Creatin ealthier Students Better Learners ith the School ...

Creating Healthier Students & Better Learners With the School Breakfast Program

About This Report

This school breakfast report shows that Maryland's performance is a glass that is half-full. While the state has made great strides in expanding school breakfast participation, there are still hundreds of thousands of low-income children who are missing out on the most important meal of the day. Maryland Hunger Solutions knows that the single most important action schools can take to increase access to the School Breakfast Program is to offer breakfast in the classroom after the school day starts. When breakfast is offered at no charge to all students in highpoverty schools, school breakfast participation grows even more. Research shows that student attendance, academic performance, and behavior all improve when students have access to school breakfast. This report outlines the top three barriers to participation in school breakfast and details three key recommendations for schools to increase access to the School Breakfast Program: offer breakfast after the bell; participate in Maryland Meals for Achievement; and elect community eligibility. Finally, this report provides a school breakfast report card for Maryland overall and for each public school system in the state. Maryland Hunger Solutions applauds those who are already taking these steps to the benefit of their local communities and their students, but in many jurisdictions around the state, there is still room for improvement. State-wide, the glass is half empty.

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Maryland's Report Card for the 2015?2016 School Year

Maryland Hunger Solutions

The Food Research & Action Center established Maryland Hunger Solutions in the fall of 2007 as a project to fight hunger and improve the nutrition, health, and wellbeing of children and families in Maryland. Maryland Hunger Solutions works to ensure that all Maryland residents have reliable access to the healthy food they need. To do this, Maryland Hunger Solutions uses a three-pronged strategy to: 1. provide education about the stark reality of hunger's existence in Maryland and

the proven solutions to reduce food insecurity; 2. improve public policies to end food insecurity and poverty; and 3. ensure that all eligible residents are connected to federal and state nutrition

programs, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (also known as the Food Supplement Program in Maryland) and school meals programs.

Acknowledgments

Maryland Hunger Solutions gratefully acknowledges the following funders of its work to improve and expand participation in the School Breakfast Program: n Baltimore Community Foundation; n Community Foundation for the National Capital Region; n Consumer Health Foundation; n David and Barbara B. Hirschhorn Foundation; n Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer Foundation; n Fund for Change; n Horizon Foundation; n Hunger Is, a joint program of The Albertsons Companies Foundation and the

Entertainment Industry Foundation; n Johns Hopkins University; n MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger; n Morningstar Foundation; n Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation; n Stewart B. Eckers Charitable Trust; n United Way of Central Maryland; & n Zanvyl and Isabelle Krieger Fund. This report was written by Tam Lynne Kelley, LGSW, of Maryland Hunger Solutions, with assistance from Food Research & Action Center staff, including Wendy Forbes, Content Editor.

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Creating Healthier Students & Better Learners With the School Breakfast Program

Introduction

The School Breakfast Program improves health and ensures that students can start the school day ready to learn. Therefore, increasing access to school breakfast is a key strategy to reduce food insecurity (limited or uncertain access to adequate food) and to improve the health and education of Maryland's children. Research demonstrates that participation in the School Breakfast Program can reduce educational and health disparities and produce a range of positive outcomes including: n improved diet, short-term memory, and behavior at school; n increased academic attainment; n better school attendance; and n decreased food insecurity, likelihood of developing obesity, and tardiness. Too many Maryland families struggle with low wages and underemployment ? two of the key drivers of food insecurity. At the same time, hundreds of thousands of low-income children in Maryland do not have sufficient access to the School Breakfast Program. In fact, only 47 percent of low-income students in Maryland participated in school breakfast during the 2015?2016 school year.

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Maryland's Report Card for the 2015?2016 School Year

Although the statewide average is less than half, there are districts in the state that have been more successful in ensuring adequate access to the school breakfast program. For instance, in three Maryland public school systems, more than 69 percent of low-income students participated in the School Breakfast Program.

Maryland's Best Public School Systems at Reaching Low-Income Students with School Breakfast

Kent County Public Schools Somerset County Public Schools Caroline County Public Schools

But three out of 24 public school systems are not enough. In fact, this report shows that out of the 24 jurisdictions, 12 received a "B" grade or better, while the other 12 received a "C" grade or less.

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