Maryland meals for achievement classroom breakfast program

Researchers also credit classroom breakfast with improving student attendance by about two days per school year, decreasing tardiness and behavior problems, and increasing students' attention spans. Schools are eligible to participate with state funding if they have at least 40 percent of their enrollment eligible for free or reduced-price meals as of October 31st of each year.

The number has now grown to 29, including 4 middle schools. Languages Available: English - Spanish. Intake and Eligibility: Students must attend school where program is offered.

Specialized directories guide your searches to address specific needs and situations. Read more. In order for Corkran Middle School to provide breakfast for all students, the food services manager, Kathy Morrison, 55, arrives at a.

Morrison prepares 39 plastic bins—one for every homeroom. Each bin includes fruit juice or fresh fruit, a variety of milk, and one grain, such as pancakes, breakfast bars or fruit loafs for all students.

Before breakfast was served in the classroom, only about 15 percent of eligible students at Corkran Middle took part in the federal School Breakfast Program. Now, almost 64 percent of students participate Maryland Meals for Achievement. Nationwide, participation in the federal breakfast program is as low as 20 percent in some schools, according to Schwaab. But involvement in Maryland Meals for Achievement averages 60 percent, with , students taking part, she said.

Research that was conducted during the first three years of the program by the Maryland State Department of Education, starting in , showed that students who have breakfast in class have better attendance rates, decreased suspension rates, improved student behavior and attentiveness, and may even have higher test scores. Most students had never eaten breakfast in their classroom before, but Alisha McBride, 11, had been doing so since elementary school. Serving breakfast in the classrooms also eliminates the stigma for those students who qualify for free or reduced-price meals, according to Corkran Principal Jolyn Davis and county Food and Nutrition Services Director Jodi Risse.

And teachers find it easier to be teaching kids who have food in their stomachs, Sheridan said. She graduated from the School of Media and Public Affairs at The George Washington University with a major in journalism and a double minor in fine arts and art history.