To highlight National School Breakfast Week
and the new state-funded school breakfast initiative,
Trenton Mayor Doug Palmer (far left) and State Agriculture
Secretary Art Brown, Jr., enjoyed a nutritious breakfast
with students at the Wilson Avenue Elementary School.
Agriculture Secretary Art Brown, Jr.,
marked National School Breakfast Week this morning with a visit to
the Wilson Avenue Elementary School in Trenton. He was joined by
USDA Regional Administrator for the Mid-Atlantic Region Christopher
Martin, Trenton Mayor Doug Palmer, Trenton School Superintendent
Dr. James Lytle and the 150 Wilson Avenue Elementary School students
who routinely participate in the school's long-standing breakfast
program."The School Breakfast Program provides tremendous benefits
to every student," Brown said, "and it's good for the teachers, too.
Students who eat a good breakfast are more attentive and better disciplined
and have more energy to devote to learning." Brown's visit underscored
the fact that the Garden State is the first state in the nation to
offer school districts funding for school breakfasts for every student,
regardless of family income. A 10 cent per meal state reimbursement
debuted this year thanks to a $1.9 million program initiative Governor
Christie Whitman included in her FY2000 state budget which enables
the state to draw down federal dollars to support the program.1 The
Governor's school breakfast initiative was designed to increase the
participation of New Jersey school districts in this nationwide program
after a recent national survey by the Food Research and Action Center
revealed that the Garden State's schools ranked 49th out of 51 states
(including Washington, DC) in breakfast participation. These findings
were especially disappointing given the fact that nearly all of New
Jersey's school districts participate in the federal School Lunch
Program. While 550,000 students participate daily in school lunch
programs statewide, only about 84,000 enjoy the benefits of the school
breakfast program. "Since we began to offer our state-funded breakfast
reimbursement, we have added 114 schools to the program," Brown noted. "That's
a phenomenal increase in just a few short months but we still have
fewer than 1,000 schools enrolled compared to the 2,500 schools participating
in the school lunch program." Brown added that the department's goal
over the next four to five years is to increase participation in
the school breakfast program to a level that equals about 40 percent
of the participation in the school lunch program. Kathy F. Kuser,
NJDA's Director of Child Nutrition Programs, estimates that the average
cost to produce and serve a breakfast meal in New Jersey is about
$1.69, depending upon where the school is located and local demographics.
State and federal reimbursements significantly reduce that cost for
school districts.
New Jersey is the first state in the
nation to include all of its child nutrition programs within the
state Department of Agriculture.
1 Federal
rates of reimbursement for the School Breakfast Program take into
account the student's household size and family income. Federal reimbursement
rates are currently $1.09 for each free breakfast, 79 cents for each
reduced price breakfast and 21 cents for each full price breakfast.
Statewide, more than 366,400 students qualify for free or reduced
price meal benefits.
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