School breakfast

luvschoolnursing, LPN · Feb 6, 2010

Martha, I'm the one who posted that. We do have a school breakfast program. It's a pretty good one, too. I'm talking about kids who get up late, drive to school in their cars that are nicer than mine, then decide around 9AM that they can't survive till 11AM when they have lunch. I often refer kids for free/reduced breakfast/lunch and would never refuse to feed a kid I thought was truly hungry. The ones I am referring to are a whole different bunch.

bergren · Feb 6, 2010

"breakfast in the classroom when school starts in the morning" is the best model.

So is breakfast in the classroom and the hungry students are late for school? Or they are late for the breakfast that starts prior to school? All of the school breakfast studies show a problem with the second model as kids can't come to school early for all kind of reasons, including late buses.

It actually doesn't matter why kids miss the breakfast, missing breakfast for any reason and no matter the income level, leads to the lower achievement outcomes, which matters a great deal to principals.

I am one of those people that if I am hungry, I cannot function. And I usually have a hard time eating breakfast unless I have been awake at least an hour. So I have an inordinate sympathy for hungry kids and adults, even if their predicament was self created. That doesn't mean that the nurse has to or should provide mid-morning snacks for all the hungry kids in the school. The school as a community can decide to offer a healthy school breakfast for all kids in the first class or Grab 'N Go pays off because of all of the benefits , INCLUDING fewer visits to the school nurse, which means they stay in class where they belong. So I would be willing to champion a in classroom breakfast program and or midmorning snack options.

The stardardized achievement test outcomes showed that the kids who ate at school (ie closer to the test) outperformed the kids who ate breakfast at home (earlier).

luvschoolnursing, LPN · Feb 6, 2010

I guess you are much more sympathetic than I am. I just think by the time you are 16-18 years old, you should throw your own granola bar in your backpack if you're running late. I do understand what the studies show about performance, etc. but I am also a big fan of personal responsibility. Working in a high school, I think this is one thing many kids are lacking.

Am I contradicting my signature quote?

bergren · Feb 7, 2010

Developmentally, adolescents are just learning to plan ahead. They get plenty of experience in consequences of not planning ahead in making or breaking their homework deadlines, a task in which most factors are under their control. Few adolescents do the family groceries and have no control over what foods are available to grab when leaving home. Occasionally I forget to pack my snacks for the day, but I have the freedom to leave my desk to find a vending machine or stop off on the way into work. Teens lack that flexibility.

I prefer to shape the school environment so that success is likely.

I do think school nurses need to support character building and personal responsibility, but only if health and academic achievement needs are met first. I realize many do not share my view.....

Rosie67 · Feb 8, 2010

I think the point is lost. We are not talking about that poor child who doesn't have food and misses breakfast from circumstances out of his control. I ask several questions when a student comes looking for breakfast. Many CHOOSE to skip breakfast so they can socialize in the gym. Some students turn up their noses "That food is nasty!" Some come late at 1000-if it takes them an hour to get hungry, then they can wait for lunch. My cafeteria staff works hard. They are not running a restaurant. If a pattern develops, then we look deeper and perhaps get the Social Worker involved. Not a single student in my school is starving. Your research based point is respected, but I do believe that on a day to day basis, responsibility and accountability are great lifelong lessons.

Purple_Scrubs, BSN, RN · Feb 8, 2010

I am at an elementary school, we have a breakfast program and almost 100% of my students qualify for free or reduced meals. I STILL get an average of 1-5 students per day c/o headache or stomachache before lunch, and when I ask what they ate for breakfast...you guessed it, they have not eaten.

Most of them say they arrive too late for breakfast (which stops serving at 7:45 for an 8am school start). Some of them were tardy to class as well. In many cases, the parents are sleeping late, thus the kids are sleeping late. They miss the bus and the parents drive them in and drop them off here without eating.

I have purchased a huge box of individually packaged saltine crackers from Sam's, but I am out (and money is tight). The cafeteria workers refuse to provide me crackers to hand out. I am at a loss as to what else I can do about this. I am thinking about some parental education, but not sure in what form yet. Anyone have any ideas?

This really frustrates me because in this case, we are doing everything we can by providing breakfast, offerring free and reduced cost, me trying to keep crackers in stock when I can...etc. I feel like this is a huge failure on the parent's part, and I am not sure what can be done. Makes me so sad and angry.

bergren · Feb 8, 2010

I assume you don't have vending machines or school store that can take this on,

Does your PTA have mini-grants? Use the research data and the number of "hunger" visits you get to support using a mini grant to buy a case of granola bars?

Also, the local philanthropy groups may fund this - Hospital auxillary, local AAUW, Rotary, etc..... may fund this to boost school scores.

luvschoolnursing, LPN · Feb 8, 2010

I still have to campaign for personal responsibility, especially at the high school level. If you go hungry a couple of days, you should be able to figure out that you need to eat breakfast or pack a granola bar. Why should grants or other funding be used when parental and student responsibility is to blame? I am not talking about kids who do not have access to food. It seems like in my area parents are expecting the schools to be responsible for nutrition, mental health, clothing, after school transportation and any other needs that they are not meeting. And then they complain if we don't do it to their satisfaction. Again, I am not in an area with high poverty .When we see a poverty related need, we go out of our way to meet it.

Purple_Scrubs, BSN, RN · Feb 8, 2010

I assume you don't have vending machines or school store that can take this on,
Does your PTA have mini-grants? Use the research data and the number of "hunger" visits you get to support using a mini grant to buy a case of granola bars?
Also, the local philanthropy groups may fund this - Hospital auxillary, local AAUW, Rotary, etc..... may fund this to boost school scores.

We have a vending machine in the teacher's lunch room, but the kids usually don't have $$ anyway. As far as the PTA, at this time we don't have one, which is another hot button topic with me. I see no reason to not have a PTA except admin not being on the ball about it and a lack of interest from most of the parents.

The idea of local groups funding this is a good one...we have an adopt-a-school program and I might approach the principal about asking for them for help. If all else fails I will suck it up and buy them. Chalk it up to my charitable donations for the year!

Is there a standard of practice about getting parental permission for snacks foods that are not on the lunch menu? I don't have any students with severe food allergies, only mild dairy and wheat intolerances. I was not sure about this, which is why I stuck with crackers versus a granola bar or something. Thanks for the great ideas!

Purple_Scrubs, BSN, RN · Feb 8, 2010

I still have to campaign for personal responsibility, especially at the high school level. If you go hungry a couple of days, you should be able to figure out that you need to eat breakfast or pack a granola bar. Why should grants or other funding be used when parental and student responsibility is to blame? I am not talking about kids who do not have access to food. It seems like in my area parents are expecting the schools to be responsible for nutrition, mental health, clothing, after school transportation and any other needs that they are not meeting. And then they complain if we don't do it to their satisfaction. Again, I am not in an area with high poverty .When we see a poverty related need, we go out of our way to meet it.

I think at the high school level, we should expect a higher level of responsibility. If the kids are setting their own alarms and driving themselves to school, then I have little sympathy for them if they oversleep and miss breakfast. On the other hand, if it was the same kid over and over, I would have to investigate to see if there is something else going on. We never really know what the students are dealing with at home.

mustlovepoodles, RN · Feb 10, 2010

I am at an elementary school, we have a breakfast program and almost 100% of my students qualify for free or reduced meals. I STILL get an average of 1-5 students per day c/o headache or stomachache before lunch, and when I ask what they ate for breakfast...you guessed it, they have not eaten.
Most of them say they arrive too late for breakfast (which stops serving at 7:45 for an 8am school start). Some of them were tardy to class as well. In many cases, the parents are sleeping late, thus the kids are sleeping late. They miss the bus and the parents drive them in and drop them off here without eating.
I have purchased a huge box of individually packaged saltine crackers from Sam's, but I am out (and money is tight). The cafeteria workers refuse to provide me crackers to hand out. I am at a loss as to what else I can do about this. I am thinking about some parental education, but not sure in what form yet. Anyone have any ideas?
This really frustrates me because in this case, we are doing everything we can by providing breakfast, offerring free and reduced cost, me trying to keep crackers in stock when I can...etc. I feel like this is a huge failure on the parent's part, and I am not sure what can be done. Makes me so sad and angry.

Our elementary school is 100% on free breakfast and lunch and we still have the problem of kids not eating breakfast for one reason or another. The way we handle it is the FIRST time the child comes to the nurse hungry we will walk them over to the cafeteria and help them get breakfast. The clinic has no funding for things like crackers and juice. The SECOND time,we take the child to the front office where he will be handled by the school discipline specialist who will call their parent and even get the SW involved if she has to. Missing breakfast once is acceptable. Continuing to miss breakfast is a behavioral issue.