Hispanic Heritage Month: Starting the School Day with Breakfast, How Coachella Valley is a Community of Hopes and Heroes
The Latino community is celebrated for its diversity, representing more than 62 million strong across the United States. From various origins, races and ideas, to languages, religions and cuisine. Latinos contribute to every aspect of American life. Whether they identify as Afro-Latinos, Chicanos, multiracial, indigena, LGBTQIA+, there is a shared love of identity, community, and continuously inspiring a passion for more- Latinidad!
The love of family is a bedrock value for Latinos. It’s in the context of family we learn about the importance of caring and supporting one another. This love of family translates into a sense of duty towards ensuring every child has access to the meals they need to realize their full potential.
That’s why this year No Kid Hungry is celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month with the theme “Unity in Love for Family.”
Meet Hector Rodriguez
With more than a decade of experience working for the Coachella Valley Unified School District, Hector started in nutrition services as a part-time employee working 3.5 hours. After four years, Hector became a 6-hour employee. Years later, Hector was promoted to assistant kitchen manager at Coachella Valley High School. In 2012, he was promoted again to his current position as kitchen manager of Valley View Elementary School.
“I enjoy doing my job. I do the best I can in my capacity to keep kids fed. Even though the kids might not remember you at this point, maybe in 20 or 30 years from now, they’re going to look back and think there was somebody like Hector in my life feeding me. ‘Our homie Hector hooked us up.’ They may not remember me now, but they’re going to know later that we did our best. That brings me joy.”
Fighting Hunger with Breakfast
This fall, Mr. Rodriguez took a huge step in his fight against hunger by implementing the Breakfast in the Classroom program at his school. Prior to implementing this program, only 11 percent of Valley View Elementary students were eating a school breakfast. Hector is proud to share that breakfast participation is now 94 percent.
“We are already seeing the difference it’s making in our students. Before we started breakfast in the classroom, I used to get close to 20 students a day coming into the kitchen saying their stomach hurt or they had a headache. I would get calls from our school nurses or the front office asking if we could give them breakfast because they were late to school. Now, it’s zero! I don’t see anybody coming into the kitchen asking for a meal because they know, if they’re late, they won’t be hungry because they’ll have food in the classroom to start the day right.”
Breakfast in the Classroom is an effective model that involves delivering meals to the classroom and students eating breakfast at their desks during the first 10-15 minutes of the school day. Eating breakfast has a powerful effect on kids and research shows that kids who eat breakfast are more focused, score significantly higher on tests, and miss less days of school.
A Community of Hopes and Heroes
Valley View Elementary is the first school in the entire district and the only school in the entire nine-city Coachella Valley region to serve breakfast in the classroom. Hector wants to change this.
“My hope is that we can get Breakfast in the Classroom into all our schools in the valley. It may look complicated to offer, but once you have it, it’s simple. It’s hard work, but if you have a good team, it’s simple.”
With No Kid Hungry’s support, Hector purchased equipment to better store and transport meals as well as get the word out to families.
“Thank you No Kid Hungry for supporting us and giving us a chance to let our voice be heard. We’re just doing our job – you’ve made it a little easier for my team to do their jobs. You made my team feel important and that people are watching and cheering us on.”
Let this Hispanic Heritage Month be a celebration of the strength and resiliency of leaders like Hector Rodriguez and his team of hunger heroes, who are working tirelessly to ensure that all kids have the food to power their dreams.
Read more stories from No Kid Hungry staff and other partners from across the United States:
“Hispanic Heritage Month: A Community of Love and Family” featuring Eric Enciso at Colton Unified School District in California (English | Español)
Hispanic Heritage Month: “It Couldn’t Be Just One of Us” featuring Salvador Ramirez (English | Español)
Last Reviewed: October 13, 2022