Education
Should breakfast be served in classrooms? Some Tacoma schools have started
Tacoma schools are changing the way students eat breakfast.
That is: in the classroom, with their peers.
In December, Tacoma Public Schools launched a “Breakfast in the Classroom” pilot program at two elementary schools, offering students a free meal to start their day.
The goal is to remove some of the barriers of access to breakfast and encourage more students to participate.
“One of the goals is to get at least 70 percent of the students eating free and reduced lunches to also eat breakfast, because right now that number is minuscule,” said Alicia Lawver, strategic planning and policy manager for Tacoma Public Schools.
While most support the effort to boost access to breakfast, some raised questions and concerns.
“We did see some barriers at first … about mess in the classroom or the amount of time that is being taken away from instruction, or even that teachers would have one more thing to do,” said Abby Sloan, principal at Jennie Reed Elementary. “We have found that the children are able to do it all and they have a greater sense of purpose and responsibility to each other.”
Over the course of the year, the district plans to roll out the program to more schools. As studies of the pilot continue, it could one day be district-wide.
State mandate
In 2018, the state Legislature passed a bill requiring districts to provide a breakfast option for students who may not be able to get breakfast before school starts, called “Breakfast after the Bell.” It went into effect this school year.
To comply with the law, TPS implemented a “Grab ‘n’ Go” program at 26 schools that have at least 70 percent free and reduced lunch students, where students can drop by the cafeteria to grab some food before heading to class.
Meanwhile, the district developed the “Breakfast in the Classroom” program with the help of United Way of King County, which helped pay for training and equipment.
Here’s how the program works: staff at each school prepare coolers with food items. The menu rotates per day and includes mini pancakes, oatmeal bars, apples, raisins, milk, juice, french toast, oranges and/or breakfast pizzas.
The coolers are then labeled by classroom and lined up in the hallway.
As students arrive in the morning, a designated student or staff member wheel the coolers to each class, where the items are unpacked and distributed.
Students can choose whether to participate, but Reed Elementary second grade teacher Suzie Klauda finds that most do.
“I truly believe that when you put food in front of children, they will eat it,” she said.
If they choose not to participate, her students have other tasks.
“Once they’re done eating, they’re supposed to take out their book and do some independent reading for a few minutes,” Klauda said.
The district is currently working on developing strategies to help teachers engage students while they’re eating, Lawver said.
“It’s an evolving process,” Lawver said.
Tacoma is the first district that’s developed a “Breakfast in the Classroom” pilot program in Pierce County, and the largest in the state. The closest other districts are Highline and Tukwila.
More districts are starting innovative breakfast programs nationwide, said Diane Pratt-Heavner, spokesperson from the School Nutrition Association.
Out of districts that offer breakfast, 54 percent provide venues in addition to the traditional cafeteria line, up from 47 percent in 2016, according to SNA’s 2018 School Nutrition Operations Report. Of those districts, 44 percent deliver breakfast straight to the classroom.
“Research shows school breakfast contributes to improved student performance, behavior and attention in the classroom,” Pratt-Heavner said in an email. “Unfortunately, tight school bus timetables, late student arrivals and early class schedules can limit student participation in traditional cafeteria breakfast programs. Breakfast in the classroom is a great way to ensure all students can choose to start their days with a healthy school meal.”
Met with skepticism
When Margaret Connor found out her school was going to start serving breakfast in the classroom, she was skeptical, to say the least.
“My thoughts were it would be a distraction,” said Connor, a second grade paraeducator at Jennie Reed Elementary School in Tacoma. “(Food) would wind up being used as toys rather than used properly, and the special needs population would be overstimulated by it.”
When the program started, Connor said her perceptions changed. The program gave a “semblance of order” to the classroom, she said.
“It wound up being a calming, focused activity,” she said. “They sit in their seats, finally.”
Angel Morton, president of the Tacoma Education Association, supports the program but does have concerns.
“We want kids to have all their needs met, and meanwhile what (teachers) are expected to do in a 6-and-a-half-hour day is getting longer and longer and longer,” she said.
Parents expressed both concerns and support in a Facebook parent group.
“I have never chosen for my kids to eat food provided by the school and am disappointed that the food is now being handed out in class,” one parent wrote in a post. “It also seems that this must surely be using up instruction time … ?”
“It sucks for our teachers, but every single one of them would rather the child be fed,” one person commented.
“It’s better for the kids who are hungry to have breakfast bars than to be starving. I know they are high in sugars but it’s better than nothing,” another person commented.
Results so far
So far, the program has increased the number of students eating breakfast.
At Reed Elementary, breakfast participation jumped from 55 percent to more than 70 percent, Sloan said.
Roosevelt Elementary saw a dramatic increase of participants, from 25 students to more than 200.
Klauda, who started teaching in Tacoma three years ago, came from a school district in California that had a “Breakfast in Class” program.
“What I found in California, is the kids were a lot less hungry,” Klauda said. “They weren’t complaining before lunch that I’m hungry. They weren’t getting frustrated, agitated, because they were being hungry. So I was actually gaining minutes.”
She’s seeing that in Tacoma, too.
On Friday morning, Klauda’s students ate their breakfast of mini pancakes, apples, raisins and milk while chatting with one another, listening to morning announcements and reading.
“You know when you go out to dinner or you have a barbecue with your family, it’s that community feeling of all being together,” Klauda said. “’Breakfast in the Classroom’ is the same kind of thing.”
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