The Importance Of Breakfast In Schools

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17th April 2014

A nutritional issue in New Zealand society today is young people making poor nutritional choices for breakfast. There are many reasons why this occurs but one major reason is that some families cannot afford to feed their children a nutritional and healthy breakfast. Over the last few years, there has been a debate about breakfast being available in schools to address this issue. Breakfast in Schools is a program created, in order to provide children who go to school hungry with a healthy and nutritional breakfast. I believe that Breakfast in Schools is a good concept but it needs to be developed. There are genuine reasons why some parents can’t afford to feed their children nutritional breakfasts. Food insecurity is a growing concern within families “especially as incomes drop and food prices continue their relentless rise” as stated from the CPAG (Child Poverty Action Group). As incomes fall, pressure is put on families to cover extra bills like school fees, rent/mortgage fees and electricity bills on top of trying to feed their families. Because of this the CPAG found that “in 2005 food banks reported the greatest increase in the number of people seeking help coming from working families”. For those who genuinely can’t afford to provide their children with nutritional breakfasts, Breakfast in Schools is the perfect solution to their children going to school hungry having a negative impact on their grades. “There is now a substantial body of research showing breakfast consumption contributes to a students academic and school attendance” (Rampersaud 2005).

However there could be some families that would abuse this concept. They could not feed their children breakfast with the knowledge that there is a nutrition...

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... by the CPAG, shows that “the reasoning is simple: hungry children do not learn- feeding them improves their attendance, nutritional status and academic performance and behaviour”. This helps the child to engage in their learning which makes the teaching easier. It also makes the other children’s learning process easier as the teacher is not focused on one students behaviour and lack of engagement.

Children going to school without breakfast is a major nutritional issue in todays society and it needs to be addressed. Breakfast in Schools is the perfect solution to this issue. The children are the main stakeholder and the innocent victims in this situation and their needs need to be put first. With a scheme like Breakfast in Schools, all the stakeholders will benefit; the children themselves, fellow students, teachers, the wider community and society as a whole.

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