Breakfast in the Classroom

Any person that has ever been hungry knows how terrifically impossible it is to focus on anything but your growling stomach. I have been on long car trips with my husband (anyone who knows my husband knows he only stops when the car is on empty), and have been consumed by hunger pains. The radio fades to the background....his mouth is no longer making noises.....the arguments coming from the back seat no longer exist. I can only focus on one thing....how many more miles until I get food in my belly? Never mind the fact I had eaten three square meals the day before and breakfast that morning. We've all been there, haven't we?

For many of our students, hunger is their reality. Asking students to learn to read, write, and do math is an impossible feat when they are consumed by hunger. Many of our students rely on the two meals they receive at school as their sole source of nutrition. We know that 100% of our students eat lunch, but we only had a 50% rate of children eating breakfast. The reasons fewer students eat breakfast were many.....social time with friends, arriving at school too late, the stigma of being the kid that ate breakfast in the cafeteria. Trips to the nurses office from the start of the day to lunch time were great. Many students presented with belly aches; the cure being a package of crackers and a small container of juice.

When we were approached about a program called Breakfast in the Classroom, I was super excited. Upon entering school, students grab a breakfast and take it to their classroom. Regardless of their lunch status, all students eat without a charge. When the tardy bell rings, students open their breakfast sack and eat breakfast in their classroom. Students are no longer hesitant to eat breakfast in school. It is now socially acceptable to eat breakfast; it's part of the community and culture of their classroom. The process only takes 10 minutes from start to finish, but a lot is accomplished during that short time. Most importantly, we have increased breakfast participation to 98%; teachers are building classroom communities; table manners are explicitly taught; fraction lessons are occurring (cut your french toast stick into thirds). The nurse has reported a drastic decrease in the number of students being seen in her office for hungry bellies.

There was a small initial set up cost to get the program up and running; but within a year, it was 100% self sustaining. With over a 98% poverty rate, our nutrition department can bill the federal government for reimbursement of meal costs for students on free and reduced lunch. The other 2% of the meal costs are absorbed.

Breakfast in the Classroom was a relatively easy and cost efficient way to remove a large barrier from the learning of our students.

Springdale School Takes Part in Nationwide Hunger Initiative

Here is the story Channel 5 News did about the Breakfast in the classroom initiative benefiting Jones Elementary.

Springdale School Takes Part in Nationwide Hunger Initiative

POSTED 12:43 PM, FEBRUARY 1, 2013, BY 5NEWS WEB STAFF

“Breakfast in the Classroom” kicked off at a Springdale elementary school Friday.

Bayyari Elementary is taking part in the $3 million nation-wide initiative to end child hunger. Every morning the school will provide a healthy breakfast for students and teachers to eat before the school day starts.

The program started back in December but Friday (Feb. 1) representatives of the Walmart Foundation, as well as Mayor Doug Sprouse, and Superintendent Dr. Jim Rollins, held an assembly with the kids.

“Hungry children are getting breakfast and they’re all eating breakfast together in the classroom,” said Carol Godfrey, child nutrition director. “We serve breakfast at all of our schools in the Springdale School District, however, less than half of the students are having breakfast at school.”

Free breakfast is served at Bayyari Elementary Monday through Friday from 7:45 to 8 a.m.

Bayyari Elementary is just one of five Springdale schools participating in the program.

Kaylee Pearson's Blog shared this information and teacher feedback about Breakfast in the the Classroom initiative at Jones Elementary.

Breakfast in the Classroom

Springdale Elementary Schools are adopting a new program called Breakfast in the Classroom in hopes to improve students’ performance.

SPRINGDALE—This week, a handful of Springdale elementary schools are starting to participate in Breakfast in the Classroom, a program sponsored by the Wal-Mart Foundation, which provides free breakfast for all students in the school.

Typical school breakfast programs require children to eat in the cafeteria before school. The problem with this is that it singles out some students, making them self-conscious of being labeled as low income, and that it also is hard for a lot of students to get to school before it starts.

The Breakfast in the Classroom initiative takes the regular school breakfast program, but improves it by serving breakfast to everyone, no matter the income level, in the classroom after the first bell.

Amanda Hobbs has been a first grade teacher at Jones Elementary for two years, and tomorrow she will start serving breakfast in the classroom to her students. In the morning, students can come into the school at 7:30 a.m. and will be designated to sit in a location based on their class until 7:45. a.m.. When the bell rings, students will get a sack containing breakfast and a milk carton from a designated kiosk and bring it to the classroom. They will have until 8:10 a.m. to finish their breakfast at their desk, and then teachers will start school.

Hobbs said that having a strict stopping time will deter from breakfast interfering with class time.

“I have students that come to school tardy or haven’t eaten and that interferes with class more,” Hobbs said. “It is the hypothesis of our school that Breakfast in the Classroom will cut down on tardiness.”

Not only will the program cut down on tardiness, it will also affect children’s behavior positively in the classroom. Hobbs finds that her kids are unable to concentrate when they are hungry.

According to the Breakfast in the Classroom program, there are more than 25 million children in our nation’s elementary and middle schools, many who come to school hungry. Studies show that children who eat breakfast at the start of their school day have higher math and reading scores. They have sharper memory and show faster speed on cognitive tests. They have broader vocabularies, do better on standardized tests, and focus and behave better.

“The majority of my kids come to school hungry,” Hobbs said. “A lot complain about stomachaches before lunch and are fine after they eat.”

Right now, Hobbs keeps crackers in her classroom and lets kids who haven’t had breakfast eat those. She believes that everyone starting the day with a healthy breakfast will increase the productivity of the day in the classroom.

According to Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, nearly one in four children lives in poverty in Arkansas. Hobbs believes that schools with high poverty rates would benefit from Breakfast in the Classroom. Springdale is now the second school district in Arkansas, after Little Rock, to join the program.