Sarah Ford | September 26, 2013

Eliminating Hunger in the Classroom Improves Attendance

No Kid Hungry recently surveyed teachers and principals and found that three out of four K-8 public school teachers and principals see kids who regularly come to school hungry. Of the more than 21 million low-income kids in the U.S. who rely on a free or reduced-price school lunch, only half – about 11 million – currently get a school breakfast even though they qualify.

The No Kid Hungry campaign is also innovating ways to get even more kids to participate in the school breakfast program. Breakfast traditionally happens outside the bounds of the regular school day.  That presents challenges of timing, transportation, and even stigma.  So with some school partners, they tried an experiment of moving school breakfast into the first period of school.  The early results are quite striking and promising.

According to the No Kid Hungry study, teachers and principals who have breakfast in the classroom say they’ve seen improvement in alertness (76%), better attendance (57%), fewer disciplinary problems (54%), fewer visits to the school nurse (55%) and fewer tardy students (49%). Anecdotally, teachers said that they were able to develop more meaningful relationships by spending time with students over a meal versus over a lesson. Relationship building is fundamental to any strategy in improving student attendance. Students are more likely to go to school if they know there is someone there that cares about them.

>> Click here to read more.

Source: Share Our Strength

Get Resources and Insights Straight To Your Inbox

Explore More Articles

Animal Rescue Team and Disaster Response

September 30, 2024

The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) Animal Rescue Team (ART) is on call 24/7, ready to deploy whenever animals are caught in large-scale…

Read Article

Domestic Violence Awareness Month: Together We Can End Domestic Abuse

September 24, 2024

The U.S. Department of Justice estimates that 1.3 million women and 835,000 men are victims of physical violence by a partner every year. People who are…

Read Article

Breast Cancer Awareness Month

September 24, 2024

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month – an annual campaign that aims to educate the public on the importance of early screening, testing and treatment for…

Read Article

Get Resources and Insights Straight To Your Inbox

Receive our monthly/bi-monthly newsletter filled with information about causes, nonprofit impact, and topics important for corporate social responsibility and employee engagement professionals, including disaster response, workplace giving, matching gifts, employee assistance funds, volunteering, scholarship award program management, grantmaking, and other philanthropic initiatives.

newsletter-mock