National Sponsor:
Findings by Deloitte and the No Kid Hungry Center for Best Practices on the education, economic and health impact of school breakfast
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Childhood Hunger is a Serious Problem
No child should grow up hungry in America, but one in five children struggles with hunger.
Hungry Children are at risk of:
Poor Health:
• Being sick more often and are 31% more likely to be hospitalized
Diminished Education:
• Impaired brain development
• Lower academic achievement
Data Sources: Coleman-Jensen et al. (2012), Nord & Prell (2007), Cook & Jeng (2009)
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“One of my students this year came up to me during a test and said she was having trouble. When I asked her which question she needed help with, she answered, “I don’t need help with the questions. I need help because I’m hungry and I can’t think.”
-- An elementary school teacher in Maryland, “Hunger In
Our Schools 2012”
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The No Kid Hungry Center for Best Practices collaborated with Deloitte to identify the impact of increasing participation in the federal School Breakfast Program.
Connecting Short Term and Long Term Outcomes
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Three out of five teachers report that they see students regularly come to school hungry because they’re not getting enough to eat at home.
21M
Number of low-income students eligible for free and reduced-priced school lunch
11M
Number of free and reducedpriced school lunch eligible students who participate in the School Breakfast Program
Data Sources: Hunger in Our Schools: Teacher’s Report 2012; No Kid Hungry Center for Best Practices – School Breakfast; US Department of Education, National Center for Education
Statistics (2010); USDA, Food and Nutrition Service (2010); Food Research and Action Center, School Breakfast Scorecard, January 2013.
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A student who eats school breakfast is less likely to struggle with hunger during their lifetime.
On average, students who eat school breakfast have been shown to:
Attend 1.5 more days of school per year
Achieve 17.5% higher math scores
Are 20% more likely to graduate from high school by attending class regularly
High school graduates typically earn $10,090 more annually and have a 4% higher employment rate.
Data Sources: Murphy (2007); Pinkus (2008); Census Bureau (2010); Bureau of Labor Statistics (2012)
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Increasing School Breakfast Program participation has potential to improve test scores, improve school attendance and increase graduation rates nationwide.
If 70% of elementary and middle school kids eating a free or reduced-price lunch were also getting school breakfast, this nationally has the potential impact of:
4.8M
fewer school absences per year
3.2M
students scoring higher on standardize math tests per year
807,000 more high school graduates*
To learn the benefits of school breakfast for your area, visit NoKidHungry.org/Breakfast.
*The number of students likely to graduate from the original cohort of students included in the SBP increase, assuming they continue to participate in SBP through the 12 th grade.
Data Sources: Murphy (2007); Pinkus (2008); Census Bureau (2010)
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Traditionally, students receive school breakfast in the cafeteria before the school day.
Moving school breakfast out of the cafeteria and making it a part of the school day ensures more low-income students are able to start the day with a healthy meal.
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Research finds a student eating school breakfast tends to do better in school and attend class more frequently, which leads to greater job-readiness and selfsufficiency after high school. These students, therefore, are set on a path to become less likely to struggle with hunger as adults.
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Calculations on the effect of moving breakfast to the classroom in Maryland show:
Schools serving breakfast in the classroom experienced as much as a 7.2% lower rate of chronic absenteeism (missing 20 or more days a year)
Students in schools serving breakfast in the classroom were up to 12.5% more likely to pass state standardized math tests
Note: This is an analysis of Maryland Meals for Achievement Schools
Data Sources: Maryland Report Card (2010), Maryland Meals for Achievement (2010)
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The Challenge: In 2008 55% of Eligible Maryland
Students did not Participate in School Breakfast
The Solution: Fully fund Maryland Meals for Achievement
MMFA provides universal, in-classroom breakfast for students

Secure full funding of MMFA through a collaborative, multi-year, research-based, advocacy campaign.

• Language matters
• Make it local
• When you have a good story, tell it more
• Find other messengers
• Boil it down
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Thanks to Governor O’Malley’s leadership, 57,000
additional students will start the day ready to learn next year because they got a nutritious breakfast at school.

Questions?
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