Many schools offer breakfast programs for students before the school day gets underway, but large percentages of students eligible for free or reduced cost breakfasts are failing to take advantage of the programs.
The nonprofit Advocates for the Children of New Jersey (ACNJ) is advocating for a “Breakfast After the Bell” program that would push breakfast times back by about a half-hour. Some of the schools that have gotten behind ACNJ’s Food for Thought School Breakfast Campaign are reporting positive results. “We’ve been working with a lot of districts across the state, and as of now, I’d say almost all of our major school districts have implemented Breakfast After the Bell,” Nancy Parello, co-chair of the Food for Thought campaign, said.
“[Schools] have a much more productive instructional time because the kids aren’t hungry,” Parello said. “They’re able to concentrate, and that benefits every single kid in the class — not just the kids that may come to school hungry.”
ACNJ has worked alongside school districts like Newark to move breakfast to a later time. More information about the campaign can be found at acnj.org/school-breakfast/.
Expanding the program would address longstanding logistical obstacles like bus schedules to increase participation in school breakfast programs, Parello said.
“The problem in New Jersey, historically, has been that schools have a breakfast program [before school begins],” she said. “They have cafeteria staff coming in, they have teachers coming in … but they have no kids there, or very few kids.
“They have their staff, they have all those costs, but they’re only serving 10 percent of their kids.”
In Keyport, 53 percent of students in the school district are eligible for free or reduced cost breakfasts, but only 10 percent of those 576 students are actually using the school breakfast program, according to data compiled by ACNJ.
Based on data from the NJ Food for Thought campaign, South River Public Schools, where roughly 1,010 students are eligible for free or reduced-cost breakfast, only serve 12 percent of those students.
The South Amboy district’s numbers are similarly low — 45 percent of the student population is eligible, but only 76 of those 493 students receive breakfasts through the school.
In Red Bank, 89 percent of elementary and middle school students are eligible for free or reduced-cost breakfast, but only 33 percent participate in the program.
Based on data compiled by the federal departments of agriculture and education, the number of students being served breakfast in districts that offer Breakfast After the Bell has skyrocketed.
Edison, for example, implemented a Breakfast After the Bell program two years ago, and serves 58 percent of students who are eligible for free or reduced-cost breakfast.
“We do participate in the [Breakfast] After the Bell program and have been highlighted many times … for our tremendous breakfast program and increases [in students served],” Edison Superintendent of Schools Richard O’Malley said. “Just recently, [Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno] visited one of our middle schools to showcase the work we have done with our breakfast program.”
The benefits are immediately recognizable, according to Michele Carroll, director of dining services for Edison.
“Factoring out both high schools, which do not take part in the Breakfast After the Bell program, we have 1,813 free or reduced cost eligible students in the district,” Carroll said. “We serve approximately 1,679 free or reduced-cost [eligible] students breakfast daily in total.”
Breakfast After the Bell is served in Edison’s 12 elementary schools and four middle schools. But Edison’s school breakfast program wasn’t always so well-attended.
“Before we initiated the program, we served a total of one to eight breakfasts between Herbert Hoover and Thomas Jefferson Middle School daily,” Carroll said.
New Jersey law requires any school with at least 20 percent of its students qualified for free or reduced-cost lunch to have a breakfast program, according to Parello, but many districts’ programs are inaccessible to students due to bus schedules or other obstacles to arriving at school early.
On Nov. 13, Gov. Chris Christie signed a law requiring the state to encourage implementation of the Breakfast After the Bell program in districts throughout New Jersey. The bill was co-sponsored by Assembly Democrats
Joseph Cryan, Daniel Benson, Troy Singleton, Pamela Lampitt, Celeste Riley and Nancy Pinkin.
The Department of Agriculture, in conjunction with the Department of Education, will oversee the effort and prepare an annual report on the number and percentage of students participating in each school breakfast program.
Schools can serve breakfast to all eligible students for no additional budget expense by receiving federal funds to expand the programs, Parello said, adding that pushing back the time that breakfast is served will inevitably increase participation rates.
“Just having the nutrition [children] need to learn makes it kind of a no-brainer,” Parello said. “This is a federally funded program, so it doesn’t cost the state taxpayers any money and it doesn’t cost the local taxpayers any money.”
Federal money is reimbursed to school districts per meal served. In Keyport, if every eligible child received breakfast every day, it would represent a total reimbursement of $170,764, according to data compiled by the ACNJ.
In South Amboy, reimbursement for a breakfast program with 100 percent participation by students eligible for free or reduced breakfast would be $136,652. In South River, full participation would yield $290,331 in federal funds.
“By simply changing the time that you serve breakfast and moving it to roughly a half-hour later, your participation rates just go through the roof,” Parello said.
The reason for doing so is simple.
“You can’t learn when you’re hungry,” she said. “You can’t concentrate when you’re hungry.”
Long Branch has implemented a breakfast program that has the participation of 2,079 students, or 48 percent of those who are eligible for free or reduced-cost breakfast. However, school Business Administrator Peter Genovese III said the district does not host Breakfast After the Bell — the success is due to other measures.
“We have a universal, free breakfast program, so everybody eats breakfast for free,” Genovese said.
Long Branch’s breakfast is given about 20 minutes prior to the first school bell, but Genovese said elementary students are bused in and brought directly to the cafeteria. The district also incorporates a “grab and go” breakfast program at Long Branch Middle School, Genovese said.
“We actually put carts of food outside with rolls and bagels and drinks,” Genovese said. “The kids in middle school can just grab them and walk down the hallway and eat on the way to class.”
While it is difficult to draw a link between the breakfast program and classroom performance, Genovese said the free breakfast program offers an important service to students.
“The kids who are eating probably aren’t eating at home,” he said. “So when they come eat a decent meal, I’m sure that fires them up to do what they have to do at school.”