School breakfast programs and student academic performance outcomes

The Most Important Meal of the Day
Introduction
Breakfast has been called the most important meal of the day, and research continually substantiates the benefits of school breakfast on improving multiple aspects of student performance. School breakfasts help to minimize the effects of socioeconomic disparities, allowing all students to have equal access to the tools they need to achieve academic goals. Moreover, eating breakfast can reduce rates of childhood obesity and inculcate healthy eating habits into children (United States Department of Agriculture, n.d.). Community nurses can help promote a school breakfast program by stimulating compliance and interest in breakfast among all students.
Grades and Attendance Outcomes
Research shows that children who eat breakfast outperform children who skip breakfast. According to the United States Department of Agriculture (n.d.), “eating breakfast can help improve math, reading, and standardized test scores,” (p. 1). The correlation between eating breakfast and test score improvements are not just related to socioeconomic class and other contextual variables but to the link between breakfast nutrition and cognitive performance. Children who eat breakfast have longer and more focused attention spans, perform better on most problem-solving skills and tasks, and exhibit better memory performance too (United States Department of Agriculture, n.d.). Bakies (2014) also point out, “students who eat breakfast each day, on average, score more than 17 percent higher on math tests and are 20 percent more likely to graduate than students who don’t eat breakfast at all,” (p. 1). Therefore, a community nurse can help show school administrators, teachers, and parents why breakfast is important by focusing specifically on grades.
Behavioral Outcomes
Eating breakfast can also be helpful for students’ social and psychological health. Children who eat breakfast are “more likely to behave better in school and get along with their peers than those who do not,” (United States Department of Agriculture, n.d., p. 1). However, the cognitive and behavioral outcomes of eating breakfast also depend on eating a health and nutritious breakfast and not one that consists of sugary cereals. The community health nurse should help school districts devise healthy and cost-effective menu choices that encourage students to eat without resorting to eating too much sugar in the morning. Because so many commercial breakfast cereals and other breakfast products served at home might be unhealthy, the school breakfast should provide healthier options.
Using Health Literacy
Community nurses can help teach elementary age students, their parents, and their teachers the importance of breakfast through a rigorous and consistent media, communications, and public relations plan. Using social media, community nurses can tweet or post about the importance of breakfast as a reminder to children. Posters and other printed material also provide a powerful visual tool that community health nurses can use to communicate with students, parents, and teachers. Moreover, media and communications plans can alert students to changes in the menu or simply to remind students who might not have eating enough at home to grab more food from the school breakfast options.