Pennsylvania School Breakfast Challenge

Posted by on January 20, 2014

More than 200 Schools in our Region Pledge to do a Better Job Helping Kids Start the Day Ready to Learn

In Montgomery County, fewer than 18% of low income students are enrolled in school breakfast programs across the districts.  Things aren’t much better in Bucks where 20% of eligible children are not getting a healthy start to the day or in Chester where it’s 26% and Delaware where its 32%.  Philadelphia leads the region with 46% of children eligible enrolled in the healthy breakfast program.  Unfortunately, in the suburban counties as the number of low-income families has grown by more 17 %, PCCY’s recent Bottom Line Reports on Economic and Food Security found school breakfast participation either declined or remained stagnant in from 2008 to 2012.

https://www.pccy.org/?page=BottomLineCountyReports__193

But across the region, more children will be starting the day with full tummies and therefore more alert and ready to learn.  More than 1,100 schools across Pennsylvania are competing to outdo each other by ensuring that more of their low-income children receive a healthy breakfast as part of the Pennsylvania School Breakfast Challenge.

http://www.hungercoalition.org/breakfast

PCCY, the State Department of Education and others launched the campaign last October.  The goal for the challenge is for each participating school to increase student breakfast participation by at least 30%.  Southeastern Pennsylvania is well represented with 230 schools from 30 districts in Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery and Philadelphia Counties.  PCCY will be monitoring schools over the next five months and will determine which schools did the best at improving participation in school breakfast.  Schools that show the most improvement will receive cash and other awards in when the challenge ends this May.  The School Breakfast Challenge represents a critical opportunity for schools to help more of their students start the day ready to learn through healthy meals at school.