Fifty-two percent of children from low-income homes who participated in school lunch programs in the 2012-13 school year also ate school breakfasts, a new report finds.
That’s an increase from the 2011-12 school year, when 50.4 percent of low-income lunch eaters also ate breakfast, according to the report released this month by the Food Research and Action Center, a Washington-based anti-hunger organization that advocates federal nutrition programs. In 2012-13, 10.8 million low-income children participated in school breakfast on an average day, an increase of nearly 311,000 from the previous school year, the report says. It notes that researchers attributed increases in school breakfast participation to such initiatives as offering the meal in the classroom after the school day has started and using the federal Community Eligibility Provision, which allows participating schools to serve all their students free breakfasts and lunches without individually identifying children as eligible, as seven states did.
The Community Eligibility Provision, which has been rolled out gradually, will be available nationwide in the 2014-15 school year, presenting the opportunity for more schools to increase meal-program participation, the report’s authors write.
The report also highlights “grab and go” breakfast options that give students a second chance to eat breakfast after first period.
