Students not eating free breakfasts (Miami-Dade)

Miami Herald ^ | September 26, 2005 | Matthew I. Pinzur

[ElCapusto]

Although free breakfast is available to all students in Miami-Dade Public Schools, only a small fraction are taking advantage of it.

Even a registered dietitian with a master's of science degree and oversight of food services in the nation's fourth-largest school system, Penny Parham, advises: Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

''I sound like an old grandmother, but nutritionally, it's the truth,'' Parham said. ``Everybody should eat breakfast -- hands down. Research is clear and strong.''

Free breakfast has been available to all Miami-Dade students for more than a year, but Parham said participation is still low. The 85,000 children who take advantage of it on a typical day represent less than a quarter of the district's overall enrollment, and only around half of those whose family's incomes qualify them for free or reduced-price lunch.

''We would love to serve every child,'' Parham said.

``The benefits of breakfast have nothing to do with being economically needy.''

EASY TO GET

There is no paperwork to fill out, no registration of any kind.

Any child who shows up can eat for free.

A few featured items rotate daily -- eggs and grits, baked french toast, chicken patties -- but the basic menu never changes: cereal, toast, yogurt, fruit, milk and juice.

''We wake up with our food,'' said Brian Hernandez, 11, a fifth-grader at Charles R. Hadley Elementary School, 8400 NW Seventh St.

The West Miami-Dade school serves nearly 3,000 breakfasts per week, compared to around 7,000 lunches.

Teachers said they trust the studies Parham cites, which link breakfast to better nutrition, healthier weight, longer attention spans and stronger academic performance.

''They come ready to learn,'' said Teresita Puig, who teaches 25 second-graders.

``If there's one or two you know haven't had breakfast, they're complaining about headaches and being dizzy.''

SWEET AND HEALTHY

And even though nutritional regulations are looser for breakfast than lunch, Parham said it usually ends up a healthier meal. Even sweet cereals are fortified, and kids are more likely to eat fruit and drink milk in the morning.

The district spends between $15 million and $20 million per year on breakfast, which gives it enough leverage to force vendors to meet Miami-Dade's requests. Nestlé, for example, produced Nesquik with 1 percent milk when the district refused to buy it with 2 percent. Now Parham is pushing Kellogg's to provide more healthy cereals in single-serving packages.

''They're showing us cinnamon-toast something,'' she said. ``I'm looking for Smart Start, Kashi, Heart to Heart.''

[ElCapusto]

The district spends between $15 million and $20 million per year on breakfast...

Parents who have allowed their school system to furnish breakfast to their children have allowed usurpation of most of their parental responsibilities. They don't care. It's one less chore they must perform for their offspring for whom they should be responsible.

It is a disgrace that will probably never be rectified unless a drastic change in nanny government happens.

[clee1]

Eventually, costs will force this policy to change.We have NO more money to put into public education; programs like this one will be the first to take the hit.

Back when I was in school, I'd ocassionally eat breakfast at school - usually when I was late leaving home. It cost 35 cents, so even the "paying" students were subsidised.

[SouthernFreebird]

I hate breakfast, can't force myself to eat it. None of my children are breakfast eaters either.

[shag377]

My child eats breakfast at school for a few reasons:

1.) She likes the time with her classmates.
2.) The bus runs by at 6:40, hardly time for me or her mother to fix breakfast, eat, get ready for school and meet the bus.
3.) She likes it.

[one more state]

Before and after school care, breakfast,lunch, and dinner. Midnight basketball. Let them spend the night, we'll call it an orphanage.

[eeriegeno]

Any child who shows up can eat for free.

The district spends between $15 million and $20 million per year on breakfast

TINSTAAFB.......

[mtbopfuyn]

We've had free breakfast for about 10 years. Seems to be working well. Many kids do eat it and it's usually better than the lunches. We're rural so many get on buses as early at 6:30 so by the time they get to school, they're hungry again whether they've eaten at home or not. I'd rather pay for free breakfasts than some of the other hoopla.

[Sometimes A River]

Boiling an degg ant toasting a piece of bread takes a lot of time?

An egg is less than 10 cents, and a slice of bread is about a nickel.

[RoadTest]

Yup. You hear a lot about the failure of the educational system, but not often mentioned is where the failure starts. Parents are not sending to school children prepared to learn, either nutritionally or academically. Neither their bodies nor their minds are prepared to learn.

[Muzzle_em]

This program should be cut altogether, OR should be cut way down to the number of students actually using it.

[auntyfemenist]

The number of students eating breakfast at school has always been a lot less than those who eat lunch, for a variety of reasons. Yet, the food cost is calculated to accommodate the lunch numbers. It is a waste, and should be done away with.

[Graybeard58]

Forget the free breakfast - I want a free pony.

[kittymyrib]

When school breakfasts consist of sugared cereals and chocolate milk, or slabs of fried white bread with syrup (French toast) and chocolate milk, I would scarcely call that a healthy way to start the day. If the child ate an apple on the way to school, he would be much better nourished. Packing in the fat/sugar calories results in fat children, not healthy children.

[ShadowDancer]

chicken patties

For breakfast? No wonder no one is showing up to eat.

[CSM]

Let the parents that want this service pay the FULL COST for this service. I'm sick of my property taxes subsidising every aspect of the lives of all children! Let the parents start to carry the full burden of their choices.

[clee1]

Uh huh. And the socialists would love it.

[metmom]

That sounds like a real high carb meal with a little protein occasionally thrown in for good measure. Our school serves breakfast like that which is why I insist on them eating at home. Balancing meals keeps your blood sugar from shooting up and dropping rapidly. All you do then is crach and burn.

Excusing kids eating most breakfast cereals because they are "fortified" is ridiculous. You might as well serve them candy for all the good it does. The sugar levels in most store bought yogurt is amazing and if it doesn't have the live cultures, it doesn't do any good. Even juice isn't all it's cracked up to be. One glass of apple juice has the sugar content of 6-8 apples. Can you imagine how you'd feel after eating all those apples? But this way you're getting all the sugar without the fiber and other nutients.

Probably the main reason kids don't eat, though, is that school cafeteria food is notorious for being disgusting. It's about as bad as hospital food. I don't blame them for not wanting to eat it.

[SampleMan]

Perhaps the culprit is the parents themselves. Its possible that they are undercutting the government's authority and usurping it's responsibility by feeding their children clandestinely before they arrive at school.

These parents must be found and stopped. What's next, teaching them values?

[GladesGuru]

"parental responsibilities." followed by "they should be responsible."

Clearly, this FReeper does not live where direct observation of the level of devolution of the 'New Group Man', which John Dewey's educrat minions have diligently labored for generations to produce, is easily accomplished.

There is a certain population wherein both parents and children have been dependent on government welfare payments for so long that they have become mere socialist cattle, dependent on some agency to keep them alive.

Miami, New Orleans, Los Angeles, New York City, and other urban, Blue State, "Big Sh*tty center are afflicted with such problems which both the transfer payment payers and the transfer payment recipients have blindly accepted the blandishments of the Communism Lite crowd in the Democratic party, the RINO's in the Republican Party, and all those droolers in the NGO zoo.

I have seen a few educators who have succeeded in turning such urban denizens of the Liberal 'concrete jungle' into productive citizens. But they are few and far between.

Worse yet, they were not tasked to share their methods with other teachers, but instead either put to work producing graduates suited for state jobs managing the enormous amount of socialized lands in FloriDUH.

Even more indicative of the problem with the Dade School system is the case of a teacher with an absolutely spectacular record in one of the worst schools in America.

He was without a job the year after his most astounding success with those students. Fortunately, a colleague of mine was able to solve his problem, but that experience burned him out.

Asking what can be done with the spawn of Liberalism is akin to walking into a morgue with a bottle of vitamins and asking how much can be accomplished with the vitamins.

America's urban "fruit of the poison tree of Liberalism" problem can't be cured by give away programs or any of the other feel good programs of Liberalism.

Personal responsibility for one's own life is essential to being a citizen of this Republic. When citizens or their children are so irresponsible as to not eat a free meal when hungry, something is rotten America's "Liberal Land Territories".

[Leisler]

The Welfare Iron Triangle has in the last 50 years already reaped trillions of dollars. Through modern social engineering, it now must build, make, entrench, inculcate poverty. Poverty doesn't just happen anymore, it must be taught and built. No poor, no programs, no money. Follow the money.
All government programs are to MAKE poverty. Poverty means money, jobs, careers, retirement. It is the ultimate sustainable economy. For the left. The road to hell is paved, and paving means paving contractors, workers, machine builders, yellow ribbon. Poverty is one industry that can't be outsourced. With luck, and trillions more in taxes, the United States could be a world leader in Poverty.