SPRINGFIELD — Being hungry can make it difficult for students to concentrate and to learn. Mark Jeffrey, district manager of Sodexo, knew one way to resolve those issues was to get students to eat breakfast.
Springfield Public Schools and Sodexo, the district’s food service provider, were recently honored for their excellent breakfast participation rates, ensuring that more than 80 percent of students are starting off their day with a nutritious meal.
“Since we launched the Breakfast in the Classroom initiative, we have had reports of less trips to the nurse’s office. Students eat as part of a smaller community, so they look forward to going to class which has reduced tardiness,” said Jeffrey. “Since they look forward to eating together, we have seen more students participate and we hope that translates into scholastic success.”
There are 60 public schools in the city, with roughly 25,000 students, according to Timothy Gray, the school district’s food service administrator.
Currently about 30 schools are participating in the program. Jeffrey hopes to get 15 more schools involved in the coming school year and another 15 the following year.
It’s a simple concept — instead of getting breakfast in the cafeteria, students are brought their meals by Sodexo staff and eat at their desks before the school day begins. Students are offered a variety of options including a hot and cold meal, fruit, and milk.
“For many of these students this and school lunch are their only meals of the day. Their access to food is in the schools and this program provides the ability for every single one of them to participate,” Jeffrey said.
Gray said the district also participates in the United States Department of Agriculture Community Eligibility Provision.
“Every student in the district receives a free breakfast and lunch because our poverty rate is so high here in Springfield,” he said. “Since no student has to pay, it takes away the stereotype of free lunch versus paid lunch, and since we introduced the Breakfast in the Classroom model, we have seen so many more students participate.”
The school district and Sodexo received the Eos Foundation Healthy Start Leadership Award in May along with a $10,000 grant for their efforts to expand Breakfast in the Classroom throughout the district.
Twenty-five Springfield schools were honored for being among the schools in Massachusetts that have reached 80 percent school breakfast participation rates.
“As adults, we know that feeling hungry negatively impacts our mood and ability to focus. Think about a student walking into class feeling this way,” said Thaddeus Tokarz, principal of Central High School, the first Massachusetts high school to implement BIC and one of only a few high schools nationwide to reach a more than 80 percent participation rate. “More than 90 percent of our students eat a nutritious school breakfast and academically we’re seeing that have an impact.”
Jeffrey said he is incredibly proud of the work done at Central and hopes to expand that to the rest of the high schools. The High School of Science and Technology recently launched the program as well.
Springfield first piloted the breakfast program at Brightwood Elementary in 2012 and six schools were serving breakfast in the classroom by 2013. Now nearly half of the district’s schools are participating.
“We actually have a waiting list now. At first it was us trying to sell the idea to principals, now that they see it’s working they want to implement it in their schools,” Jeffrey said.
Andrea Silbert, president of the Eos Foundation, described Breakfast in the Classroom as a “silver bullet” to successfully fighting hunger.
“It is a straightforward solution to combat childhood hunger in Massachusetts, with well-documented academic, behavioral, financial, and economic development benefits for kids and school districts,” she said in a prepared statement. “The work that these schools – principals, teachers, custodians and cafeteria staff in particular – have done to implement their free breakfast program is admirable and serves as a model for other schools in the state.”
However, now that the school year has ended, the district is still hoping to ensure children are getting at least one or two nutritional meals over the summer.
“We are always trying to come up with innovate ideas to feed kids,” Gray said.
One way students can access food during the summer is through the Summer Food Service Meal Program which features 25 locations across the city.
“We don’t always see a lot of students at some of the sites and I think that has to do with transportation or families not knowing the food is available,” Gray said. “We want students to take advantage of the program, so that no kid is going hungry in the summer months.”
The district has put a list of participating locations on its website. The sites will begin serving breakfast and/or lunch on June 27 through Aug. 23.
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