Washington DC (Map, News) - The District of Columbia’s public schools reach fewer than half of low-income students who qualify for free breakfast, despite a “universal” program aimed at feeding all eligible children, according to a report released Tuesday.

The report, “Breakfast in America’s Big Cities,” released by the national Food Research and Action Center, ranked the District No. 13 out of 23 cities surveyed for reaching low-income students with free breakfast programs. The study was based on 2005-06 data and included the top-ranked Portland Public Schools and systems in New York City and Chicago, which ranked among the worst, respectively.

The District trailed the Miami-Dade County Public Schools, which reached 52 percent of its students. That system also offers “universal” breakfast, meaning free breakfast is made available to all students. Miami’s system had 356,000 students; the District had about 54,000 enrolled during the study year.

But Miami may have benefited from a plan offering “alternative service methods” for getting breakfast to students in some of its schools, something that District does not currently offer.

Alternative methods include serving breakfast in classrooms rather than in a cafeteria or “grab and go” plans in which students can take food items from carts or the cafeteria with them to the classroom. Studies have found that children who eat breakfast fare better on standardized tests.

“It would be wonderful if Mayor [Adrian] Fenty could make it a priority to have breakfast as part of the school day,” D.C. Hunger Solutions Director Alex Ashbrook said Tuesday. The organization is a FRAC program.

The Office of the State Superintendent for Education is responsible for administering meals programs in the city’s 145 public schools. Its director, Deborah Gist, said Tuesday that she is committed to working with schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee “to increase the number of D.C. students eating breakfast each morning.”

The OSSE was slammed in a report by the Office of the Inspector General in July for failing to reach 80 percent of children eligible for summer breakfast and lunches in 2005. That failure put D.C. in danger of losing federal funds, the report said.

The FRAC report estimated that if the city could reach 70 low-income children with breakfast for every 100 who receive free or reduced-price lunch, D.C. could receive an additional $1.29 million in federal child-nutrition funds.

“If we really want to see systemic change, we really need to have it from the top down,” Ashbrook said.

cmabeus@dcexaminer.com

FACTOID:
Nationally, for every 100 low-income children receiving school lunch during the 2005-06 school year, 44.6 received school breakfast, according to FRAC.

For a list of the full rankings of the 23 urban areas, click here.