Growing up, many of us can remember a parent, teacher or coach saying, “Don’t forget to eat breakfast, it’s the most important meal of the day!” It turns out they were right; breakfast is important. Studies have found that eating breakfast can improve a student’s attendance, behavior, and educational performance in school. Fortunately for Texas children, lawmakers realized the importance of this morning meal and have now made breakfast accessible to more students by passing SB 376. This bill, authored by Senator Lucio, requires schools, having at least 80% of the student population qualifying for free or reduced meals, to serve breakfast to all students at no cost. Known as Universal School Breakfast, this service allows many students access to a warm, healthy breakfast that might not otherwise get one.
Though many schools currently serve breakfast to students, the traditional service model does not guarantee all students access to breakfast. With the traditional model, school breakfast is served in the cafeteria before school begins. While this provides an opportunity for students to access breakfast, many times extenuating circumstances (such as late arrival to school) can cause students to not have enough time to finish eating, or they might miss out on breakfast entirely. In addition, the stigma associated with eating school breakfast also serves as a deterrent to breakfast participation.
SB 376 serves to alleviate both of these issues by increasing a school’s breakfast serving options, and allowing all students, regardless of their economic background, to participate. Schools choosing to serve breakfast universally can continue to serve breakfast in the cafeteria before school, but can also choose to serve breakfast in the classroom, on meal carts in the hallway, or even through vending machines!
While each serving model is appealing, breakfast in the classroom is considered a best practice model because of the great success it has had with increasing breakfast consumption among students. With this model, breakfast is served after the start of the school day most often right after the school bell rings. Students are allowed a few minutes at the first of class to eat breakfast; during this time the teacher can take attendance, pick up homework, or go over the day’s schedule. In addition to increased breakfast participation, breakfast in the classroom also reduces the stigma associated with school breakfast by allowing all students to eat breakfast together.
Many schools see the benefits of serving breakfast, and have already started to serve breakfast universally. For many schools, serving universal school breakfast can be cost-neutral or even cost-positive. It is our hope that Texas schools will agree with lawmakers, parents, teachers, and coaches on the importance of breakfast, and make it a priority to serve Universal School Breakfast.
Listen to our commentary on universal school breakfast below.
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