Editor’s note: This commentary is by Anore Horton, of Williston, who is acting director of Hunger Free Vermont.
[I]n response to the recent coverage of Vermont students’ math and reading performance slipping, I offer that increasing participation in the school breakfast and lunch program is an intervention that helps to decrease the achievement gap. While an increase in the number of students enrolled in school meal programs could be an indicator of a growing achievement gap, it can also be an indicator that schools are successfully reaching more low-income students by encouraging more families to apply for what research shows can be one of the most effective ways to improve students’ health, behavior, and readiness to learn.
In this article, the director of the National Educational Policy Center, Bill Mathis, is spot on when he correlates a decrease in test scores to an increase in low-income students, because the opportunity gap for children from low-income households is very real. Children from low-income households are more likely to experience food insecurity and not receive the regular, nutritious meals required for proper health and development. Mathis is absolutely right that there is a link between school meals and academic performance and looking to free and reduced school meal enrollment numbers is a great place to start when trying to understand the demographics of our student body. However, these numbers do not give a complete picture of how families are struggling to make ends meet. School meal enrollment data does not measure all of the students who are from low-income households, nor does it count the many whose family income may be marginally higher than the cutoff for the federal definition of “low-income,” but who are experiencing the same detrimental circumstances that we know lead to a diminished readiness and ability to learn.
There are 67 public schools in Vermont currently providing universal breakfast and lunch to all students at no charge, and without requiring anyone to fill out a school meal application. In this transformational model, kids can feel equal with their peers, reducing stress that could otherwise impact their health and learning, and leading many more students who need nutritious school meals to eat them. It is difficult to measure the harmful effects of the stress and shame associated for many low-income children and their families with applying for and using income-tested programs like traditional school meals. However, a study conducted by researchers in the UVM Department of Education in partnership with Hunger Free Vermont shows that making school breakfast and lunch universally available to all students at no charge, and thus eliminating categorization by household income in the cafeteria, can have a significant impact on student readiness and ability to learn. This can mostly be attributed to the fact that it relieves students and their parents of this burden of stress and stigma.
The inequitable circumstances that lead to the achievement gap that Mr. Mathis referenced are even more glaring after school, on weekends, and during school and summer vacations. Studies show that children fall months behind their peers in math and reading over the summer months when they don’t have proper nutrition to nourish their developing brains, nor enrichment activities that keep them stimulated. The best investment we can make to improve math and reading test scores is in universal child nutrition programs that reach students wherever they are in their day, or at whatever point in the year, paired with funding to make sure all Vermont children have access to summer and afterschool programs that their families can afford.
Hunger Free Vermont works with schools and community groups across the state, as well as at the policy level to make all the really excellent meal programs in our state available to every student when they need them. There are three proven actions schools and communities can take to impact student achievement through nutrition: move breakfast after the bell and into the school day; explore making at least breakfast universal; and fund afterschool and summer programming and combine it with meals if your school is eligible. All of these actions reduce stigma, increase true access, and reach all students with the nutrition they need to succeed in school and beyond.
