They were running a little late for class, but Abbot-Downing School students still had time for breakfast.
Second-grader Eli Lyon took the paper bag handed to him by the school’s head cook, Donna Wheeler, who wished him a good morning. From the cafeteria line, he took an apple and scanned his other options: students are allowed two grain items (cereal boxes or a breakfast bar), one protein item (milk or yogurt), fruit and fruit juice.
When Eli made his selections, he hurried off to class, Grab ‘N’ Go bag in hand. Anyone coming in after him would be able to take one of the paper bags pre-packed by Wheeler. Almost 70 students in the Concord school signed up for the alternative breakfast program, which began as a pilot this year.
Abbot-Downing may be an anomaly in a state that, according to one report, is the worst in the country at providing federally funded school breakfast programs.
“It’s just a great opportunity,” said Wheeler, who has been feeding school children for 15 years. The Grab ‘N’ Go program was designed to feed any hungry child, but it targets “a lot of the kids that we know don’t have breakfast at home.”
It’s the type of program that’s encouraged by the New Hampshire Hunger Solutions coalition, which is led by the nonprofit New Hampshire Kids Count. The coalition, which began meeting in 2012 and has been working on its “Roadmap to End Childhood Hunger” for three years, is trying to build up resources to address the state’s childhood hunger problem.
“It’s still a long way to go,” said Amy Bourgault, New Hampshire Kids Count’s interim director.
A little more than 42,000 children in the state are food insecure, or lack the money or other resources to access adequate food, according to New Hampshire Food Bank statistics. A 2012 Carsey Institute report shows that 57 of the state’s 234 towns are at a high or the highest rate of food insecurity, with local areas such as Franklin, Pembroke and Pittsfield falling into the “high risk” category.
In comparison with their neighbors, those same towns also have high numbers of students eligible for free or reduced-price school lunches under the federal Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010.
“It’s starting to raise eyebrows and awareness,” Bourgault said. “A lot of kids are showing up to school hungry.”
In her two years as Abbot-Downing School’s principal, Kathleen Riordan said poverty has been a concern at the school. She and her staff are workshopping with the book Engaging Students with Poverty in Mind by Eric Jensen.
“We have a lot of kids that depend on food from school,” Riordan said. “When they walk through those doors, I want everyone to be on the same playing field.”
A big part of that is making sure students aren’t hungry when they’re trying to learn. Abbot-Downing offers federally funded free and reduced lunch to the 142 students eligible this year, according to the Department of Education, and now, the school has several different breakfast options.
Every student – regardless of income level or eligibility – uses a swipe card.
Abbot-Downing began serving free and reduced-price breakfast when it opened in 2012, and since Grab ‘N’ Go became an option at the beginning of this school year, Riordan said the number of students taking a morning meal has doubled.
“I would guess that we had 25 to 30 kids last year having breakfast,” Riordan said. “This year, it’s 65 to 70.”
Wheeler, who runs Abbot-Downing’s cafeteria, greets all of those students in the morning. She said there’s a noticeable difference in students who get a good breakfast and those who don’t.
“They’ll come in and are logy,” Wheeler said. With some fruit and cereal – or, if they come early enough, one of her fresh-made cinnamon buns – students brighten up.
“They have something to empower them,” Wheeler said. “It shapes their whole day.”
Abbot-Downing also participates in the USDA Fresh Fruit and Vegetable program. Last week, Wheeler set out fresh pineapple wrapped in individual servings for students to take to their classrooms.
“A lot of these kids have never seen fresh fruit and vegetables – they don’t have them at home,” Wheeler said.
In addition, Abbot-Downing is receiving some help from Concord Regional Technical Center’s teacher prep program. Through the nonprofit End 68 Hours of Hunger, high school students are fundraising and organizing an effort to send Concord elementary students home with meals for the weekend.
While there are federal and nonprofit-supported programs out there for places like Abbot-Downing to feed its students – the New Hampshire Farm to School program has been popular across the state – Bourgault said there are many more eligible schools that don’t take advantage of them.
“I think school districts think there’s too much paperwork involved,” she said. A 2014-15 report from the Food Research & Action Center shows that of the 53 New Hampshire schools qualifying for the federal Community Eligibility Provision – where all students get free breakfast and lunch – none participated.
“It’s free food,” Bourgault said. Two schools, she said, have since signed up.
In the same report, FRAC ranks New Hampshire as the worst state in the country for free and reduced-price school breakfast participation.
For this reason, Bourgault’s organization sends staffers into the field to help schools set up breakfast programs. In addition, New Hampshire Kids Count and its associated hunger coalition held a two year-long “NH School Breakfast Challenge” that ended this year. Awards were handed out to the winners last week: Littleton High School and Enfield Village School.
The coalition, Bourgault said, wants to see more school breakfast participation as well as community summer food programs for those same students during summer vacation.
The ultimate goal, Bourgault said, is to create a model of a connected system that offers both short-term and long-term solutions to child hunger. To get there, New Hampshire Kids Count is acting as the hub, and in the meantime, is trying to direct people, schools and organizations to as many resources to address hunger as possible.
“It’s really in its infancy,” Bourgault said. She added that there’s a lot more work ahead to solve this big, society-wide problem.
“The bottom line is, these are our kids,” she said. “These are our assets, we have to treat them better.”
(Elodie Reed can be reached at 369-3306, ereed@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @elodie_reed.)