HARRISBURG Report: More Pa. schools must participate in breakfast programs

Eleven of Pennsylvania's 501 school districts didn't serve any breakfasts.
HARRISBURG (AP) -- Just before 8:30 a.m. on a recent Wednesday, Shamar Curry chowed down a selection of culinary delights fit for a 5-year-old: a prepackaged plastic bowl of Cheerios, a pint of low-fat milk and a bag of red grapes.
The kindergartner is very particular about how he eats the grapes, splitting them in two and then cramming both halves in his mouth before chewing.
"I like to crack the grapes open," he explained, grinning.
The morning meal is a shared ritual at Downey Elementary School and other schools in the Harrisburg School District, but it is not nearly as prevalent as it should be across the state, according to a recent report by the nonprofit Pennsylvania Hunger Action Center.
The center's Pennsylvania School Breakfast Report Card, released earlier this month, mentions Harrisburg as one of 10 "star performers" whose average daily participation in the federally funded school breakfast program was at least half its participation in the school lunch program during the 2002-03 school year.
Conversely, it notes that 11 of the state's 501 districts didn't serve any breakfasts, even though 30 percent or more of their pupils came from low-income families.
Financial incentives
About half the states require all or some districts to provide breakfasts. Pennsylvania has no such requirement, but offers financial incentives to school districts for participating in the program, according to a national report also released this month by the Washington-based Food Research and Action Center.
"I think that's really hard to justify. ... We're investing a lot of money in education, as we should, and this is part of making sure that kids are ready to learn," said Berry Friesen, executive director of the Pennsylvania Hunger Action Center.
The Shamokin Area School District in Northumberland County landed at the top of the center's list of schools deemed as "failing the children" by not providing breakfast, with 56 percent of its pupils in the low-income bracket.
Superintendent Ned Sodrick said administrators are trying to develop a "grab and go" breakfast for pupils to consume during their homeroom period this year, but they face logistical challenges in incorporating it seamlessly into the school day.
"We have all of our kids in one building, and every kid is bused. We're dealing with 34 buses every morning," he said.
Opposition to program
Officials in the DuBois Area School District, which landed on the same list as Shamokin, proposed a breakfast program to the school board in October, but the board's vote ended in a tie and the program did not move forward, Superintendent Sharon Kirk said.
Board President Burnell Muth was among those who voted against it.
"If parents care about their kids at all, they should be serving them breakfast at home," Muth said. "Nowadays, people shove their kids out the door a lot, and they don't seem to care. Does that mean we should be heading that way?"
The Philadelphia School District, another "star performer" in the report, has been providing breakfasts for well over a decade, according to district spokesman Vincent Thompson.
"We recognized as a district that kids can't learn if they're hungry. If they're paying attention to their growling stomachs, it's hard for them to pay attention in the classroom," he said.
Served in classroom
Harrisburg has offered cafeteria-style school breakfasts since 1978, but more recently it developed a "Breakfast in the Classroom" program in an effort to increase the number of pupils who participate, said David Lloyd, the district's director of food services.
Kindergarten teacher Sue Chamberlin said the in-class breakfasts give her pupils a chance to relax and socialize at the beginning of the day. The children also help clean up afterward, with a different pupil designated as the caretaker of the "breakfast bag" each day.
"What I'm finding is that they're ready to learn," Chamberlin said. "It's a nice way to start the day."