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May 31, 2006
Got breakfast?Started as a pilot project in 1966, and made permanent in 1975, school breakfast has been renewed as a pet project of two former senators. George McGovern and Bob Dole are pushing to raise awareness about this federal service for school children in the name of hunger relief, a cause that both have championed since the 1970s. According to USA Today, "the pair are barnstorming the nation to get school officials, lawmakers, anti-poverty advocates, and parents interested in the program."
"You're not going to have highly productive, educated, competitive young people coming up in this country if they don't get a good education," McGovern says. "And they're not going to get a good education if a third of them are hungry all the time, or malnourished."
Although the program has grown steadily since the 1970s, currently, only about 9 million children are enrolled in the program, compared with the the nearly 29 million children receiving subsidized school lunch. With $328 billion approved by Congress (and largely unspent) for the program in 2005, unclaimed funds are returned to the Treasury.
Find information on school breakfast and the link of breakfast to improved learning by searching the NSBA School Health Programs database. The U.S. Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service has information online too.
Posted May 31, 2006 2:55 PM | Health & Wellness
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