Breakfast is an education issue. Just like textbooks and pencils, food is a basic school supply that’s instrumental to a student’s success. Kids do better when they start their day with a nutritious breakfast. Here are some ways breakfast improves the lives of children:
- Higher Test Scores: Hunger makes school harder. Students who eat school breakfast achieve higher scores on standardized tests.
- Calmer Classrooms: Children who do not regularly get enough nutritious food to eat tend to have higher levels of behavioral, emotional and educational problems.
- Fewer Trips To The Nurse: When kids come to school hungry, they visit the school nurse more often due to stomachaches and headaches. Kids who struggle with hunger are also likely to be sick more often, are slower to recover from illness, are hospitalized more frequently and are more susceptible to obesity.
- Stronger Attendance & Graduation Rates: Students who eat school breakfast attend more school days. Chronic absenteeism, defined as missing three weeks or more of school, decreases by 6 percentage points on average when students have access to Breakfast After the Bell. Attendance is important, as students who attend class more regularly are 20 percent more likely to graduate from high school.
Every time we feed a child, we’re unlocking their ability to grow up to become the next future teachers, scientists and entrepreneurs.
Learn more about how No Kid Hungry is working to connect every kid with school breakfast and how you can help!
NoKidHungry.org/BestPractices
NoKidHungry/Florida.org