Hunger-Free Minnesota Selects 40 Schools to Participate in the School Breakfast Challenge
Hunger-Free Minnesota announced today that it has selected 40 schools to participate in its School Breakfast Challenge. Hunger-Free Minnesota will provide a $0.10 per meal (up to 25,000 meals) incentive during the 2013-14 school year to participating schools that increase their school breakfast meals served to free-and reduced-price (F/R) eligible children over the prior school year. Financial support for the School Breakfast Challenge comes from the Midwest Dairy Council and the Children's Defense Fund Minnesota is an implementation partner."We are proud to support the School Breakfast Challenge," said Lisa McCann RDN, Midwest Dairy Council. "Working with Hunger-Free Minnesota and Minnesota schools we have the opportunity to ensure that more students are able to start their school day with a nutritious meal."
Low utilization of free and reduced-cost meals from the Minnesota School Breakfast Program is widespread across school districts. Overall usage is only 40 percent. Selected schools include 21 schools from the Metro Area, and 19 from Greater Minnesota.
The following are participating schools:
While school breakfast programs are proven to be effective, there is a great opportunity to increase participation. Together these schools are missing 1,263,895 meals due to lack of participation in the school breakfast program. Working with the Children's Defense Fund, Hunger-Free Minnesota is helping schools tackle some of the barriers that have kept participation rates low.
Children's Defense Fund MN executive director Peggy Flanagan said, "We found that many students from low-income households do not participate because of time constraints, transportation and stigma. Participation by all children goes up when schools make school breakfast universal and/or breakfast is part of the classroom experience. Our goal is to eliminate barriers for families so more children who come to school hungry can get a healthy breakfast to set them up for learning."
More information on successful school breakfast models such as Breakfast in the Classroom and Grab n' Go can be found at: http://hungerfreemn.org/initiatives/school-breakfast/
"Through the School Breakfast Challenge, Hunger-Free Minnesota is offering not only a financial incentive, but also guidance for improving participation in breakfast programs," said Ellie Lucas, chief campaign officer for Hunger-Free Minnesota. "We are helping schools to share best practices and breakfast program models that have proven to increase participation."
Two recent research studies, by Deloitte/No Kid Hungry and the National Dairy Council, demonstrate that children who start their day with a nutritious school breakfast have a better attendance record, higher math test scores, and improved graduation rates. Surveys of teachers also overwhelmingly show that school breakfast works to keep kids focused, behaved, and learning.
"We have already seen how Breakfast in the Classroom benefits our students, not only are they more focused, but it also increases our instructional time," said Laura Cavendar, Principal at Pillsbury Elementary School in Northeast Minneapolis (one of the selected schools). "We are grateful for the opportunity to improve our program and increase the number of students participating."
The School Breakfast Challenge is part of Hunger-Free Minnesota's School Breakfast Initiative, which aims to add 4 million new meals served by school breakfast programs.
School Breakfast Initiative Partners
Hunger-Free Minnesota
Office of Lt. Governor Yvonne Prettner-Solon
Minnesota Department of Education
Midwest Dairy Council
Children's Defense Fund Minnesota
General Mills Foundation
About Hunger-Free Minnesota
Hunger-Free Minnesota is a time-limited campaign to close the 100 million missing-meal gap in Minnesota. Among its partners and supporters are community leaders and citizens, nonprofit agencies and organizations, food banks, food shelves, and corporations. Research partners include The Boston Consulting Group and EnSearch, Inc. Hunger-Free Minnesota's strategic action plan focuses on emergency food system capacity, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and child hunger and nutrition. The campaign encourages individuals and organizations to "Fight Hunger Where You Live." More information is available at www.hungerfreemn.org.
11.22.2013