Food for thought: ‘Breakfast in Classroom’ program in place at five local elementary schools

Monday, March 15, 2004 | 10:57 a.m.

"Room service" has taken on a new meaning at five Clark County elementary schools, where serving carts are used to deliver breakfast to students at their desks.

The district's "Breakfast in the Classroom" program brings cereal, milk and juice directly to more than 3,000 students at five elementary schools -- Cambiero, Cortez, Fay Herron, C.P. Squires and Robert Taylor.

At schools where more than 80 percent of the students qualify for free and reduced-price meals the district is allowed to use federal funds to feed everyone at no charge, said Sue Hoggan, Clark County School District food services division spokeswoman. The district received a state grant to cover the cost of the serving carts.

Squires, in North Las Vegas, piloted the program last year and other schools have since been added. At Cortez, which joined the the program in January, Principal Betty Roqueni said she's already seen a difference in her students.

There have been fewer students coming late to school and teachers are reporting their pupils are more attentive in the morning hours.

"If you're hungry that's what you're thinking about, not school or learning," Roqueni said. "This is a way to make sure everybody eats."

So far the breakfast menu includes cereal, fresh fruit, milk, juice and bagels and cream cheese. Other campuses -- including several middle schools -- are interested in signing up, Hoggan said.

It's too soon to tell whether the breakfast program will have an impact on student achievement in the long run. But students who qualify for the free and reduced-price meals routinely score far below their peers on standardized tests districtwide.

Numerous studies have shown children who eat a healthy breakfast perform better in school, said Laurie Higgins, a registered dietician and community educator at the Joslin Diabetes Center at Harvard University.

Studies have also shown that children who skip breakfast are more likely to eat high-starch, sugary snacks during the rest of the day -- a habit that can lead to obesity and Type II diabetes, both on the rise in America's youth.

"Schools making breakfast available is important not just for those who economically need it but for all children," Higgins said. "The top goal should be using breakfast as an example of how to start living a healthy lifestyle at a young age and how to make healthier choices."

Mary Ella Holloway, president of the Clark County Education Association, said she has mixed feelings about the Breakfast in the Classroom program. On the one hand it's a good way to ensure children are eating breakfast, provided the food provided is healthy, Holloway said. But on the other hand it means yet another chore for teachers to carry out that takes away time and focus for direct instruction, Holloway said.

"The teachers have to clean up after the kids eat," Holloway said. "I think all meals belong in the cafeteria where the facilities are already there for that purpose."

Roqueni conceded that some of her teachers were wary at first of the breakfast program. But in the two months since it began there's been a change in attitude, she said.

"Teachers have gotten very creative, they've had students making place mats and assigning teams to do cleanup," Roqueni said. "It's a nice way to start the day together."