Skip To Main Content

Why School Breakfast is Important

Important Breakfast Message for Students

Studies show…

“Children who ate breakfast at school scored notably higher on most of the tests than children who ate breakfast at home and children who did not eat breakfast.” -- Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine, October, 1996

Students eating school breakfast resulted in: •

  • Higher scores on assessment tests 
  • Findings that support previous research 
  • Positive effects from eating breakfast in the classroom vs. the cafeteria
    Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School “Maryland Meals for Achievement” www.msde.state.md.us/programs/foodandnutrition/mmfa.pdf

“Children in the School Breakfast Program were shown to have significantly higher standardized achievement test scores than eligible non-participants.” -- Tufts University School of Nutrition Science and Policy, 1998

School breakfast resulted in: •

  • Increased math and reading scores
  • Fewer nurse’s office visits
  • Improved classroom behavior
  • Improved attentiveness reported by teachers
  • Improved performance reported by parents
    Minnesota Dept. of Children, Families and Learning & University of Minnesota “School Breakfast Programs/Energizing the Classroom” http://cfl.state.mn.us/energize.pdf

“Students who ate school breakfast often had math grades that averaged almost a letter grade higher than students who ate school breakfast rarely.” -- Pediatrics, Vol. 101 No.1, January 1998

Breakfast at school resulted in significant:

  • Increases in math grades
  • Decreases in student absences
  • Decreases in student tardiness
  • Decreases in ratings of psychosocial problems
    Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School

“The Relationship of School Breakfast to Psychosocial and Academic Functioning” http://archpedi.ama-assn.org (search “past issues” for 1998 vol. 152 no. 9) http://www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m2250/n2_v37/20576437/p1/article.jhtml?term=psychosocial+fu nctioning “The benefits [of the School Breakfast Program] include higher performance on standardized tests, better school attendance, lowered incidence of anemia, reduced need for costly special education.” -- Tufts University Center on Hunger, Poverty and Nutrition Policy, 1994