Though providing breakfast isn’t mandatory in Alabama schools, during the 2005–2006 school year state schools served the morning meal to an average of more than 187,000 students daily as part of the national School Breakfast Program.
And more than 156,000 of those students ate free or for a reduced price.
Federal reimbursement for those breakfasts totaled nearly $40 million, according to the Food Research and Action Center.
The School Breakfast Program started in 1966 as a pilot project to provide federal assistance to schools serving breakfast to “nutritionally needy” children, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The program was made permanent in 1975.
Nationally about 9.7 million children eat breakfast at school daily, 7.9 million of whom eat at free or for a reduced price. (TAB)
Share with others: