LRSD News
Room service in elementary schools. Thanks to four leading hunger, nutrition and education nonprofit organizations, a grant has enabled the Little Rock School District to begin Breakfast in the Classroom, a new project funded by the Walmart Foundation. Through the $3 million initiative, the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC), National Association of Elementary School Principals Foundation, National Education Association Health Information Network and the School Nutrition Foundation – collectively known as Partners for Breakfast in the Classroom – aims to increase breakfast consumption among schoolchildren and spark the academic and nutritional gains associated with the morning meal.
Little Rock School District will receive $365,000 in funds from the Walmart Foundation to assist the participating schools with start-up and related costs. A total of 15 LRSD schools have been selected to participate in the program. The following elementary schools will begin serving Breakfast in the Classroom by the end of the current school year: Brady, Romine, Washington, Baseline, Wilson and Mabelvale. The remaining nine elementary schools, including Bale, Rockefeller, Stephens, Franklin, Chicot, Meadowcliff, Woodruff, Wakefield and Watson, will implement Breakfast in the Classroom the following school year.
“Simply eating a healthy breakfast can reap very substantial improvements to academic performance and health; however, today too many children miss out on breakfast and start the school day hungry,” said Dr. Morris Holmes, LRSD Interim Superintendent. “Breakfast in the Classroom puts a fresh spin on the traditional school breakfast program by offering the morning meal to everyone in the classroom after the opening bell – a change that ensures every child can start the day with a healthy, well-balanced breakfast and be ready to learn.”
Breakfast in the Classroom is based on proven strategies for increasing school breakfast participation, particularly among low-income students, according to School Breakfast in America’s Big Cities 2011, a report by the Food Research and Action Center that examines school breakfast programs in 29 large urban school districts in the United States.
The need for Breakfast in the Classroom at Little Rock School District is great. Data from the 2009-2010 school year show that 70% of students in Little Rock School District qualify for free and reduced-price meals. However, according to the FRAC report, only 23% of students who eat a free or reduced-price lunch are eating the breakfast at school that is available to them.
The benef
its of eating breakfast at school are well documented and expansive, including:
-- Improvements to math and reading achievement, performance on standardized tests and vocabulary;
-- Improvements to concentration, alertness, comprehension and memory;
-- Reduced absenteeism and school nurse visits;
-- Reduced obesity and improved eating habits, including increased consumption of fruit, milk and a wider variety of foods; and
-- Improved behavior, decreased tardiness and fewer referrals to the disciplinary office.
Breakfast in the Classroom stems from Walmart and the Walmart Foundation’s $2 billion commitment to help fight hunger in America through 2015 that was announced last May. For more information, visit www.breakfastintheclassroom.org.