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NO TEACHER should be required to teach a child who did not bring his brain to school; she cannot teach the animal limbic system. Every morning each pupil should report what his breakfast contained. If he had no protein and ate mainly carbohydrates, he should be sent home." This quote comes from Feed Your Kids Right, by Dr. Lendon Smith.
As if to support Dr. Smith's contention, the November 1999 Nutrition Action Newsletter, published by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, reported, "Breakfast cereal eaters get more vitamins, minerals, and fiber. They eat less fat. They're less depressed, less stressed, and even smarter than people who skip breakfast." The more you look at the breakfasts people eat outside the home, the better cereal looks, claims the report. "Even those low-fiber `candy cereals' are relatively low in calories (about 120 per serving) and fat (assuming you eat them with I % or skim milk)."
According to the 2002 School Breakfast Scorecard, published by the Food Research and Action Center, 36 states either have their own legislative requirements related to the School Breakfast Program or provide state funds for school breakfasts. In addition, says the report, almost all states use direct certification to some degree, a federal option that allows states to make students automatically eligible for free school meals if their families participate in the Food Stamp Program or the TANF (Temporary Assistance to Needy Families) program. West Virginia requires all schools to participate, while in Washington all schools with more than 40% of their students eligible for free or reduced-price lunches must offer breakfast. Kentucky and Utah do not require schools to have breakfast programs, but they do require schools without them to report why. Kentucky also requires districts to arrange bus schedules so that all buses arrive with sufficient time for schools to serve breakfast prior to the school day.
Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, and Illinois provide state funding for universal access to free breakfasts in certain schools, without regard to an individual student's family income. North Carolina does so for kindergarten only. In 2002 Maryland lawmakers decided to remove the "sunset provision" in the state's highly successful in-the-classroom universal breakfast program. However, the Food Research and Action Center estimates that state school...