Spring 2004 - Volume 6
School Breakfast: More than nutrition!

• Why Breakfast?
• USDA School Breakfast Pilot Study
• Breakfast: A common solution.
• Downloadable Parents' Newsletter
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• Past issues of the NuNews Newsletter

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USDA School Breakfast Pilot Study

• About 1 in 4 children fail to eat a substantive breakfast
• Hunger and Obesity

About 1 in 4 children fail to eat a substantive breakfast.⁵

The first year evaluation of the USDA School Breakfast Pilot Project provides one of the most precise assessments of children's breakfast eating ever done.⁵

This report is from a large sample of 4300 elementary school children from 153 schools across the US (79 treatment; 74 control).

The objective is to evaluate the effectiveness of a 3-year research study of a universal free School Breakfast Pilot Program (treatment) vs. regular school breakfast (control) on students'

• Breakfast Participation
• Nutritional and Health Status
• Academic Performance

Findings from the first year indicate:

• Almost all children (98%) ate or drank something in the morning before school; but
• About 25% of all children failed to consume a substantive breakfast (the equivalent of at least a bowl of cereal and milk).

The evaluation of the first year of the project showed a significant impact on breakfast participation which is described below, in the next sections along with the impact found on other health issues.

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Hunger and Obesity

Data from children participating in the USDA School Breakfast Pilot Project highlight two other nutritional problems of national concern -child hunger may, paradoxically, be associated with obesity.⁵

• Twice as many children who participated in the project(7%) are from families that are food insecure with hunger ( vs. 3.1% nationally);

Food Insecure with Hunger is defined as households where one or more members are hungry at last some time during the year because they cannot afford enough food.⁶
Food Insecure without Hunger is defined as households that obtain enough food to avoid hunger, using a variety of coping strategies such as eating a less varied diet, participating in Federal food assistance programs, or getting emergency food from community food pantries.⁶

And,

• Food insecurity was associated with overweight or at risk for overweight in approximately 17% of the participating students.

Why do obesity and hunger co-exist?
Small, limited studies suggest that:⁷

• Low-income people have fewer opportunities to purchase high quality food.
• Lower food expenditures are associated with poor quality, high fat, high calorie diets low in fruits and vegetables. This may result in weight gain over time.

Hunger and obesity are linked to poor school performance.

• Hungry children experience impaired cognitive functioning, and poorer overall school achievement. They are also more likely to repeat a grade, be tardy more often and experience more suspensions from school.⁸
• Overweight children perform less well in school and rate their quality of life lower than that of healthy children, similar to those diagnosed with cancer.⁹

The need to address hunger and obesity are beyond doubt two of the most critical issues in helping children be healthy and ready to learn.

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References: Click here.

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