Let them eat breakfast
STUDENTS ACROSS Massachusetts took the MCAS exam last week. But some may not have done as well as they could simply because they didn't have enough to eat.
Elementary school students who took the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System test in the 2003-2004 school year were studied by Project Bread, the Boston antihunger organization. At schools where 80 to 100 percent of students ate breakfast, English and Math MCAS scores went up by as much as three points, a statistically significant increase, says Andrew Schiff of Project Bread. But in Massachusetts, only 43 percent of eligible children are enrolled in school breakfast programs.
The link between nutrition and school performance isn't new. But each study highlights the value of a ''better breakfast," as Project Bread and the Harvard School of Public Health call it: a meal with fresh fruit, low-sugar cereals, and no food with trans fats.
School meals, of course, are only part of the achievement picture. They show the benefits of better nutrition, but they may well also show aggressive principals and superintendents doing whatever it takes to help students.
Revere superintendent Paul Dakin sees the daily effect of breakfast programs: fewer heads resting on desks. The city has been revamping its food program for four years, working with Project Bread and its food services vendor. In elementary schools, the challenge is scheduling: making sure every child has time for breakfast. In the middle and high schools, the challenge is marketing.
''The goal is to lure them with the product," Dakin says. School meals have to compete with the soda and chips that older students can buy on the way to school.
Project Bread has a three-year, $250,000 grant from the state Department of Education to help schools increase the breakfast program enrollment. The payoff is children who are healthier and more school-ready, higher test scores, more compliance with the federal No Child Left Behind law, and more federal dollars since Washington pays for school meals. A cup of yogurt can stave off the daily shame of not having enough to eat at home.
In 1946, when the school lunch program began, part of the goal was to battle the illnesses caused by malnourishment that kept young men from serving in the military during World War II. Today the battle is against hunger and obesity, since parents don't always have the means to provide nutritious meals while fattening, unhealthy food is cheap and plentiful.
Educational innovation must be the main course in public schools. But on the nutrition front, the next step is to pound the table for more food. Every child in Massachusetts should be able to get the running start that breakfast provides.
