By Cristin Ross

cross@jacksonvilleprogress.com

AUSTIN — Texas is leading the way in the battle against hunger in its schools.

According to the 2007 School Breakfast Scorecard, released in December by the national Food Research and Action Center (FRAC), 99 percent of Texas schools take part in the national School Breakfast Program, including all six school districts in Cherokee County.

“Eating breakfast can lead to higher standardized test scores, better grades in math and reading and fewer behavioral problems,” according to the FRAC’s report.

While more than a million low-income Texas children are reportedly eating breakfast at school, officials say there is still room to improve, since the report states, “for every 100 low-income children that participated in the School Lunch Program in Texas, only 53 also ate breakfast.”

However, Cherokee County students are earning gold stars in getting the most important meal of the day.

According to the report, provided by the Center for Public Policy Priorities (CPPP), more than half the students who participate in Alto, New Summerfield, Rusk and Wells school districts’ food programs are eating both breakfast and lunch.

Jacksonville and Bullard school districts are below that half-way mark in breakfasts served.

“I’ve only been here since December,” Bullard ISD Food Service Director Tonya McFarland said, “so I haven’t really looked at the numbers closely yet. But Bullard offers a really good program, which we certainly want to make grow to make sure none of our students go hungry.”

McFarland said Bullard’s overall student participation in the free breakfast and lunch programs is about 75 percent.

“That’s pretty good, but we would like to see it go higher,” she said.

Jacksonville Independent School District officials report their breakfast numbers are growing.

“As of December, as compared to December of last year, we’re up an average of 10 percent,” JISD Director of Food Service Clay Carter said. “In years past, there wasn’t a lot of participation, but now we’re trying new things, serving a variety of things for breakfast we haven’t served before, and we’re definitely seeing an increase in participation.”

FRAC’s annual report rates state performance in the School Breakfast Program, a federally funded program that helps schools provide children with free or low-cost breakfast. The report focuses on states’ performance in reaching children in low-income families.

“Texas is doing an excellent job making sure that kids start the day right,” said Celia Hagert, senior policy analyst at the CPPP. “But we can do better. The key to increasing breakfast participation is to make breakfast part of the school day. This ensures that breakfast is convenient and accessible to all kids.”

One example is Houston Independent School District’s “First Class Breakfast” in which all kids eat for free during first period. HISD also provides meals free to all students, which has also been shown to increase participation.

At least 70 school districts in Texas offer “universal” free meals to students.

“We started our ‘grab ’n go’ breakfast program at the intermediate school three years ago and every student on that campus gets to partake,” Rusk ISD Superintendent Jim Largent said. “Now as of last year students on all of our campuses have access to free breakfasts. And we’ve seen some pretty good participation, especially at the lower campuses.”

Carter said Jacksonville ISD will continue to promote its breakfast and lunch programs.

“We’ve tried different things to help get our kids to participate,” Carter said. “We’re making the cafeteria fun. We’re having fun serving them and making it fun for them. I’m not afraid to try new things. If something’s not working, then we’ll change it until we find something that does work so we can get as many hot, nutritional meals served to our students as possible.

“It’s sad because what they get at school might be the only meals some students get all day.

Carter said the district will also extend renewed focus on its summer food program this year, too.

According to the CPPP, a bill passed during the 2007 legislative session (HB 4062) requires the Texas Department of Agriculture to study the most effective ways to increase participation in the breakfast program and deliver a report with recommendations to the governor, the lieutenant governor and the speaker of the House of Representatives by Oct. 31.