A November 2008 report commissioned by the Sodexo Foundation supports a hunch all educators have: When children don't eat breakfast, their cognitive capacity is impaired because their brains do not have sufficient fuel for learning.

These new findings come on the heels of related research over the past twenty years into the relationship between inadequate nutrition and a variety of adverse developmental outcomes in children. Youngsters from homes without sufficient food have a poorer overall health status than do children from similar backgrounds who have enough to eat. And when children fail to get sufficient dietary energy, particularly in the mornings, their cognitive capacity is impaired their brains do not have sufficient fuel for attention, concentration and learning.

Impact of School Breakfast on Children’s Health and Learningconcludes that the body of evidence, drawn from more than 100 published research articles, provides the scientific basis for concluding that the federal School Breakfast Program is highly effective in terms of providing children with a stronger basis to learn in school, eat more nutritious diets, and lead more healthy lives both emotionally and physically.

Key findings:
Children who experience hunger:

• get sick more often
• are more likely to have ear infections
• experience iron deficiency anemia
• get hospitalized more frequently
• miss more days of school
• have poorer mental health
• are more likely to be withdrawn and inattentive
• exhibit more disruptive behaviors and disciplinary disorders
• are more likely to need other special educational services
• require more counseling and other mental health services

 

While no single study necessarily provides a uniquely definitive assessment of the program’s benefits, and while some studies occasionally reach differing conclusions, the combined and quite consistent message of this body of research is that serving children breakfast at school significantly improves their cognitive or mental abilities, enabling them to be more alert, pay better attention, and to do better in terms of reading, math and other standardized test scores.

Children getting breakfast at school also are sick less often, have fewer problems associated with hunger, such as dizziness, lethargy, stomachaches and ear aches, and do significantly better than their peers who do not get a school breakfast in terms of cooperation, discipline and inter-personal behaviors.

Read the report….

Learn more about Michigan’s Breakfast Challenge…