Free breakfast in the classroom? NC offering grants to schools that take the leap
Gov. Roy Cooper visited an East Durham elementary school on Tuesday to see students having breakfast in their classroom, an innovation the state will spend $1.4 million to encourage.
“We’ve seen a significant uptick in the number of children who actually eat when you allow them to have it in the classroom and everybody eats, regardless of what your economic status is,” Cooper said inside the library at Glenn Elementary.
Students grabbed plastic bags with fruit, cereal and milk inside and unpacked them at their desks, eating while playing a math computer game as Cooper and other state and local officials looked on.
Nearly 1 in 5 children don’t eat breakfast, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported in 2020.
Cooper announced $1.4 million in federal money will help schools expand school breakfast. The state will make grants available to public school districts and charter schools, offering up to $50,000 per school.
The money will help schools set up innovative breakfast models, such as eating breakfast in the classroom, providing grab-and-go items, and offering “second chance breakfast” for those who aren’t hungry first thing in the morning. There is also federal money that subsidizes free meals for all students in schools with high percentages of low-income students.
“Food is the most important school supply,” said Morgan Wittman Gramann, executive director of the North Carolina Alliance for Health. “And getting kids off to a good start early in the morning with a good breakfast is the right thing to do.”
The North Carolina Alliance for Health and Carolina Hunger Initiative will administer the program.
Durham Public Schools offers free breakfast for its students, but lunch costs $3.75. A bill filed last year estimated providing public school lunches free would cost the state $159 million a year. Cooper said that’s the future they’re hoping for.
“We’re making a lot of progress. We’re not there yet,” he said.
