Push for breakfast will help Philly kids

By Kathy Fisher

and Jonathan M. Stein

We know children need a healthy breakfast to learn, but we also know that many children go to school hungry.

The national School Breakfast Program (SBP) was created decades ago specifically to meet this critical student need, yet the program is utilized by many other big-city school districts more effectively than in Philadelphia. Even within the district, the rates of participation vary.

Some elementary schools with very low-income populations reach greater than 80 percent of students with breakfast while other comparable schools reach fewer than 30 percent. During PSSA testing weeks, the approach changes, with many principals opting to feed as many students as they can.

To even out the disparities, the school district is right to make principals accountable for student breakfast participation.

More than one in three Philadelphia children lives in poverty - a family income of $22,050 or less for a family of four. Seventy-six percent of city students currently qualify for free and reduced-price meals. With near-record unemployment and the fallout from the recession, the number of families needing help is expected to grow.

After years of mixed results on breakfast participation, the district has responded to well-established needs by adopting a simple, straightforward policy to make the SBP work better.

The district's Office of Accountability has established individual school performance targets on a graduated scale, based on their 2008-09 breakfast participation rate and using the number of students who eat school lunch as a benchmark - a guideline used nationally.

With incremental targets, if 100 kids are eating lunch but only 20 are eating breakfast, the school will not be expected to reach the benchmark in just one year. And principals will not be alone in this effort. The Food Services Office will help schools reach their targets, and there are several Philadelphia-area agencies that can serve as a resource. Parents can also help engage their communities to increase student participation.

Overwhelming evidence shows that feeding hungry children in schools helps support their learning, cuts down on visits to the nurse, improves attention span, and contributes to better classroom behavior. The district's new policy is worthy of all our support.