LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Roughly 10,000 students will enjoy healthy morning meals this school year, as 19 JCPS schools take part in the "Breakfast in the Classroom" program for the first time.
JCPS was selected as one of 10 U.S. school districts to participate in the second phase of the program, which is a joint initiative by the Food Research and Action Center, the National Association of Elementary Schools Principal Foundation, the National Education Association Health Information Network and the School Nutrition Foundation -- collectively known as the Partners for Breakfast in the Classroom.
Through a $5 million grant from the Walmart Foundation, the program "reworks how school breakfast is delivered," according to the news release, "by offering it to all students at no charge and moving it from the cafeteria to the classroom in an effort to improve participation in the federally funded School Breakfast Program and boost learning and health."
The local schools participating in the Breakfast in the Classroom program include Blake Elementary, Breckinridge-Franklin Elementary, Cane Run Elementary, Cochran Elementary, Dixie Elementary, Engelhard Elementary, King Elementary, Maupin Elementary, McFerran Elementary, Mill Creek Elementary, Minors Lane Elementary, Price Elementary, Rangeland Elementary, Roosevelt-Perry Elementary, Rutherford Elementary, Semple Elementary, Watson Lane Elementary and Wheatley Elementary.
The JCPS schools were selected due to the large percentage of students who qualify for free and reduced-price meals. In fact, before Breakfast in the Classroom launched JCPS, data showed 64.7 percent of students qualified for free and reduced-price meals, yet only 45.2 percent were eating the breakfast available to them.
Breakfast in the Classroom is part of a $2 million cash and in-kind multiyear commitment (through 2015) by Walmart and the Walmart Foundation to fight hunger in the U.S.
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