DES MOINES, Iowa – The latest study shows a growing number of low-income children in Iowa and across the nation taking part in school breakfast programs, but locally there’s much progress to be made. The report from the Food Research and Action Center shows the number of Iowa kids who eat free or reduced-price lunches at school and also take part in school breakfast programs has grown by 2.2 percent over the past five years. However, Crystal FitzSimons, FRAC’s director of school and out-of-school-time programs, says much more can be done.

“Iowa actually ranks 48th for participation in the school breakfast program, compared to low-income students’ participation in the school lunch program,” she said. “So, they’re feeding about 72,000 students breakfast each day.” Nationally, an average of more than 11 million low-income kids ate breakfast at school each day last year, an increase of about 320,000 students from the previous year.

FitzSimons said many factors are driving the upward trend in school-breakfast participation. One is that states and districts are looking at more innovative and accommodating ways to offer morning meals, such as breakfast-in-the-classroom programs.

“It’s where kids are eating breakfast in the morning in the classroom together,” she said. “They’re doing grab-and-go programs, where kids kind of grab a breakfast on their way into school and take it to the class with them – really taking a look at creative ways to make sure that the breakfast program is available to kids who want to participate.”

Considerable research shows that nutrition – and eating breakfast in particular – is important for cognitive functioning and academic success. State-specific information is online at frac.org.

(Iowa News Service)