No Kid Hungry NC announces School Breakfast Challenge winners

Press release from No Kid Hungry North Carolina: 

No Kid Hungry North Carolina recently announced the winning schools for the statewide NoKidHungry@mySchool 2016 SCHOOL BREAKFAST CHALLENGE. In its fourth year, the challenge is held in partnership with the NC Department of Public Instruction (NC DPI), Southeast United Dairy Industry Association, the UNC Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, and national child anti-hunger organization Share Our Strength. Challenge partners hope to raise awareness about the state’s school breakfast program and ask leaders to consider new ways of serving school breakfast so that more children who need it will get a healthy meal to fuel learning.

“Children should never start the day hungry,” said Dr. Lynn Harvey, School Nutrition Services Chief for NC DPI. “The School Breakfast Program offers those who might otherwise miss out on breakfast a nutritious meal to start the school day. The key is to make sure that all kids are participating in the program.”

The winning schools are listed below:

Of the 1.5 million public school children in North Carolina, about 870,000 are eligible for free or reduced price meals, according to NC DPI Meal Claims Data. The School Breakfast Program, funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and available at ­­all NC public K-12 schools, offers students a chance to start the day with a healthy meal. In North Carolina, only 57.4% of children who receive a free or reduced-price lunch during the school year participate in the School Breakfast Program. Barriers, including stigma and transportation logistics, cause school breakfast participation rates to be low.

When No Kid Hungry polled America’s public-school teachers in 2015, three-quarters said they taught children who regularly came to school hungry. Studies show that children who eat breakfast tend to perform better on standardized tests, make fewer mistakes in math, and show a general increase in math and reading scores. They also generally have fewer discipline problems and visit school nurses’ offices less often.

No Kid Hungry NC is working with superintendents, principals, school nutrition service directors, teachers, students and parents to implement new school breakfast service models that are proven to break down hurdles that keep students from getting a nutritious breakfast. Programs like Breakfast in the Classroom or Grab and Go meals allow students to eat breakfast at their desks — making it part of their instructional time — reduces stigma, enhances early morning instruction time and ensures that kids who get to school when class starts get breakfast.

Helen Roberts, School Outreach Educator with No Kid Hungry NC, said, “We are encouraged that our state has seen almost a 10 percent increase in school breakfast participation in the last 6 years, but much more progress is needed.” She added, “Innovative service models such as Breakfast in the Classroom, Grab and Go and Second Chance breakfast are resulting in significant, noticeable differences. Students are excited to come to school, happy to have breakfast as part of their morning routine and are more focused in the classroom.”

No Kid Hungry NC also recognized 31 school districts from across the state that met the milestone goal of having at least 70 percent of low-income students who eat school lunch also eating school breakfast.

More details on the Breakfast Challenge metrics, results and milestone goal can be found online at nc.nokidhungry.org.

No Kid Hungry NC is a statewide initiative based at the UNC Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention that brings together state agencies, local non-profits and corporate partners to end childhood hunger in North Carolina. This partnership is part of Share Our Strength’s national No Kid Hungry Campaign, which has campaigns and allies across the country.