RICHMOND, Va. (November 25, 2024) – An additional 25,000 more kids ate breakfast at school last year, representing the largest year-over-year increase in student breakfast participation in the last 10 years, according to a review of state data by No Kid Hungry Virginia.
On average, 381,200 youth ate breakfast at school from September 2023 to February 2024.
“It’s incredible growth and is important for our kids and communities,” said Sarah Steely, No Kid Hungry Virginia Director. “We know that students who eat breakfast are more focused, score significantly higher on tests and miss fewer days of school. We’re deeply grateful for our incredible nutrition teams, state partners and educators who are fueling this momentum.”
No Kid Hungry Virginia points to support from the Virginia Department of Education’s #AttendanceMattersVA campaign and innovation and dedication from school nutrition staff as drivers for the growth.
There is new funding support, too: Throughout the year, No Kid Hungry Virginia distributed more than $250,000 in grants to bolster programs in 12 school districts. During the 2024 legislative session, Virginia’s General Assembly also increased the amount of supplemental state funding available to support school breakfast by $.06 per meal. The change brings the total state reimbursement to $.28 per meal, representing a $2.4 million increase in school breakfast state support funding during fiscal year 2025.
The latest participation increase comes as families across the state struggle to cope with rising food prices.
No Kid Hungry Virginia released a poll in September that revealed 78% of people say groceries have become harder to afford in the last year, with nearly half of Virginians (42%) reporting at least one sign of food insecurity, like not having enough to eat, eating low-quality food or eating a limited variety of food due to cost.
Parents of school-aged children and families in rural communities have been hit particularly hard, the survey shows.
No Kid Hungry Virginia and its partners are leveraging Breakfast After the Bell to help connect more Virginia students with breakfast. The program makes breakfast a part of the school day by serving it in the classroom or at convenient kiosks throughout the building, and it is considered as a critical tool to address childhood hunger.
“Virginia is a national leader when it comes to Breakfast After the Bell implementation,” said Steely. “For too many kids, barriers like bus schedules, busy mornings and stigma make them miss out on school breakfast. By incorporating breakfast into the school day, more kids get the healthy food they need to learn.”
A study commissioned by No Kid Hungry shows that when schools implement Breakfast After the Bell, they see chronic absenteeism rates drop by about six percentage points.
The following school districts saw the biggest increases in the number of students eating breakfast: Fairfax, Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Prince William and Norfolk.
In addition, rural districts experienced large percentage increases of students, including: Rappahannock, Radford, Buena Vista, Giles and Highland.
No Kid Hungry Virginia is continuing its advocacy to grow school meal programs and plans to sustain the momentum by connecting more schools with grant funding this fall. Leaders with the organization are also optimistic the recent state school meal reimbursement increase will lead to more kids eating school breakfast.
While No Kid Hungry leaders applaud the recent participation increases, the nonprofit estimates that only 41.9% of students who are eligible for free meals are eating breakfast at school.
“We still have important work to do to grow and launch Breakfast After the Bell programs in Virginia schools,” said Steely.
For more information, visit https://state.nokidhungry.org/virginia.
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About No Kid Hungry
No child should go hungry in America. But millions of kids in the United States live with hunger. No Kid Hungry is working to end childhood hunger by helping launch and improve programs that give all kids the healthy food they need to thrive. This is a problem we know how to solve. No Kid Hungry is a campaign of Share Our Strength, an organization committed to ending hunger and poverty.