The 1 in 5: 'They don't get breakfast at home'

Students eat breakfast at Caroline Sibley Elementary School in Calumet City. The school serves meals to approximately 650 students each day.

Three years ago, staff at Caroline Sibley Elementary School in Calumet City instituted the National School Breakfast Program after arriving at a disheartening realization.

“Our kids are hungry.”

1 in 3 children in Calumet City is at risk of hunger. Shelly Davis-Jones, the superintendent of District 149, knows that reality perhaps better than anyone.

“I do a lot of home visits to talk to parents and check in on kids,” she said. “Our kids aren’t eating. Food is scarce. I’ve seen refrigerators with nothing in them.”

In many households, healthy options are limited.

“These kids rely on meals at school,” Shelly said.

The school breakfast program offers breakfast before school and breakfast in the classroom. The program serves approximately 650 students per day, or 81 percent of the school’s eligible students, which is well over the state’s target participation rate of 70 percent.

“For many of these students, breakfast on a Monday is the first substantial meal that these children are getting in two days,” Shelly said. “They look forward to coming in because they don’t get breakfast at home.”

The benefits of breakfast before school are easy to see, especially for the teachers who are with the students all day.

“Before we had breakfast in the classroom, you’d have kids coming in each morning crying or putting their heads down because their stomach hurt,” said Suzette Ojermark, a third-grade teacher at the school. “With breakfast here, they’re getting something they wouldn’t normally get.”

But, it’s not just teachers that are speaking up about the importance of breakfast. When the school made the transition to the program three years ago, it was the students who helped lead the charge, giving a presentation about the importance of the program to the district’s Board of Education.

Their message was simple, according to Shelly.

“Breakfast is so important to getting the brain going,” she said. “How can you focus on an empty stomach?”

Read more stories about the importance of children’s programs at chicagosfoodbank.org/1in5.