Ind. falls behind neighbor states in school breakfast

Indiana ranks behind 27 other states in its implementation of the School Breakfast Program, a national initiative to serve low-income students breakfast before school, according to a report released by the nonprofit Food Research and Action Center.

Almost all measures provided by the report, including the percentage of students eating lunch who also eat breakfast and the year-to-year improvement in program participation, indicated Indiana’s performance remains below average.

“Progress has certainly been made, but it seems to be in small steps,” said Emily Bryant, the executive director of Feeding Indiana’s Hungry, a public-private initiative to combat hunger.

With 30.7 percent of its students categorized as low income, Monroe County is required by state law to offer free and reduced-price breakfast before school because of the number of students considered to be in the low-income bracket. Low income is defined as families who fall near the poverty line. However, area schools have also struggled with low participation rates.

“Out of 10,000 students, we maybe have 2,000 students who eat breakfast on a daily basis,” said Hattie Johnson, director of Monroe County’s Nutrition Services.

With the participation rate at some of its schools as low as 22.1 percent, Monroe County performs under the already low statewide average.

“To say we can make changes is not as easy as it sounds,” Johnson said.

Some schools have sought to overcome scheduling conflicts by serving breakfast in the classroom and have experienced rapid increases in participation levels.

“I disagree that serving breakfast in the classroom is the fix without it costing lots of money,” Johnson said.

Since money for school breakfasts comes largely from the federal and state governments, some school budgets are unable to fund these programs.

But the recently released report is, in part, intended to raise awareness in government about the possible need to take further steps to improve participation levels in the program.

“I’m going to investigate the possibility of doing a resolution, which would ask for the health finance commission to look at what needs to be done legislatively in the 2013 session to improve Indiana’s participation rate in the school breakfast program,” Rep. Peggy Welch, D-Bloomington, said.

Numerous studies have confirmed the importance eating breakfast has in helping a student learn effectively, and as a result, some already see the program as a success.

“It is absolutely a benefit to the kids who do eat the school breakfast,” Johnson said. “We may not have made any money on it, but we fed a child who otherwise may have gone without, and that’s greater than any amount of money we could have saved.”