Breakfast And Behavior

The Benefits of Breakfast: Do you want to improve behavior & attendance?

For years we have known that students who eat good breakfasts often do better academically than students who are hungry. But what is the impact of breakfast on classroom behavior, tardiness and absenteeism?

Working on the hypothesis that students who aren't hungry perform better, some school districts have expanded free breakfast programs to all children, not just those from low-income families who have traditionally received such benefits. The idea is twofold: first, we might be able to raise the numbers of needy children eating school breakfasts by eliminating the stigma associated with such meals. Experts say that providing free meals to all students helps prevent those from poor families from feeling singled out. And second, children from better-off households also stand to benefit because many time-starved students often rush to school and skip breakfast.

Currently, there are US Programs in Maryland, Illinois, Florida, Massachusetts and Minnesota that are designed to get breakfast into all students.

Besides higher test scores, educators cite breakfast benefits such as improved classroom behavior as well and reduced tardiness and absenteeism. In a 1998 study by Harvard University researchers concluded: "Our study of elementary school children in the Pittsburgh area, published recently in the journal Pediatrics, links hunger to having a large number of behavior problems, especially fighting, stealing, having difficulties with teachers, not acknowledging rules, and clinging to parents."

The programs still are relatively uncommon. For instance, of the 2.4 million students in Illinois schools, about 128,000 of them are in schools with free breakfasts for all. That is less than 5 percent.

The largest school system in Illinois, the Chicago Public Schools, does not offer such a program, even though over 86 percent of the 86,480 students who eat breakfast daily do not pay for it. What would the costs be to provide the free breakfast to the other 14 percent? And would those costs be offset by the resultant improved attendance and behavior?

A study conducted in public schools in Philadelphia and Baltimore Massachusetts General Hospital found that increased school breakfast participation correlated with less tardiness and absence, higher math grades, and reductions in problems like depression, anxiety and hyperactivity.

We know this is not a great time for new school programs in the United States, as budgets are pressured by the slow economy. In addition, the federal government, which during the Clifton administration pushed the universal breakfast program, has not made the program a similar priority under President Bush. However, in a recent position statement, the State Agency Section of the American School Food Service Association recommends that all schools "offer a Universal School Breakfast Program (USBP) that makes school breakfast available to all children at no charge. A growing body of research evidence suggests that school breakfast benefits children by alleviating morning hunger, decreasing student absenteeism, improving student mood and behavior, supporting learning and academic achievement, and improving health."

The Maryland Experience

The state of Maryland has placed the program on the front burner. More than 100 schools participate in the Maryland Meals for Achievement program, which state lawmakers this year made permanent following a three-year trial and budgeted nearly $2 million for the program.

Maryland's Rosemont Elementary School, located in a diverse community outside Washington, is in the second year of offering free breakfasts to its 375 pupils. Instead of serving breakfast in the school cafeteria, school officials decided to try serving breakfast in classrooms so that pupils who arrive late because of bus delays or other reasons will have a chance to eat.

A surprising benefit has been observed: there has been a sharp decrease in the number of children going to school nurses. Thus, less class time missed by students. Even teachers who had worried about the added work of overseeing breakfasts, spills in the classrooms and potential reductions in instructional time have been won over.

Statewide participation in the free and reduced-price school breakfast program has averaged about 11 percent. But schools with free breakfasts for all students average a 72 percent participation rate, said Maryland sate officials, with the rate as high as 90 percent at some schools.

Nationally, in the United States, the lunch program serves 27 million children a day and the breakfast program serves about 7.7 million, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture. The agency provides partial reimbursement to states for the free and reduced meals schools served.

Other Ideas

The "Mission Nutrition" program, funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture,hopes to encourage students to eat better at home . Tom Ohling, The Nutrition Magician is visiting one school in every Oregon school district statewide. His message, delivered in vegetable-print pants, briskly moves through five versions of his hands-on, 40-minute program. Each segment concludes with students carving a parrot out of an orange, a kinetic learning activity in which part of each bird corresponds to a part of the USDA's Food Guide Pyramid.

Ohling doesn't tell kids what not to eat. "There are no bad foods, only bad diets," he told third-graders. "If I ate M&Ms for breakfast, lunch and dinner, there wouldn't be something wrong with the M&Ms, but with my diet. A body without good things in it isn't very good.

One assistant principal we know has another unique idea. He convinced his student council to fund a "mini breakfast program." The council purchases cases of breakfast bars to be distributed by the assistant principal "as needed." The administrator doles out the bars to students who may have the potential to be sent to the office for one reason or another. One recent day he finds 14-year old Trevor getting off the bus with a frown and slips him a breakfast bar with the comment, "Have a great day today, Trevor." The assistant principal turns to us and reports "chances are less than 10% that I'll see Trevor today because of that 50 cent bar." Without it? "Probably even. That bar probably saved me a half hour of work with Trevor, kept him in math class and out of detention."

Preventing behavior problems is sometimes just as important as teaching reading. If a breakfast bar will do the trick, wonderful! But often the situation is much more complex. When behavior problems do occur, our job as educators is to help those students learn from those mistakes and become better citizens in the process. Discipline learning packets serve that role.