LAUSD Extends Breakfast in Classroom Program

The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) Board of Education has voted to continue and expand the district’s Breakfast in the Classroom initiative, the largest of its kind in the nation. Currently close to 210,000 students who attend 288 LAUSD schools participate in the program, which began in March 2012 with help from the Los Angeles Fund for Public Education.

The LA Fund has contributed more than $200,000 this school year with donations from the California Endowment, Parsons Foundation, the Rosenthal Family Foundation, and Roll Global. The program has resulted in more students are eating breakfast.

“When breakfast was served in the school cafeteria, we had a 29 percent participation rate,” says LAUSD Food Services Director David Binkle. "That has increased by 89 percent since Breakfast in the Classroom and, best of all, students are eating a healthy, nutritious breakfast."

The initiative is projected to generate an additional $6 million in reimbursement revenue to LAUSD.

Renewing and extending the successful program was made possible with a combination of resources from LAUSD and the LA Fund, and support from additional partners including Share Our Strength, California Food Policy Advocates, the CAA Foundation, Child Obesity 180, No Kid Hungry LA, InnerCity Struggle, SEIU Local 99, the Healthy School Food Coalition, and Partnership for Los Angeles Schools.