Teaching Kids a Healthy Way to Start the Day

Breakfast Program Helps Improve Scores

A balanced breakfast is a routine start of the school day for District Heights Elementary students, who recently shared the meal with someone who appreciates its scholastic and nutritional benefits: John E. Deasy, the county school superintendent.

Deasy visited last Thursday, during National School Breakfast Week, to celebrate District Heights' improvements on the Maryland School Assessment exams. Principal Connie Jones attributes part of the school's success to the Maryland Meals for Achievement's classroom breakfast program, which provides free breakfast to all students in their classrooms at the start of each school day.

The school has shown Adequate Yearly Progress, the State Department of Education's measure to track improvement in reading and math, two years in a row. As a result, District Heights Elementary was removed from the state's list of struggling schools last academic year.

Jones said that since the school began participating in the breakfast program during the 2005-06 school year, she has seen a 2 to 3 percent increase in attendance, to about 95 percent. Jones said many of the school's 470 students look forward to the breakfast, which typically includes omelets, mini-bagels, French toast, cereal, milk, juice and fruit.

Because it serves a low-income community, District Heights is a Title I school. More than half of its students receive free or reduced-price school lunches.

Twenty-three county elementary schools and one middle school participate in the classroom breakfast program, which serves more than 190 schools.

Last Thursday, District Heights Elementary students trekked classroom by classroom to the school's multipurpose room to meet Deasy, who was full of compliments and encouragement.

"There is nothing you cannot do," Deasy said. "And the support for that begins with a good breakfast. Make sure that every morning you remind each other to eat something nutritious. None of that junk food."

First-grader Aleah Adams, 7, of District Heights, who eats breakfast every day at the school, said her favorite part of the morning was the chorus performance, and the fruit cup and muffins served for breakfast. "I like muffins with the blueberries," she said.