13102345D Patrons-- Carrico, Deeds, Hanger, Lucas, Miller, Stanley, Vogel and Watkins WHEREAS, more than one in six children in Virginia struggle with hunger and often come to school hungry; and WHEREAS, students who participate in school breakfast show improved cognitive function, attention, and memory; providing breakfast to students at school improves their concentration, alertness, comprehension, and learning; and WHEREAS, many barriers exist that prevent students from eating breakfast at school before the start of the school day, including conflicting bus and carpool schedules, parents' schedules, children's reliance on an older sibling to get to school, or peer pressure to socialize with other students; and WHEREAS, for many low-income students, breakfast is often the first meal they have had since school lunch the day before; and WHEREAS, schools that incorporate breakfast as part of the scheduled school day report decreases in discipline problems, fewer visits to the school nurses, declines in tardiness, and increases in student attentiveness and attendance; and WHEREAS, evidence shows that students who eat breakfast on days of standardized testing show improved scores, and it would be advantageous for students to eat breakfast every school day in order to maximize their learning potential and academic performance; and WHEREAS, "Breakfast in the Classroom" programs reduce the barriers to students eating breakfast by providing students additional opportunities to eat breakfast after the school day has begun; and WHEREAS, "Breakfast in the Classroom" programs reach students who live in households struggling with hunger, who do not have time to eat before school, or who are not able to get to school early enough for breakfast served before the start of the school day; and WHEREAS, there are many innovative programs that schools can choose to implement to increase student access to breakfast, such as "Breakfast After the Bell," "Grab and Go Breakfast," and "Second Chance Breakfast"; and WHEREAS, school nutrition programs that implement innovative solutions to increase access to breakfast will help more children get the food they need to fuel their learning; now, therefore, be it RESOLVED by the Senate, the House of Delegates concurring, That the General Assembly recognize the need to tackle the problem of hunger in the classroom; and, be it RESOLVED FURTHER, That the General Assembly hereby request the Superintendent of Public Instruction to communicate through a memorandum to all local school divisions a goal of using innovation and creativity to expand access to breakfast to ensure no student starts the day hungry; and, be it RESOLVED FINALLY, That the Clerk of the Senate transmit a copy of this resolution to the Superintendent of Public Instruction and to the Board of Education in order that the members of the Board may be apprised of the sense of the General Assembly of Virginia in this matter during their deliberations. |