By Mary Drier (Contact / Staff Bio)
January 21, 2009 - 12:11 p.m. EST

MICHIGAN — While most families are aware of free and reduced-cost lunch programs at schools, many who qualify are not taking advantage of the breakfast program.

The Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) found many low-income students in Michigan are missing out on school breakfast. According to the report, 204,377 low-income Michigan students participated in the national school breakfast program during the 2007-2008 school year, compared to 507,128 who participated in the National School Lunch Program.

Statewide, 40 low-income children participated in school breakfast for every 100 who received lunch. Michigan’s performance was even worse than the national rate of 46.

However, numbers in the Owendale-Gagetown School District show the opposite.

“There are 102 students who use the free lunch program and 29 use the reduced program. Those numbers are for both breakfast and lunch,” said Administrative Secretary Liz Roemer.

The district’s enrollment is about 226 students, and even though it is a small district, no one knows who uses the meal program or who doesn’t.

“We don’t use tickets. Each student is given a number,” said Roemer. “No one knows who gets free or reduced meals. That’s kept private.”

The Cass City School District also uses a PIN (Personal Identification Number) for meals, and has 675 students who qualify for free or reduced meals; the Unionville-Sebewaing School District also uses a PIN for its 337 students who qualify.

Qualifying for free or reduced meals goes by income guidelines. (See chart.)

FRAC measures the reach of the School Breakfast Program by comparing the number of low-income children receiving school breakfast to the number of such children receiving school lunch.

If Michigan were able to establish accessible breakfast programs so that participation reached 60 low-income children with breakfast for every 100 low-income children who ate lunch, 99,900 more low-income children would start the day with a healthy breakfast and the state would gain an additional $22,370,943 in federal funding.

The Center for Civil Justice noted the goal is reachable in Michigan even in difficult budget times, since nearly 100 percent of breakfast costs for low-income children are paid by the federal government.

The Michigan Department of Education (MDE) is increasing efforts to raise awareness to strengthen participation in the breakfast program.

The report recommends improving participation by: increasing federal funds for the program in the coming Child Nutrition Reauthorization to help expand participation; bolstering outreach efforts and improving quality; enacting or strengthening, state mandates that require schools, especially those with significant numbers of low-income students, to operate School Breakfast Programs, as well as providing state funding to support programs that offer breakfast free to all students, and provide breakfast in the classroom, a strategy more and more districts are using to get the educational day off to a good start.

And, also, to encourage school districts to operate programs that offer breakfast free to all students.

Free and confidential information about school breakfast and other federal nutrition programs is available from the Food and Nutrition Program Help line at 1-800-481-4989.

In addition, anyone receiving food stamp benefits automatically qualifies for the school breakfast program without additional paperwork.

Mary Drier is a staff writer for the Tuscola County Advertiser. She can be reached at drier@tcadvertiser.com.