National School Breakfast Week

This week is observed as National School Breakfast Week. Many schools throughout the country participate in the national School Breakfast Program, which was established in 1966. Since 1989, National School Breakfast Week has been observed to raise awareness of the program and the links between eating a good breakfast, academic achievement, and healthy lifestyles.

When I taught at St. Pat's, I saw first hand the effects when students came to school without eating breakfast. In some cases, the students just got up too late to eat, but for a number of them the issue was poverty and not enough food in the house. Eventually St. Patrick School joined the breakfast program, and it made a great difference for my students and for students throughout the school.

The School Breakfast Program provides cash assistance to States to operate nonprofit breakfast programs in schools and residential childcare institutions. The program is administered at the Federal level by the Food and Nutrition Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. State education agencies administer the School Breakfast Program at the state level, and local school food authorities operate it in schools.

Click on the following link for a U.S. Department of Agriculture fact sheet on the School Breakfast Program:
School Breakfast Program Fact Sheet