A Message from Executive Director Cecilia Zalkind

October 4, 2012

So many success stories. And so many great champions. So much to celebrate.

This week, ACNJ released its 2nd annual school breakfast report. The news was good – 29,000 more children are receiving school breakfast on any given day -- a 21 percent increase since October 2010.

We held the event at East Side High School in Newark, a very fitting choice. Newark has been a national leader in school breakfast, long before school breakfast became such a prominent issue. It is especially significant when you consider how poorly New Jersey ranks as a state – 48th last year in the last annual Food Research Action Center report.

At East Side High School, breakfast is handled by the students. It is part of school leadership. At our event, some pretty prominent “servers” – Education Commissioner Cerf, Agriculture Secretary Fisher, Assemblyman Coutinho and Arselio Aponte, president of the state board of education and a graduate of East Side High - helped deliver breakfast to students in a sophomore geometry class. Mayor Cory Booker and Newark Superintendant Cami Anderson spoke to the class.

The kids were eloquent when Mayor Booker asked them why school breakfast was important. And almost every student raised his hand when he asked whether the classroom breakfast was the first meal they had eaten that day – a compelling reminder why breakfast in school is so important.

As I presented our report to the nearly 150 people who attended the event, I reflected on our first report last year. I remember standing up before a similar group in Perth Amboy and saying that committing to improve school breakfast presented an amazing advocacy opportunity.

Unlike so many of our advocacy issues, which require complex solutions and large investments, improving school breakfast has a relatively simple solution. It doesn’t cost more state money. In fact, it brings more federal funding to local districts. And, as I said then, the solution was in the room, among the state and school leaders, parents and advocates - everyone had a role in making a difference.

A lot has happened in the last year to prove my point. The solution was easy. It came down to logistics, resolving three problems: when to serve breakfast, where to serve it and how to clean it up.

So simple. Serve breakfast after the bell – that’s when kids are in school. Serve it in the classroom – that’s where the kids are. Do it as a “grab and go” for easy service and clean up. And make cleaning up a part of breakfast – include a garbage bag or designate a garbage can in the classroom for refuse.

The solution really was in the room that day in Perth Amboy. Some amazing advocates stepped up in response to our first report. A coalition came together under our Food for Thought Campaign, including state agencies, education and nutrition groups and advocacy coalitions. They have gotten the word out on the state and local levels about why school breakfast is important and how it can be done.

State leaders responded quickly to resolve a barrier to serving breakfast in the classroom. In January, Education Commissioner Chris Cerf and Agriculture Secretary Doug Fisher issued a joint memo saying that serving breakfast in the classroom can count as instructional time and urging districts to be creative in their approach to serving more kids.

Other advocates emerged across the state. Advocates like Edison Superintendant Richard O’Malley, who made a commitment to serving breakfast to all kids in his district following ACNJ’s first school breakfast report. And Burlington Township Superintendant Christopher Manno, who described school breakfast as a “moral imperative.”

Angela Andrews, a parent in Union City, used our data to challenge the superintendant and board of education in her community to do a better job with breakfast. Teachers like Chelsea Vargo in Newark and Danielle Rispoli in Edison are making breakfast part of their lesson plans. Kids eat breakfast while they write in their journals or complete their worksheets.

School principals, like Ed Benish in Vineland and Kathy Duke-Jackson in Newark, see school breakfast as a valuable lesson in responsibility and leadership.

So many success stories. And so many great champions. So much to celebrate.

But now it’s time to get back to work. While our report highlights the success, it also stresses how much more work is needed. Despite the improvement, New Jersey is still serving only 35 percent of eligible children. Too many high-needs districts, those with 50 percent or more eligible children, serve too few children. In those districts alone, 88,300 needy children do not get breakfast in school and $28.8 million more in federal funds is left in Washington.

As I left East Side High School yesterday, a woman who attended the event approached me. She was shocked by the low participation rate of her district and vowed to get on it right away. Her friend is running for school board and she plans to bring the data to her.

That’s what you can do. Check out the report. See how your district measures up. If your district is a school breakfast underachiever, take some action. Take the report to your superintendant or school board. Get parents involved. Make it an issue. Call us if you need more information or guidance. We’re here to help.

And you can make a real difference. Just ask the people who stepped up last year. Thanks to them, nearly 29,000 more children started each school day with a healthy breakfast, ready to learn.