Making Sure Kids Get the Most Important Meal of the Day

Most kids line up to go to class when the first bell of the school day rings at Calabasas Elementary School.

But starting last fall, two kids from each classroom dart over to the cafeteria and pull a red Radio Flyer wagon packed with healthy breakfasts back to their classes for their fellow students.

The program, called Breakfast in the Classroom, is thanks to a state grant and some ingenuity on the part of school district's Food and Nutrition Services Department employees. It debuted at Calabasas in October and, since then, has expanded to Landmark, Starlight and H.A. Hyde elementary schools in the Pajaro Valley Unified School District.

Those schools have seen the number of students eating breakfast skyrocket from fewer than 150 per school to 430-520 at each of the eight sites, according to school district officials.

"A lot of kids and I like the breakfast in the morning, because you don't have to rush down your breakfast in the morning," said Calabasas fourth-grader Abigail Carmona, who hand-wrote a press release about Breakfast in the Classroom when she heard that local elected officials and reporters would be visiting her school to see the program in action.

"Also, a lot of people like it, because they don't have to stop and get breakfast on the highway," Carmona wrote. "Some people like it because the breakfast is good."

Calabasas Principal Terry Eastman said program has had unexpected ripple effects. The school has seen a sharp decline in mild illness, like headaches and stomach cramps, as well as students showing more interest in eating fresh fruits and vegetables, not wasting food and recycling.

But the biggest change has happened in the classroom, where attendance has improved and the distraction of hunger has diminished.

"They're much more focused on learning," Eastman said.

State assemblymembers Bill Monning and Luis Alejo, as well as Congressman Sam Farr, sent representatives to Calabasas Tuesday to present school officials with proclamations and mark National School Breakfast Week, March 7-11.

"We all know breakfast is the most important meal of the day," said Carina Chavez, spokeswoman for Farr's office.

However, the program is not without its critics. The Pajaro Valley Federation of Teachers filed an unfair labor practice charge against the school district Monday, according to the union president, Francisco Rodriguez, a special education teacher.

"We, of course, are in agreement that students who have a good breakfast and who are ready to learn do much better than when they're hungry and don't have enough to eat," said Rodriguez, whose union represents all certificated employees in the school district, including classroom teachers. "One of the big things is basically teachers are forced to give up their preparation time to be in the classroom so kids can set up."

Rodriguez said district officials should have talked with teachers before implementing Breakfast in the Classroom, because the program changed teachers' working conditions. A grievance filed with the district during the winter didn't spur negotiations, so the union took its complaint a step further with the unfair labor practice charge.

Rodriguez said teachers just want to be heard and have their roles in the breakfast program outlined. He also suggested that eating in class is not a good use of instructional time in a district that already lost five classroom days to budget cuts.

"We're not opposed to the district providing—if it can afford and if it's cost-effective—breakfast to students," Rodriguez said. "We're not saying it's not a good thing. We want to make sure the district negotiates with the appropriate collective unit."

An arbitrator or administrative law judge will work with both sides to try to reach a resolution.

In the meantime, breakfast continues to be served daily at students' desks. Fresh fruit and milk accompany a cereal bar or a graham-cracker-peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich, a favorite for many kids at Calabasas.

Third-graders Kayle Castellanos, 9, and Aamad Villanueva, 8, like those PB&Js the best. Both regularly eat the free breakfast and said a lot of other kids in their class enjoy it, too.

When a morning meal was served in the cafeteria before school, prior to Breakfast in the Classroom starting, kids often would pick time on the playground over food.

"Some people didn't eat, because they weren't hungry, but then they got to class and said, 'I'm hungry,'" Castellanos said.

This spring the program will expand to four other elementary schools—Ann Soldo, Amesti, Freeom and Radcliff.