Breakfast is considered the most important meal of the day, but far too many Pennsylvania children don’t get the nutrition they need.
National data makes clear that Pennsylvania still has a long way to go to ensure that eligible students start their day with the fuel they need to learn. According to the “School Breakfast Scorecard 2015” issued by the national Food Research and Action Center (FRAC), Pennsylvania ranks 41st nationally, with only 45% of low-income children in Pennsylvania who eat school lunch are also participating in school breakfast.
To help highlight the importance of school breakfast and offer incentives to schools that make meaningful changes to increase student access to school breakfast, the Pennsylvania School Breakfast Partners Group has held two PA School Breakfast Challenges.
About the Challenge
Schools that achieve the largest increases in school breakfast participation will be awarded prizes! Participation increases will be measured comparing average daily breakfast participation from September-December from the previous year to average daily breakfast participation from September-December during a Challenge year.
Please see the Challenge winners from both 2014 and 2015!
We invite all schools to enter the Pennsylvania School Breakfast Challenge to ensure each Pennsylvania child starts their school day ready to learn!
The Pennsylvania School Breakfast Challenge is made possible through a broad public/private partnership group that includes child and anti-hunger organizations, state administrative and policy staff, education associations, food retailers, dairy councils, and the faith community. Click here for a full list of the partners working to make the challenge possible!
Why School Breakfast Matters
We all know that children do better in class when they start their day with breakfast. But far too many students in Pennsylvania still are not getting the nutrition they need at school, which can negatively affect their health as well as their ability to learn and succeed academically.
Together, we can address this problem. The School Breakfast Program is proven to decrease discipline and behavioral problems, visits to the school nurse, and tardiness in schools, while increasing student attentiveness and attendance. Studies also find that students who eat school breakfast show improved reading and math skills, as well as higher scores on standardized tests.
By ensuring more students have access to school breakfast, we can help to improve health and learning outcomes for all children in Pennsylvania.