Utah schools serve up celebratory breakfast

Utah schools celebrated breakfast this week — a meal leaders say helps with behavioral problems, test scores, focus and overall health in schoolchildren.

National School Breakfast Week is dedicated to raising awareness and educating families about the importance of students starting the day with a good meal — whether it be at home or at school.

"Many moms feel kids should be fed at home by mother — in a perfect world that would work, but in reality that just doesn't happen," said Nancy Denton, assistant director of child nutrition at the Utah Office of Education.

Each year USDA and the School Nutrition Association recognize National School Breakfast Week to emphasize the benefits of the school breakfast — a program that served more than 8.7 million meals in Utah schools last year and feeds nearly 9 million children in 76,000 schools every day nationwide.

Denton said the school breakfast program has been growing steadily each year — even in school districts with populations that aren't growing, such as Salt Lake City. Part of that is convenience.

Rosanne Henderson, principal at Salt Lake City's North Star Elementary, said that it makes it easier for families that have two working parents to ensure a child gets a good breakfast when mom and dad are out the door early in the morning.

Plus, a high number of students who eat breakfast at school are also coming from low-income homes.

Kelly Orton, nutrition director in Salt Lake City School District, said that more than 92 percent of the students participating in school breakfast in the district qualify for free or reduced meals.

Many districts have also done outreach, sending letters home to parents to let them know what is available to them. Salt Lake City has gone as far as offering free breakfasts only for those who qualify for a reduced price, and 13 schools in Davis District offer free breakfast for everyone.

However, the Food Research and Action Center estimates that the program still reaches only two in five children eligible for free lunch.

The School Breakfast Association reports participation numbers could directly reflect how a district perceives school breakfast.

According to SBA, if students perceive school breakfast as inconvenient or a hassle, they won't visit the cafeteria in the morning. And if they perceive that only students who "need" breakfast make the trip, they may avoid participating — even if they qualify for free or reduced-price breakfasts themselves.

So, National School Break Week is used by schools and districts to show communities that school breakfast can be for everybody — and it can be very beneficial.

But in Utah the majority of schools offer the program, and Orton attributes growing participation to improved quality of meals and marketing to students.

"Breakfast is just the most important part of their day, and it's really nice that we are able to provide that for them," Henderson said. "It affects concentration, attention and will help in the long run with test-score performance, reading and math,"

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