After years of increases, the number of low-income children eating free or reduced-price breakfast at school plateaued at 12.4 million during the 2018-19 school year, said the Food Research and Action Center, an anti-hunger group. In a report released today, FRAC said the 12.4 million daily average was a nominal decline of 6,000 children, or 0.1 percent, from the preceding school year.
“The growing economy, natural disasters, decreases in enrollment, as well as many districts stopping or scaling back their breakfast-after-the-bell programs drove this stagnation in participation among low-income students,” said FRAC in its annual School Breakfast Scorecard.
FRAC says school breakfast “is one of the best ways to boost student achievement, reduce absenteeism, and improve student nutrition.” It puts the Community Eligibility Provision, which allows schools in poor neighborhoods to serve breakfast and lunch for free to all pupils, at the top of its list of “best practices” for school nutrition, and says Congress should increase investment in the CEP so more high-poverty schools can participate. This week, the Trump administration, as part of its fiscal 2021 budget package, proposed tightening the USDA rules about which schools can participate.
As with school lunch, the majority of the 14.6 million participants in school breakfast in 2018-19 were low-income children. For the sixth year in a row, West Virginia led the nation in the ratio — 83 percent — of low-income children participating in school breakfast for every 100 who ate school lunch for free or at a reduced price. Vermont and New Mexico were next, nearly tied at more than 69 percent, followed by the District of Columbia, Kentucky, and Arkansas. The national average of 57.5 percent was up from 56.9 percent in 2017-18 because participation fell faster for school lunch than breakfast.
FRAC’s School Breakfast Scorecard for 2018-19 is available here.