American Graduate; Breakfast After the Bell

Breakfast after the bell is a first in the country law that requires any elementary school with 85% or more free to reduce Christ's kids to serve breakfast in the first few minutes of class. And millions and millions of educational dollars are wasted if you have children showing up to the door of school who are not ready to learn. And part of being ready to learn is that you have a full stomach and are able to focus on your day and not worry about being hungry. It's well documented that malnutrition impacts the brain, impacts the ability to grow properly. All of those things have long-term impacts on people's lives. But the other side of the coin of hunger is obesity, especially in New Mexico, where people are undernourished because they are getting high fat, high calorie food to tie them over.

I think it is crazy not to do this. We took $2 million in state money and turned it into about $16 to $20 million in federal money in terms of reimbursement, so financially it makes sense. Situation outcome, it makes sense, from every level, academic, physical, financial, it makes sense. So what's interesting is that breakfast after the bell in New Mexico is almost exclusively for elementary school. But the statistics show that as kids get older, hunger, statistics actually go up. And so this is a really important program for every level, middle school, high school. And you can actually implement in ways that are easier for middle and high school students to participate. You have to be in the classroom. They can actually grab something on the way in from a key ask. But remembering that there are still kids at middle school and high school, even though they seem more self-sufficient, is really important in terms of addressing hunger and its impacts on its impacts on behavior, its impacts on grades, its impacts on truancy. So I would really encourage communities thinking about breakfast after the bell, not just

to focus on elementary school, but to look at all of the high poverty schools, middle school and high school and figure out how to get those kids breakfast and make sure that their day starts right. There's still work to do. This program is part of American Graduate. Let's make it happen. A public media initiative made possible by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.