AISD's breakfast in the classroom program keeps students in school

Posted: Oct 17, 2017 / 03:41 AM CDT

Updated: Oct 17, 2017 / 03:41 AM CDT

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Roughly 200 students at Oak Spings Elementary in Austin receive free breakfast in the classroom each school day.

It’s part of a larger initiative Austin ISD is rolling out with the help of a grant from Partners for Breakfast in the Classroom.

Anneliese Tanner, AISD’s Executive Director of Food Services, believes the program is producing the desired results.

“We have seen at Akins High School an increase in attendance since we started the program, and then anecdotally we’ve heard from other principals as well that their attendance is up and their tardies are down,” Tanner said.

In Austin, 39 schools receive grant money from Partners for Breakfast in the Classroom, but not all have rolled their programs out yet.

Tanner says 19,000 AISD students each day are getting free breakfast through this initiative. That’s on top of 22,000 the district already serves through breakfast in the classroom.

Tanner says students get to start out the day with a healthy meal, which helps them perform better in class. For some students, school meals are the only meals they get during a day. More than half of AISD students — roughly 40,000 — come from low income homes and depend on these meals

The program offers breakfast to all students, and has them eat it in the classroom instead of the cafeteria.

“Hunger is an obstacle to educating our youth that we hope our district can overcome,” Tanner said.

For the 2017-2018 school year, 14 schools are participating in the program: