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Day two of David Pecker testimony wraps in NY Trump trial; Supreme Court hears arguments on Idaho's near-total abortion ban; ND sees a flurry of campaigning among Native candidates; and NH lags behind other states in restricting firearms at polling sites.

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The Senate moves forward with a foreign aid package. A North Carolina judge overturns an aged law penalizing released felons. And child protection groups call a Texas immigration policy traumatic for kids.

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Wyoming needs more educators who can teach kids trade skills, a proposal to open 40-thousand acres of an Ohio forest to fracking has environmental advocates alarmed and rural communities lure bicyclists with state-of-the-art bike trail systems.

Indiana Expands Efforts to Bring Breakfast to the Classroom

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Thursday, April 9, 2015   

INDIANAPOLIS - A healthy breakfast has been shown to boost brain power, and Indiana is expanding efforts to ensure every student starts the day ready to learn.

At a nutrition summit Wednesday in Indianapolis, teachers, administrators and food service directors brainstormed ways to get more kids to take part in the federal School Breakfast Program. Lindsay Hill, president of the Indiana School Nutrition Association, says offering breakfast in the classroom has been shown to boost participation.

"People think, 'Oh, it's going to be a mess, it's going to be difficult,'" she says. "There's a lot of practices out there that can sort of eliminate that issue. Schools can work through it and make it successful for everyone involved."

Indiana is one of seven states that received grants from Partners for Breakfast in the Classroom to help schools expand or begin breakfast-in-the-classroom programs. Proposals from districts are being accepted now and letters of intent are due Friday, April 17. The districts will be selected later in the spring.

Priority for the grants will be given to schools where 70 percent of students are eligible for free and reduced-priced meals, yet less than half participate in school breakfast. Todd Bess, executive director of the Indiana Association of School Principals, says districts have flexibility in how to use the funding.

"Maybe you are already doing breakfast in the classroom in one, and you want to expand it to another," he says. "If your needs are a $3,000 cooler, that can be met. If your needs are $50,000 to really develop a whole program, those needs can be met. That's really the advantage to the entire grant program."

Hill says sometimes the stigma of eating a free meal prevents low-income children from participating in school breakfast when it is served in the cafeteria. She says making it part of the school day for the whole class has been shown to make a difference.

"If every student in the school is getting breakfast for free, their participation increases among all students," she says. "So among free/reduced and paid/eligible students the stigma just doesn't exist any more."

Indiana ranks 34th in the nation for participation in free school breakfast programs.


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