School breakfasts: Building better students and stronger communities

March 2, 2017

Parklane Elementary School students line up for breakfast.

When the doors opened at 7:30 a.m., in they came -- swinging pigtails and stuffed backpacks -- filling the cafeteria with the type of breathless chatter reserved for people who don’t require coffee first thing in the morning. By 7:40 a.m., more than 100 Parklane Elementary School students had paraded through single file, stacking their plates with cold cereal, breakfast sandwiches, warm muffins and fruit on the way to tables in the middle of the room.

The orderly procession is a daily ritual at the Centennial School District school, where all of the nearly 400 students are welcome to eat breakfast in the morning and somewhere between 150 and 190 students take advantage of the opportunity each day.

“A lot of our kids probably wouldn’t eat if it weren’t for the breakfast program. I think that we serve a community that’s really struggling,” Parklane Principal Jorge Meza said Thursday. “Our attendance rates fluctuate because our families are housing insecure, so food is a big issue. These are probably some of the only meals that our kids get.”

From left: Parklane Principal Jorge Meza; Centennial Superintendent Paul Coakley; DCHS Director Liesl Wendt; Centennial Business and Operations Director Rick Larson; Chair Deborah Kafoury; DCHS Youth & Family Services Co-Director Peggy Samolinski

The students were joined for Thursday’s breakfast by Multnomah County Chair Deborah Kafoury and Centennial School District Superintendent Paul Coakley, who stopped by to support the breakfast program in advance of next week’s National School Breakfast Week. This year’s theme, “Take the School Breakfast Challenge,” is intended to encourage parents, students and school officials to start the morning with a healthy breakfast.

Eating breakfast is associated with better concentration and higher levels of achievement in reading and math, among other academic and health benefits.

“Breakfast gets kids motivated to come to school,” Meza said. “If you’re hungry, you can’t learn.”

The national School Breakfast Program, which provides federally subsidized breakfasts to children at schools and child care facilities across the country, serves 11.2 million children a day. School breakfast programs, like the one at Parklane, make it possible for all children to receive a nutritious breakfast every school day.

But data show that when compared with lunch, far fewer children eat breakfast at school. The drop-off is due to a number of barriers including where in the school the breakfast is served and what time service is ends in the morning.

“When we dug into the data about breakfast participation we saw that it was significantly lower than lunch, even in schools that had universal breakfast,” said Robyn Johnson, food policy coordinator for Multnomah County.  “We’re looking at ways that we can support and meet those schools where they are to get as many kids as possible eating breakfast.”

Parklane is one of five Centennial School District schools offering what’s known as universal breakfast, meaning it is available to everyone at the school free of charge.

Honoring achievements and one another

Principal Meza turns the day’s first meal into an event. Each day students are recognized during breakfast for their outstanding achievements during other parts of the school day. Meza said he also uses the morning breakfast to create a sense of community among the students.

Parklane Elementary offers breakfast to all of its students.

“I want you to look at a neighbor, somebody you may not know...and say ‘Good morning,’” Meza said into a microphone as he walked from table to table greeting the students as they ate. “I want you to look at somebody you may not know or somebody you want to know...and say ‘Buenos Dias.’”

Chair Kafoury said she was impressed by how many children Parklane has been able to engage in school breakfast. Breakfast appears to be part of the regular school day at Parklane, without any of the stigma that can be associated with eating breakfast at school, Kafoury said.

“It shows the tremendous need in our community, but it also shows that when we make breakfast available and accessible, the kids who don’t have this opportunity will show up,” Kafoury said.

Multnomah County has been exploring how to increase the number of eligible children who eat breakfast at school as part of its larger mission to reduce hunger in the county.

“No child should ever go hungry, but the reality is that there are kids all across Multnomah County who are skipping breakfast or lunch,” Kafoury said. “And some of them have no place to eat a warm meal at night, whether that’s because they are homeless, their parents are struggling to pay the rent and grocery bill, or because domestic violence has shattered their home.”

Although more than 48,000 Multnomah County children qualify for free or reduced-cost school meals, only half of them eat free breakfast. Among high school students, that number is just one in five.

“Together, with our schools and community agencies, we can work to reduce childhood hunger and the barriers to accessing school breakfast and lunch,” Kafoury said.