by Krystal Paco
Guam - Studies show that
students who eat breakfast focus better, perform better in standardized tests,
and get less cranky throughout the day resulting in less violence on school
grounds and ultimately less trouble in the school system. Breakfast really is
the most important meal of the day, and the Department of Education is taking
note.
According to state program officer for nutrition Jesse
Rosario, elementary schools around the island will be piloting the USDA program
breakfast in the classroom early next year. "It's just a really good
program," he said. "There's just been so many things out in the media
saying our test scores are down, there's been lots of bullying and trouble and DOE
as a whole we want to work together to make sure that we solve these problems.
Breakfast is one way we wanted to deal with it. It's something small but it
plays a big impact and we hope to see that when breakfast in the classroom
launches."
Rosario
hopes such a program will put an end to the stigma that only low income
students eat meals in the school cafeteria. Currently, only 38% of DOE elementary
students participate in the federally-funded School Breakfast Program. Rosario says that if more
students ate at school, DOE could receive up to $16,000 in federal
reimbursements for breakfast per day, compared to the current $5,000.
"Breakfast in the classroom is a new initiative by the USDA
Food and Nutrition Services that provides breakfast to all students within the
school no matter what their income level is, we try to get breakfast to every
single student," Rosario
said.
He says the program makes it a class activity, noting, "The
way it works: kids they get shuffled into their classrooms and while the
teacher is taking attendance or she's doing her work with her kids the kids are
fed in the classrooms and that's what we're trying to get to all students."
Recent data on Guam school children suggests that the
island's kids are fatter than the rest of United States' possibly due to not
eating breakfast. "We saw that our obesity rates are very high 32% of our
kids are either overweight or obese and that's pretty high compared to the United States,"
he explained.
Rosario
hopes that the program proves successful in the elementary schools so it may be
pushed in middle and high schools later next year.
