School Breakfast Grants Awarded to 19 Upstate Schools

Lisa Allison, Child Nutrition Program Specialist
(518) 436-8757 ext 16
fax: 427-7992 email: HungerCHLN@aol.com

Albany, NY, August 25, 2003 – The Nutrition Consortium of New York State recently awarded 19 schools in upstate New York with Academics & Breakfast Connection Pilot funding to establish universal classroom breakfast programs during the 2003-2004 school year (see the list at the end of this article).

The purpose of the ABC Pilot is to produce a replicable classroom breakfast model that serves as a viable approach to improving academic performance and reducing childhood hunger. Therefore, the Consortium has selected a diverse set of schools in thirteen upstate counties with varying demographic and geographic characteristics, including rural and suburban schools in both low-income and high-income areas.
In most of the pilot school buildings, breakfast will be served at no charge to the entire student body, although some schools will be piloting the program only for particular grade levels. Meanwhile, school staff will be providing the Consortium with data that will allow for the evaluation of the pilot’s impact, including information on such factors as classroom behavior, absenteeism and tardiness, visits to the school nurse, breakfast program participation and test scores.

“We are thrilled to be able to offer this funding and are confident that all of these schools will experience increased School Breakfast Program participation, as well as improved academic performance,” said Edie Mesick, Executive Director of the Nutrition Consortium of NYS. “Equally important, fewer children will be hungry and will not have to struggle to get through their morning classes on an empty stomach.”
The School Breakfast Program, permanently authorized in 1975 to assist schools in providing nutritious morning meals to children, is one of our nation’s most beneficial federal nutrition programs. Research from a variety of disciplines points to a direct, positive link between School Breakfast Program participation and school performance.

Unfortunately, while 88% of New York’s public schools currently operate breakfast programs, less than 30% of low-income children in upstate schools (and less than 12% of all students) participate in the program.

Lisa Allison, Child Nutrition Program Specialist at the Nutrition Consortium says that she is saddened by the current participation rate. She states that, “So many schools offer free breakfasts on test days because they know that children perform better when they’ve eaten. It only seems to make sense that we would encourage children to eat breakfast every day. This is why we are so excited to be implementing the ABC Pilot. We look forward to utilizing the Pilot’s results to generate support for the School Breakfast Program, to enlist the support of all school administrators, teachers, staff and legislators in New York State.” Ms. Allison continued, “We are confident that this pilot will help move New York State forward in improving access to breakfast programs for all students.”

The Academics & Breakfast Connection Pilot (ABC) is a Nutrition Consortium project funded by the NYS Office of the Attorney General’s Indirect Vitamins Purchasers Antitrust Litigation Settlement.