Binghamton Schools in New York Awarded Silent Hero Grant From got breakfast?(R) Foundation

WOODBURY, N.Y., April 8 /PRNewswire/ -- The got breakfast?® Foundation recently awarded Woodrow Wilson Elementary School in Binghamton, New York, one of eight Silent Hero grants that recognize, encourage and reward those silent heroes who help children by participating in the national School Breakfast Program.  The $5,000 award will be used to test "Breakfast in the Classroom" as a model program to help students start their day right.

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The district started the school year with a pilot Breakfast in the Classroom program at Woodrow Wilson Elementary with its second grade class having breakfast in the classroom and the rest of the "Provision 2" students having Breakfast in the Cafe. Since then, they have rolled out Breakfast in the Classroom to the rest of the grades. The school is working with its local Health Department and The State University of New York at Binghamton to do an evaluation of the environmental change and its effect on the student.

"We are looking at areas such as tardiness, absenteeism, behavior, participation, stigma, and reading in the evaluation," explains grant recipient Mark Bordeau, the school's Child Nutrition Director.  

To market the program, Bordeau says they will use the school paper and letters from the principal and teachers to families, as well as announcements. They have created large monthly menu boards for classrooms as a reminder and to help with selection. Surveys are also being used for teachers, students and parents.

"We were impressed by the Binghamton City Schools plan to test the Breakfast in the Classroom model and to work in partnership with the community – the health department and university – to objectively conduct this research," says Sonya Kaster, R.D., L.D.N., S.N.S., Grant Administrator for the Silent Hero Program.

All eight of the Silent Hero grant winners will be implementing breakfast in the classroom.   According to the Food Research and Action Center's School Breakfast Scorecard for 2008-2009, districts using breakfast in the classrom have the highest participation rates.

The got breakfast? Foundation received many applications representing school districts from 33 different states requesting more than $2 million in funding.   The winners were each awarded a grant ranging from $2,500 to $10,000.

The Silent Hero Grant Program was created to encourage schools and non-profit organizations to expand the reach of underutilized child nutrition programs, most notably the School Breakfast Program. While 19 million low income children participate in the National School Lunch Program each day, only 9 million participate in the School Breakfast Program.

"We launched the Silent Hero Grant Program in the hopes of it acting as a catalyst for schools to give classroom and/or alternate site breakfast a try," says Kaster.  

For information about the got breakfast? Silent Hero Grant Program contact [email protected] or visit the www.gotbreakfast.org website.

SOURCE got breakfast? Foundation