No Kid Hungry, 2013).
© MIKA/CORBIS
A Crucial Time: Summer
In summer, children are at a higher risk
of both obesity and hunger because
it’s harder for them to get nutritious,
nonfattening foods (National Summer
Learning Association, n.d.). For too
many kids, summer means no school
Source: UNICEF. Retrieved from www. globalissues.org/article/715/today-21000- children-died-around-the-world TRENDS of the TIMES
;orld;ide, some 21,000 children die from hunger every day—one child every four seconds.
breakfast and no school lunch. For
families already struggling to make
ends meet, the summer months can
be incredibly stressful as tight budgets
strain even further to provide these
meals.
The good news is that free summer
meals, funded by the U.S. Department
of Agriculture, are available to children
at thousands of locations across the
United States—in schools, recreation
centers, churches, and other sites. These
programs are administered by states and
run by nonprofits. Besides breakfast,
lunch, or dinner, most offer academic
and recreational activities that keep
kids’ bodies and minds active.
The bad news is that many kids
who need these meals aren’t getting
them. Of the more than 20 million U.S.