Spring 2004 - Volume 6
School Breakfast: More than nutrition!
• Why Breakfast?
• USDA School Breakfast Pilot Study
• Breakfast: A common solution.
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Breakfast: A common solution.
- Breakfast eating may be a moderating factor for health risks, relieve children's hunger and improve school performance.
- Universal Free School Breakfast Benefits
- Reducing Barriers to Breakfast Program Participation
- More information on implementing school breakfast programs
"These findings are worrisome because breakfast eating may be a moderating factor for health risks, relieve children's hunger and improve school performance."
Ronald Kleinman, M.D., Editor, American Academy of Pediatrics, Pediatric Nutrition Handbook
- Participation in food assistance programs, including school breakfast, plays a protective health role by lowering the risk for overweight, particularly in low-income girls, age 5 to 12 years from food insecure families.10
- Evaluation of student hunger in previous universal school breakfast studies show breakfast participation was associated with fewer symptoms of hunger.3
A study of nearly 100 inner city elementary students in Boston supports the benefits of consuming a healthy breakfast by hungry children.12
- Preliminary findings of the USDA Pilot Breakfast Study indicate school breakfast does not promote weight gain. Prevalence of overweight was similar, but high in both the treatment (17%) and control (18%) groups (p. 121).5
- Results from a new study of 600 children, aged 4 to 12 years, support the recommendation that regularly eating a substantive breakfast of ready-to-eat cereal, most likely with milk, promotes a healthy weight and nutrient intakes in children.11
Children at nutritional risk, vs. well-nourished peers, had:After participating in the universal free breakfast program for only 6 months, the ones who decreased their nutritional risks showed significant improvement in:
- Significantly poorer academic performance and school attendance
- More behavioral problems
- Issues with punctuality, and were
- Less likely to participate in the school breakfast program.
- Attendance
- Math
- Behavior, and demonstrated
- Decreases in hunger.
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Universal Free School Breakfast Benefits
USDA School Breakfast Pilot Project5[top]
Reducing Barriers to Breakfast Program Participation5
Universal School Breakfast is easy to implement, popular and generates profit for the schools
Principals and Teachers
While a concern about classroom breakfast was the possible loss of teacher preparation or instruction time, principals and teachers in schools with breakfast in the classroom reported that it had no negative effects.
Student Stigma
Few students, teachers, or principals in either treatment or control schools reported that students from low-income households felt stigmatized by participating in a school breakfast program.
Cost
Overall, treatment schools, which were reimbursed at the free meal rate for all breakfasts served, had revenues that were about 40 percent higher than food and labor costs, while control schools had revenues that were about 28 percent higher than these costs.
Food Service Staff
5 of 6 food service directors described the universal free breakfast program as "positive," with the remaining director describing staff attitude as having been "neutral" at the beginning of the year, but becoming more "positive" as the program became established.[top]
For more information on implementing school breakfast programs, visit these websites:
http://www.mealsmatter.org/CookingForFamily/Activities/bf_teach.aspx
http://www.fns.usda.gov/cnd/breakfast/
https://fns.state.mn.us/FNSProg/FBTL/FBTLResources.htm#news
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This newsletter was written by Frances A. Coletta, Ph.D., R.D., Nutrition Consultant for The Schwan Food Company, and designed by Lori Muraski.
An external review has been conducted by Ronald Kleinman, M.D., Professor, Pediatrics, Harvard University, and Chief, Division of Pediatric Gastroenterology at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA. Dr. Kleinman is a recognized leader in pediatric nutrition and child health. He has extensively published his research on breakfast and child hunger in many scientific journals.References: Click here.
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