Colorado Schools Awarded For Increasing School Breakfast Participation
Posted by Ariane Holm on Thursday, February 2, 2012
Clayton Elementary School Principal Nicole Westfall in Englewood, Colorado has seen firsthand the difference that the Breakfast in the Classroom program has had with her students. “Teachers are reporting increased participation and attention from students and a dramatic increase in endurance. Our families are happier too. They are reporting much less stressful mornings.” Over the past year, Clayton Elementary has seen a 72 percent increase in the School Breakfast Program.
Principal Westfall’s efforts to bring Breakfast in the Classroom to her school paid off on Tuesday when her school was awarded a $5,000 cash prize as part of the Colorado School Breakfast Challenge Phase II led by the Colorado No Kid Hungry Campaign and Hunger Free Colorado.
Colorado Lt. Gov. Joseph Garcia was on hand with more than 400 students from Clayton Elementary, along with Share Our Strength’s Colorado Director Ruth Stemler, Hunger Free Colorado, Walmart, the Western Dairy Association and others to announce the winners of the Challenge, a statewide initiative that encourages schools to get more eligible kids participating in the School Breakfast Program. Other winners included:
- Penrose Elementary in Colorado Springs which received the Silver Award and $3,000 for a 71 percent increase in participation
- Longfellow Elementary in Salida which was awarded Bronze and $2,000 for a more than 67 percent increase
- Northeast Elementary in Brighton which received Honorable Mention and $1,000 for a 66 percent increase
Studies show that children who eat breakfast perform better on standardized tests, make fewer mistakes in math, and show a general increase in math and reading scores. The School Breakfast Program, funded by the USDA, offers all students a chance to start the day with a healthy meal, but according to the Colorado Department of Education, of the more than 217,000 low-income students in Colorado who ate free or reduced-price lunch a day in 2010, only 87,000 participated in the School Breakfast Program.
The winners of the Colorado School Breakfast Challenge were all serving school breakfast in a cafeteria before class and switched to a Breakfast in the Classroom model, which allows students to eat breakfast at their desks, making it part of their instructional time. Breakfast in the Classroom also reduces stigma, enhances early morning instruction time and ensures that kids who get to school right when class starts get breakfast.
Leaving the entertainment for last, the awards ceremony ended with a crowd-pleasing Radio Disney singing and dancing performance with physical activity elements which got the kids up on their feet dancing and moving to the music (which is also an important part of keeping kids healthy!)
All told, it was a great day for Colorado students. Through the Colorado No Kid Hungry Campaign, partners are working hand in hand with schools to bring innovative ways of serving school breakfast to their schools and are well on their way to ending childhood hunger in Colorado.
Check out the article in The Denver Post which nicely sums up the day’s events and the progress being made!
February 2, 2012 | 0 comment(s) | Tags: colorado, no kid hungry, school breakfast, usda
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