Pallone Participates in “Breakfast After the Bell” Program at New Brunswick Middle School

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ – Today Congressman Frank Pallone, Jr. (NJ-06) joined students at New Brunswick Middle School for breakfast as part of the “Breakfast After the Bell” program. “Breakfast After the Bell,” or “Breakfast in the Classroom,” is a program that serves breakfast to students once the school day has officially started, rather than before school, when most students have not yet arrived. This approach, typically done in the classroom during the first few minutes of the school day, significantly boosts participation, giving more students a healthy start to the school day that can help them focus in class.

“Children cannot learn if they are plagued by hunger in the classroom,” said Congressman Pallone. “The city of New Brunswick is doing a great job to ensure that students get the healthy meals that they need to be successful throughout the day. I applaud them for their efforts to create a better learning environment for our children.”

The New Brunswick public school district has implemented the “Breakfast After the Bell” program in eight local elementary schools and their middle school to increase the number of children receiving breakfast during school hours. As a result of the program’s success, officials have taken measures to implement it throughout the district. New Brunswick is now serving over 5,200 students daily in the classroom, which represents over 80% participation. Before “Breakfast After the Bell” was implemented, the school district was serving just over 1,500 students, or 25%, daily.

Congressman Pallone also discussed the importance of federal school meal and child nutrition programs, which provide funding to ensure that low-income children have access to healthy and nutritious foods. While these programs are permanently authorized under the Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act, Congress reviews the laws governing these programs through the reauthorization process every five years. The current law, the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, is set to expire on September 30, 2015. Pallone highlighted the opportunity that the reauthorization process provides to improve and strengthen the child nutrition and school meal programs so they better meet the needs of our nation’s children.

“It is absolutely unconscionable that15.8 million children in the world’s wealthiest nation live in households facing a constant struggle against hunger,” added Pallone. “We are a better country than that. These critical programs, that impact millions of children each day, are due for reauthorization next year, which gives Congress the opportunity to make even more meaningful changes to support child nutrition in America. It is so important that we expand and build upon the success of these programs to ensure that no child in this country goes hungry.”

Congressman Pallone was joined today by Jim Cahill, Mayor of New Brunswick; Richard Kaplan, Superintendent of New Brunswick Public Schools; JoAnn Kocis, Vice-Principal of New Brunswick Middle School; Adele LaTourette, Director of the New Jersey Anti-Hunger Coalition; and John Santiago, Director of Food Services for New Brunswick Public Schools.