Cairo Association of Teachers - Newsletter

CAT Tracks for December 12, 2007 DEAD LAST

An inconvenient truth...

Breakfast...uh, break fast...is a morning thing! What time did you have to get up to break fast this morning?

I like this line out of the story below:

• Doherty said schools can increase breakfast participation by providing free breakfast in the classroom to those students who want it; offering convenient breakfast meals and offering breakfast after first period.

Illinois schools hoping to boost lunch program

BY BECKY MALKOVICH, The Southern

A national report released Tuesday said despite recent gains, Illinois ranks 51st among all the states and the District of Columbia when it comes to feeding breakfast to low-income school children.

For every 100 low-income children who participate in school lunch programs in the state, only 32.9 took advantage of free or reduced price breakfasts, according to the School Breakfast Scorecard 2007, released by the Food Research and Action Center.

New Mexico ranked highest in the report, serving breakfast to 61 of every 100 children participating in the lunch program.

If Illinois schools increased school breakfast participation by serving breakfast to 60 percent of the eligible students, they would help 190,902 more low-income children than they are now, and would see a $41,424 increase in federal funding, said Diane Doherty, executive director of the Illinois Hunger Coalition, a statewide anti-hunger organization.

"At the same time that 9.8 percent of Illinois households suffered from food insecurity, the cost of food, gas, housing and heat increased rapidly. Unfortunately, we did not see an increase in the number of living-wage jobs. As a result, healthy school meals become even more of a basic need," Doherty said.

The state did see a 3.8 percent increase in breakfast participation over the previous year, the report said, likely a result of the Childhood Hunger Relief Act signed by Gov. Rod Blagojevich in 2005.

The law mandated schools with 40 percent or more of their students eligible for free or reduced price meals to establish school breakfast programs. That mandate resulted in almost 70 percent of Illinois schools offering breakfast to students.

Doherty said schools can increase breakfast participation by providing free breakfast in the classroom to those students who want it; offering convenient breakfast meals and offering breakfast after first period.

Superintendent Greg Goins said schools in West Frankfort serve hundreds of children each day. More than 50 percent of the Frankfort district's student population qualifies for free or reduced meals, he said.

"Our breakfast participation is huge at all four attendance centers - Denning, Frankfort Intermediate, Central, and Frankfort High," Goins said. "We have very high participation at Denning Elementary for our K-2 students. We are serving around 200 children a day and an additional 60 or so from the pre-kindergarten program. That's a busy morning when you serve 260 breakfasts."

The program is just as popular at the high school where, he said, students begin standing in line, waiting to get in the building for breakfast, at 7:30 a.m.

"Not just free and reduced students, but the entire student body as a whole," he said.

The high school offers "grab and go" items like cereal and doughnuts, as well as warm foods, he said.

Student participation in the breakfast program is high not only because of the large number of eligible students in the district, Goins said, but also because "Our breakfast programs are an attractive option for working parents. The school is a safe, warm place that provides a hot meal each morning. Why not take advantage of that convenience?"