When a child eats breakfast, she can pay attention in class. Her brain makes connections more quickly. And she earns higher grades. It seems like a no-brainer: serve breakfast before you ask a kid to learn. But more than 23,000 kids in Multnomah County are missing the chance to eat a free meal before they start the day.
That’s why Multnomah County and 19 local schools have joined the Let’s Do Breakfast, Oregon! campaign, an effort to increase the number of eligible children who eat breakfast at school. The effort is led by Partners for a Hunger-Free Oregon, the Oregon Department of Education and The Oregon Dairy and Nutrition Council.
“It’s our job to to make sure the future is in good hands,” Liesl Wendt, director of the Multnomah County Department of Human Services, told the board during a Tuesday briefing. “Good food allows the doors of opportunity to open instead of struggling in class with an empty belly. We have work to do and solutions to offer.”
Oregon was the only state in the nation to see a rise in hunger in a September report on food insecurity by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. That’s because food is the first thing to go when a family’s budget gets tight. In a county where one-in-four kids lives at or below the poverty line, federal food assistance aren’t enough. Local food pantries and SUN Community Schools step in to bridge the gap. But the programs are still not enough.
More than 48,000 kids in Multnomah County qualify for free or reduced-cost school meals. But only half of them eat free breakfast. And among high schoolers, that number drops to just one-in-five.
Especially for teens, said the county’s food policy advisor Robyn Johnson, “it becomes a matter of time and a matter of stigma.”
Buses are delayed. Weather hits. But shame may be the state’s Goliath in the fight against childhood hunger. Teens may choose to hide their hunger, and they only reveal it in the most private settings. But allowing kids to have breakfast during the first few minutes of class, strips away that stigma.
Chair Deborah Kafoury said she loved the idea of breakfast after the bell, and she applauded the efforts of the Parkrose School District.
Parkrose has enrolled 90 percent of its eligible students in free and low-cost meal programs. Ellen Christensen, food services director for Parkrose, said when the district shifted breakfast from the cafeteria to the classroom, it increased the rates of participating students. Even tardiness rates dropped.
“Its fundamental. A child needs to be ready to learn. And this takes care of it," she said. “You see kids taking more than one choice fruit and veggies and eating it. We know we’re hitting the target when they eat it.”
And that’s what Partners for a Hunger-Free Oregon hopes this campaign can accomplish at other schools, by teaming up with local governments like Multnomah County. The county has begun meeting with SUN school leaders to discuss outreach to parents and technical assistance to schools who want to increase the number of kids who eat breakfast.
“We really want to provide schools with tools for student and family engagement,” said Marcella Miller.
One strategy is to greet children on their way into class.
“Have you have breakfast yet?” a teacher might ask. “No? Why don’t you run down to the cafeteria and grab something.
“There’s time.”