You know the old saying: Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

This is probably especially true for school-aged children who are growing, learning, and trying to achieve. So what happens when they can’t get breakfast at home? Luckily we have the School Breakfast Program in more than 89,000 schools around the country.

The School Breakfast Program operates in the same manner as the School Lunch Program. Children who qualify (based on household income), receive free or reduced-price breakfast in a school setting. The meals must meet the new healthy, dietary guidelines (think skim milk, whole grains, and fresh fruits).

Unfortunately, the School Breakfast Program isn’t feeding nearly as many low-income students as it should be. Parents might not know about the program. They might not be signing up their children because of the stigma involved. They might have trouble getting their children to school in time (usually much earlier than when the first bell rings) to receive the meals. And schools might not be doing a good enough job promoting this program.

A big issue has been that the percentage of children who would qualify for the program versus the percentage of children participating has a huge drop off. According to a study by FRAC, “For every 100 poor children who participate in the school lunch program [which has identical qualifications], only 53 are enrolled in the breakfast program. In the vast majority of school districts the ratio is much lower—only 11 out of the 87 districts surveyed by FRAC achieve the organization’s goal enroll 70 students in the breakfast program for every 100 students enrolled in the lunch program.”

For some reason kids are accessing the free or subsidized lunches but skipping breakfast. Which is a real shame because research shows that children who eat a good breakfast tend to perform better in school, have better attendance, and exhibit fewer behavior problems. In addition, children who eat a good breakfast develop healthy eating habits, visit the school nurse less frequently and are less likely to be obese.

So what can schools be doing to get more kids to participate in the School Breakfast Program?

Innovation seems to be the name of the game. Just setting up cereal, milk, fruit, and toast in the school cafeteria doesn’t seem to be working for a lot of schools. First we need to educate parents and get the word out in various ways that the school breakfast program exists. Share Our Strength has been tracking some of the great work states are doing to educate the public on the School Breakfast Program and getting more meals into the bellies of students. In Florida the Florida Partnership to End Childhood Hunger created a statewide media campaign on rethinking how school breakfast is served with an informational website. In New Orleans a citywide summit on school breakfast was held to help schools rethink how breakfast was served. And in Connecticut the Connecticut No Kids Hungry Campaign worked with the Commissioner of Education to write a memo to principals encouraging them to start or expand the School Breakfast Program. In all of these cases, participation rates for school breakfast in the state went up.

Second, schools need to try new and creative ways to get food to children. Some schools have adopted a “grab and go” meals option, where kids are greeted in the classroom, hallways, or busses and provided meals that kids can just grab and take with them. Some schools are even serving breakfast after the first bell, when kids are in their classrooms. This takes away the stigma of being on an income-based meal program, since most students are eating breakfast in the classroom. According to a Washington Post article, thousands of schools, including more than 2,300 in New York City, now serve breakfast in the classroom.

To learn more about the School Breakfast Program, check out these resources from our policy partners:

• Share Our Strength
• Food and Research Action Center (FRAC)
• USDA Food and Nutrition Service

And as we mention above, spreading the word about the School Breakfast Program is incredibly important so link to this blog on Facebook and Twitter and help educate more parents about this important program!