Congressman Paul Tonko Gives Floor Speech on National School Breakfast Program

Increasing participation in the National School Breakfast Program is essential to the mission of alleviating hunger in NYS. On Monday, Congressman Paul Tonko (D-Amsterdam) spoke to his fellow members of Congress about the importance of the School Breakfast Program, and its positive impact on student academic performance. He also spoke in support of using innovate methods of breakfast service such as breakfast in the classroom and grab-and-go to increase participation. Here is his floor speech:

(taken from http://tonko.house.gov/2009/03/ms-speaker-i-ask.shtml)


Rep. Tonko Floor Speech on National School Breakfast Program
March 9, 2009 7:46 PM
I rise to recognize the importance of the National School Breakfast Program and to express my support for the resolution by the Gentlelady from Wisconsin that we passed this evening.
School breakfast programs, particularly where breakfast is served in the classroom, have shown to increase student attentiveness, academic performance and decrease tardiness and disciplinary referrals.
Classroom breakfast programs are important because they reduce the stigma of receiving free or reduced price breakfasts and increase participation in school breakfast programs.
In my district, the Troy City School District, has adopted a grab-and-go program where kids can get their breakfast right in their hallways and bring it into the classroom to eat with their peers. These schools, particularly School 2, 12, 14 and the Carroll Hill School have all seen their breakfast participation numbers rise to 50 to 60 percent of all students in their schools, where the average elsewhere in New York is only 20 percent.
I hope that we can do around the country what Troy City School District has done in my district. In these tough economic times, we need to ensure that more students are taking advantage of school breakfast programs, and breakfast in the classroom has been shown to do just that.