Bloomfield School’s Students Get ‘Breakfast After The Bell’

BLOOMFIELD, NJ — The following article comes courtesy of a Patch community member. Learn more about posting announcements or events to your local Patch site here.

In 2017 some 540,000 students in New Jersey were eligible for free or reduced-price school meals, but just 44% actually received breakfast. At Bloomfield’s Berkeley Elementary School in particular, a majority of students are eligible for the program, but very few were able to eat breakfast.

However, thanks to funders like the Partners for Health Foundation and the Bloomfield Dept. of Health and Human Services, Berkeley Elementary School can pilot the Breakfast After the Bell program. Why after the bell? Evidence shows the vast majority of students cannot physically get to school before the bell to receive breakfast.

On August 29th, Berkeley Elementary School hosted a kick-off event for its Breakfast After the Bell pilot that was designed to provide education about the importance of breakfast and enroll eligible students into the program. It also highlighted how this program can be implemented in any eligible school across the state.

When kids eat breakfast, everybody in the classroom benefits. There are fewer trips to the nurse, fewer classroom disruptions, and attendance and graduation rates improve. More information on this initiative can be found at https://acnj.org/food-for-thought.

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Photos courtesy of Rosica Communications