More kids need school breakfast

Last year, Hawaiʻi ranked 49th in the nation in school breakfast participation, according to an annual national report by the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC). We thought we had nowhere to go but up.

Instead, we have dropped to 50th in the nation, according to FRAC’s newest report, which was released today. That means that here in Hawaiʻi, too many of our keiki are not getting a good, healthy start to their school day.

Fewer than 4 in 10 low-income students who eat school lunch are also eating school breakfast in our state. In contrast, the top two states, West Virginia and New Mexico, have 84 percent and 70 percent, respectively, of their free or reduced-price lunch students also eating school breakfast.

If Hawaiʻi were to get our rate up to 70 percent, nearly 20,000 more of our children would be gaining the benefits of school breakfast, and Hawaiʻi would be getting an additional $5.6 million per year in federal funds.

We all know that hungry child can’t learn. But many Hawaiʻi families can’t afford to give a healthy breakfast to their children every morning. Hawaiʻi has the 11th-highest poverty rate among the states, at 15 percent, according to the Census Bureau’s Supplemental Poverty Measure, which takes into account the fact that we have the highest cost of living in the nation here.