Staff photo by GRETCHEN PHILLIPS
Donovan Adams, a 10th-grader at Henry E. Lackey High School, stops to grab breakfast at a kiosk located at the front of the school before heading to class last week.
No matter how they get it, the superintendent of schools would like for every student to eat breakfast.
Charles County Public Schools Superintendent James E. Richmond met with middle and high school principals last week at Henry E. Lackey High School to discuss the importance of breakfast, and how each school should make efforts to promote its breakfast program.
“I want to make sure every child has breakfast. I’m not saying they have to eat at school,” Richmond said.
Richmond said he also would like to educate parents on the existence of the breakfast program and that breakfast is available to every student.
In addition to Richmond advocating the importance of breakfast for students, Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) also has made a push for breakfast participation.
The First Class Breakfast initiative, launched in April, is aimed at improving school breakfasts.
At the end of the school year, 17.3 percent of the school population participated in the school breakfast program, school officials said.
The goal for the state is to get 55 percent of the state’s students who are eligible for free or reduced-price meals who eat lunch to participate in the breakfast program.
Currently, Charles County has 36 percent of its FARMS students participating in breakfast at school, at schools that don’t participate in the Maryland Meals for Achievement program.
The six schools, five elementary and one middle, in Charles County that participate in MMFA all meet the 55 percent goal. Additionally, 85 percent of FARMS participants eat breakfast at those schools.
MMFA is a state and federally funded program that provides a classroom breakfast to all students in the school. Schools are eligible to participate if they have more than 40 percent of their populations receiving free or reduced-cost meals.
Charles County has more schools that are eligible for the program, school officials said, but the funding is not available for them to participate.
Part of O’Malley’s initiative is to get more money for the MMFA program.
For middle and high schools, Richmond said he would like to see more effort to promote breakfast.
Lackey Principal James Short explained some of the changes he and school staff have made to make breakfast more available to students, such as breakfast kiosks and a midmorning break.
One kiosk sits at the front door so students have an option to stop as they get off the bus in the morning. Food is prepackaged and many choices are heated, such as waffles, pancake-wrapped sausage and fruit-filled pastries. Milk and fruit juice also are available.
Tenisha Newton, 17, said she eats breakfast at Lackey about twice a week, making use of the kiosk.
“I don’t have to go all the way to the cafeteria to get it. It’s more convenient,” she said.
The kiosks have been available for about two and a half months at the school.
In another attempt to increase breakfast participation among students, Short adjusted the time between one of the class periods in the morning, allowing a few extra minutes so students could have a midmorning break. Breakfast is available during this eight- to 10-minute time.
Before the new alternatives were available for breakfast, about 80 students were participating in school breakfast, Short said. He said 150, sometimes more, are participating now.
William Krueter, supervisor of food services for the school system, said food services staff would come to any school to tailor whatever is needed for breakfast.
A more realistic goal would be to increase participation with every student and not just a particular group such as FARMS, Krueter said.
The school system has a goal to increase its participation from 17.3 percent, which is in line with the state average.
To do this, the school system would like to see participation in elementary school to be 20 percent, middle school 15 percent and high school 10 percent.
Lackey has the highest percentage of students eating breakfast on the high school level, with 7 percent, and La Plata has the lowest at 2.8 percent.
Richmond suggested getting student governments involved to help promote and educate students about the importance of eating breakfast.
Other suggestions at the meeting included involving parent-teacher organizations to help with boosting participation.
Options food service staff recommended to principals included breakfast in the classroom, second-chance breakfast, similar to the midmorning break implemented at Lackey, and breakfast kiosks, which principals witnessed in use at Lackey.
Paul T. Balides, assistant superintendent of finance, asked if there are any rules regarding students bringing their own breakfast to school and eating it during school breakfast time.
There is no rule stopping anyone from bringing his own food in for breakfast, Krueter said.
“I know a lot of people don’t eat breakfast,” Richmond said, adding that “it’s energy, I would hope you all would emphasize that to your kids.”
gphillips@somdnews.com