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In a Wellstone Elementary classroom, the
five minutes before class have become the quietest part of the
school day.


      You can't blame the students for not talking. They're busy
eating.


      A growing school-breakfast program in St. Paul, called Breakfast
to Go, allows these students to grab a free nutritious meal in the
cafeteria and take it to class. This "fast food" ensures more
children are eating their morning meal and can cut down on
tardiness and other barriers to their education.


      "There were people that had concerns about food in the
classroom. But now they've seen the benefit of it and are very
supportive of it," said Christine Osorio, principal of St. Paul's
Paul and Sheila Wellstone Elementary, the site for the district's
pilot program last year.


      "Teachers really like having the kids up in class and getting
started," Osorio said. "It's built community in classrooms. It's
given us a much more relaxed start to our day."


      As third-grade teacher Ann Raimann recently took attendance and
prepared for the day, 9-year-old Mohamedameen Mohamud did his
morning grammar work while eating cheese bread and drinking apple
juice. He likes Breakfast to Go better than the school's previous
breakfast program in which students ate downstairs and then rushed
up the school's eight floors to get to class.


      "Now it's better because we get to eat before we learn,"
Mohamedameen said.


      Eating early is important, said Susan Tallarico, the school's
nutrition services supervisor. She sets up the breakfast lines for
600 people every school day. Many studies have suggested that
skipping breakfast decreases children's cognitive abilities and
that children score lower on cognitive tests when they miss
breakfast.


      Moreover, after the classroom breakfast program began, tardiness
dropped by 8 percent and office referrals for discipline decreased
20 percent.


      In 2006, the Congressional Hunger Center gave a California
school district a Victory Against Hunger award for its program
called "Grab n Go," where students picked up a premade bagged
breakfast and ate it in class. In 2009, one in six U.S. school
districts allowed breakfast in the classroom, up from one in 10 in
2007, according to St. Paul schools.


      Breakfast to Go has tweaked that. Students at Wellstone arrive
15 minutes before class, grab their own biodegradable plastic bag
and jump into cafeteria lines to pick from various entrees - such
as the students' favorite, cheese bread - along with juice and
other items. The packaging reduces the mess, and after all of the
food is eaten in the classrooms, students take turns volunteering
to clean up, making for a swift transition into the school day.


      "One thing we knew for certain: Nobody would want it if those
kids couldn't get cheese bread," said Linda Dieleman, senior
manager for nutrition and commercial services for the district.


      So far, 12 schools in the St. Paul district run Breakfast to Go
programs, and the percentage of students eating breakfast has gone
from 39 percent to 64 percent.


      The goal is to expand the program to 25 of the 63 district
locations this school year.


      Although the program is not a magic bullet that solves all of
the district's problems, Dieleman is proud that 10,000 more
students are eating breakfast in the district this year.


      "Some of these students have never been through full breakfast
before," she said. "Breakfast to Go is probably the only way we
could meet the needs of the students."


      Information from: St. Paul Pioneer Press,
http://www.twincities.com

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A growing school-breakfast program in St. Paul called Breakfast to Go allows students to grab a free nutritious meal in the cafeteria and take it to class, ensuring more children are eating their morning meal.

Students turn fast food into fuel for learning

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