More students are eating school breakfast, but the number of low-income children eating the morning meal still lags behind lunch participation, according to a new study by the Food Research & Action Center.
FRAC’s annual School Breakfast Scorecard shows that nearly 10 million low-income students each breakfast at school. Only 48.2% of low-income students eat both breakfast and lunch at school.
Breakfast in the classroom was a big boost for breakfast participation, according to the report. The four states with the highest low-income student breakfast participation—District of Columbia, New Mexico, South Carolina and Vermont—all have numerous schools that use the breakfast in the classroom model. This service style is particularly successful in large cities where the morning meal is offering free to all students. Washington, D.C has the highest percentage of low-income students eating both breakfast and lunch—at 64.2%—of the 26 large urban districts in the country.
Read the full report here.