School breakfast program still being underutilized

Calling the Natl. School Breakfast Program "underutilized," top Agriculture Dept. officials are citing the results of a new study of the effects of hunger on learning to secure increased funding for the program.

The study, conducted by researchers at Harvard Univ., finds that 35% of the nation's school children are "hungry, or at risk of hunger," and that these children "are significantly more likely to be depressed, anxious, functioning poorly overall, have poorer grades, be absent more days, and be more inattentive in class."

The impact: Once a free breakfast program was introduced at a school, however, 42% of the students ate breakfast more often, and those who did "were significantly more likely to show decreased child-reported depression and anxiety, decreased parent-reported overall psycho-social symptoms, decreased teacher rated-hyperactivity in the classroom, improved grades, and decreased absences and tardy rates on school records."

In view of those findings, the current level of participation in the Natl. School Breakfast Program is "a little scary," USDA Under Secretary for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services Shirley R. Watkins told a recent meeting on school meals policy at Georgetown Univ.'s Center for Food and Nutrition Policy.

Participation up: Participation in the breakfast program more than doubled over the past decade—from 3 million children in 37,000 schools to 7 million in 69,000 schools—but these levels do not begin to match the 26 million children who benefit from the Natl. School Lunch Program.