Another notable aspect of their program is that the small kitchen staff does not collect breakfast coolers when students are finished eating; instead, a student from each of the 16 classrooms is responsible for quickly bringing their class’s cooler back to the carts outside the kitchen. (For the ECE and kindergarten classes, facilities staff brings the bags back.) Students rinse and recycle their milk and juice cartons, as well.

One teacher I spoke with applauded the opportunity that Breakfast in the Classroom has afforded her students to learn and practice life skills, such as communication, taking turns, and being responsible for their own clean workspace. Another teacher addressed the more underlying purpose of the program: hunger alleviation – “For some kids, it’s the only food they eat. They come to school hungry.” Congratulations to Fairview Elementary for over a decade of meeting students’ breakfast and learning needs!

Abby Isaacson, MPH, serves as one of the Breakfast Expansion Ambassadors for Hunger Free Colorado. Learn more about the organization and school breakfast programs by visit www.hungerfreecolorado.org.

The Senate and House agriculture committees are marking up the Farm Bill, which governs critical anti-hunger programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps. Cuts to SNAP could significantly undermine Colorado’s ability to provide food assistance to the poor, working families, children, and seniors.

We need to protect and strengthen SNAP! According to new polling data from the Food Action and Research Center, voters like you continue to voice strong support for SNAP and strong opposition to cuts:

• Seven in 10 voters say that cutting food stamp funding is the wrong way to reduce government spending.
• Nearly three in four (73%) voters believe the food stamp program is very or fairly important for the country.

What can you do? Your voice matters, so let it be heard!

Contact Colorado’s lawmakers in D.C. today. Ask them to protect SNAP for Coloradans in need of the safety net, public health program. Call (888) 743-1097 or take action by using our email template with this link. Our online system will send your email to the correct Colorado delegates, based on the zipcode entered.

And, if you make one call, contact Sen. Michael Bennet at (800) 826-3688. As a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, he will be involved in the mark-ups and needs to hear how important SNAP is to Coloradans.

Then, share this information on Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites, so other Coloradans can take action too.

All the way to heaven number eleven. B 11, that’s B11. BINGO! An excited lady boasted excitedly amidst tables of balloons, potted flowers, and smiling people. Lots of smiling people all here for the Arapahoe Volunteer Appreciation event during National Volunteer Week. This was the scene I was greeted to as I stepped out of the snowy April evening and into the warmth of the Littleton conference room. Once I checked in, I surveyed the crowd to find my fellow Hunger Free Colorado co-workers. Donita Rafferty, Erin Van Patten, and previous VISTA Tess Dokus were all in attendance along with Mellany, one of our steady volunteers at the Arapahoe Department of Human Services. We were all here for a night of celebration in recognition of the Hunger Free Colorado volunteer program that partners with Arapahoe Human Services to alleviate hunger in Colorado via federal nutrition programs.

To give you a little background on the program, our volunteers act as Information Ambassadors in the main lobby to assist clients through social service programs and facilitate their needs for community resources. Largely due to the strong core of volunteers we have, Hunger Free Colorado was recognized that night by being awarded the Exceptional Volunteer Group of the year. After accepting the award, pictures were taken and hugs exchanged to commemorate the night. A big congrats goes out to all those volunteers at Arapahoe that have made this program such a success.

Written by Hannah Rogers, Food Assistance Navigator and Americorps Vista for Hunger Free Colorado.

*National Volunteer Week was from April 21st-April 27th, 2013. Arapahoe County recognized Hunger Free Colorado volunteers for their service during 2012. These volunteers assist clients looking to apply for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP, at the county’s Department of Human Services.

Let’s be clear: I’m not trying act as if I’d understand what it’s really like to live a life of poverty where living on food stamps is only part of the struggle. I chose to test the challenges of poverty and nutrition. This wasn’t about ‘surviving’ a week; this was about getting the most nutritional bang for my buck, seeing what I could do, and learning from that.

The rules were simple:

• Live on $4.56 per day for 7 days, including beverages
• Eat only what you pay for (no freebies)
• No dining out because food stamps aren’t accepted

This was primarily a self-experiment to achieve greater self-awareness and empathy, while maintaining my regular workout schedule.

The Meal Plan:

With $31.92 for the week, I decided to spend roughly $29 (receipt here) and keep close to a 10% cushion in case something unplanned occurred. Hey, I am an investment advisor.

• Pre-Workout: 100% whole grain bread and 1 tbsp Skippy Natural honey flavored creamy peanut butter

• Post-Workout Breakfast: 2 medium white egg omelet with salt and pepper and ½ cup oatmeal with water, mixed in 1 tbsp peanut butter

• Snacks at 10am and 3pm: ½ cup oatmeal with water, ½ banana, ½ tbsp peanut butter

• Lunch and Dinner: 4 oz chicken breast (frozen, raw) seared and baked, seasoned with salt and pepper; 2/3 cup frozen green beans or spinach, salt and pepper to taste; 1 cup canned black beans, rinsed to reduce    sodium

• Beverages: 10 cups minimum of water per day, 1 green tea packet for morning caffeine, 1 to-go packet of pink lemonade light for low calorie sugar water

Some Notes from My Week:

Monday: Day 1, and I woke up with a migraine and I hadn’t even started the challenge yet. I slept from 11:30am – 12:30pm and then again from 4pm–8pm. I realized how difficult it was for me to get rid of a migraine while eating this way. Normally, it goes away in a couple hours.

Tuesday: I love creative work and problem solving and given an extra hour in a day, that’s what you’ll find me focused on. Today, I lacked the energy to think creatively and found myself gravitating to work that I knew I could do easily (e.g. analysis, planning, emails).

Wednesday: 3 days in, and I hit the wall. My body was having a difficult time adapting to the changes and the morning workout sucked. Creativity was at its all time low for the week.

Sunday: Was trying not to remind myself that this was the last day because people in poverty don’t have a set timeframe. I ended up planning my meals for the upcoming week with my newly built cooking habits and went grocery shopping. You’re not supposed to do that hungry, I can vouch for that. With the last $3 still on-hand, I spent it on a stir fry meal for dinner and added a little extra nutrition knowing that the next morning, I would begin to transition to a normal meal plan.

Results:

The results are obvious: there is no way to sustain an active lifestyle eating this way without sacrificing something meaningful like nutrition, variety, or freshness. I lost 7 pounds of fat in as many days and could only consume 1452 calories per day, substantially less than my target of 1900.

Inside my body fared just as bad: I went from a somewhat acidic environment at 6.25 to an unhealthy acidic body at 5.5. Cancer thrives in an acidic body, but I didn’t have enough money to eat more greens. My energy during workouts went from 8/10 on day 1 down to a 2/10 on day 3. If I were a laborer trying to eat healthy, I would not have enough energy to do my job.

Finally, my sleep quality declined from 70% to 55%. Less time in REM means waking up with less energy. Less energy means pumping yourself with empty carbs to get an energy boost. This is a vicious cycle – no wonder poverty cycles through generations.

Thanks to…

First, my incredibly supportive wife Natasha. She helped me daily to make sure that I had all the love, motivation, and tools I needed during the challenge. And my dog Mazaa, whose butt wiggled no matter how low my energy went.

Andy Seth is the co-founder of LotusGroup Advisors as well as president of Minds Matter of Denver and KIPP Colorado Schools’ Advisory Board. Read his original blog post about the SNAP Challenge.

-Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

I grew-up while teaching at a low-income urban school. At the time, I dreamed to make a difference in the lives of my students while making school time fun and developing lifelong learners. I had already received a degree and lived on my own, but I was still young and green behind the ears, full of ideals and opinions. Every day, I spent hours preparing for the lessons and anticipating the outcomes of activities. With the effort I put in, I had high expectations of my students and their families. This was a team effort, after all, and I knew that if I utilized every resource available, including my education and time, and the students and families did all they could, success would be imminent.

Before my first year teaching finished, I began to provide snacks to my students, student referrals to counseling, and parent referrals to meet basic needs. Summer break provided me with ample time to reflect on my first year teaching and determine what else I needed to do to ensure success in the classroom. While there had been many successes among every student, all of the students didn’t perform at grade level in every subject and I blamed myself. Maybe if I had put in more than the 60 hours a week I gave, or if my education and experience had been more extensive, maybe then my students would have fared better. Maybe it was the parent’s fault that the kids didn’t meet the standard. Maybe the school and school district should have provided my students and me with more support, training and supplies. All of these “maybe’s” ran through my mind over and over.

I began my second, then third, fourth, and subsequent years of teaching with more experience, knowledge, teaching tools and determination than the previous years. Each start of a school year brought excitement and anticipation of the growth my students would make. Even the students felt excited each new year. Parents, students and I felt that those who struggled in previous years would blossom and grow under our joint expectations and efforts. Sadly, this hope didn’t always last.

I learned alongside my students. I learned that their families struggled to keep food on their tables and that school meals were not optional, but necessary. Some of my students slept on the floor or on a couch because they didn’t have bedrooms. Others weren’t allowed to play outside when they went home because their apartment complexes were crawling with drugs and violence. Sometimes they stayed home from school because they didn’t have a way to clean their clothes and they were embarrassed to come to school dirty. At parent teacher conferences, I learned more when I watched stressed-out parents break-down because they had so much on their minds that they couldn’t spend half an hour doing homework with their children. We all felt more needed to be done, and that it had less to do with books and math pages and more to do with basic needs and the structures that enabled this loss of hope.

These parents worked and still struggled to provide for their children. They dreamed of white picket fences, trips to the beach and sending their children to college, but had no hope that those dreams would ever be fulfilled. In this world, effort doesn’t mean success. That was the last lesson I learned before I started thinking about supporting my students in a different way. I could be the best teacher in the world and provide everything my students and their families needed to be successful in second grade, but that would change one year of school, not the debilitating system.

I am not a “burned-out” teacher, but for now I spend my effort ensuring children have access to healthy food so that families have one less need to cause strain. My work is not about my dream to influence lives, but about changing a system that is leaving hard-working families stressed, limited and hopeless. There are programs in place to meet the needs of children who don’t have enough nutritious food to live healthy and productive lives. Our collaborative efforts can change not only one classroom of children, but an entire system in Colorado.

“Crush humanity out of shape once more, under similar hammers, and it will twist itself into the same tortured forms. Sow the same seed of rapacious licence and oppression over again, and it will surely yield the same fruit according to its kind.”

-Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

During the two years of the Colorado No Kid Hungry Campaign, there have been many accomplishments in the program. There was a successful Farm to Family pilot project, several access barriers to the program were eliminated and progress was made on implementing changes for ease of program use. Further, breastfeeding rates among women participating in the program continue to improve and are some of the highest in the country. In fact, Colorado overall now has the highest rate of exclusive breastfeeding at six months.

Breastfeeding rates among women participating in the program continue to improve and are some of the highest in the country. In fact, Colorado overall now has the highest rate of exclusive breastfeeding at six months. The WIC program’s extensive training of local staff in lactation support as well as the use of peer counselors and provision of pumps have all contributed to this success. Supporting a mother’s choice to breastfeed continues to be a program priority given the very strong evidence of breastfeeding’s role in health promotion, including the prevention of obesity.

In 2011, a Farm to Family pilot was completed in Mesa County, allowing WIC participants to use WIC vouchers to purchase fresh fruits and vegetables at farmers markets and stands. Following a successful 2012 report of the project, it entered the implementation phase and was open to other agencies. Three counties and/or local agencies as well as several farmers were authorized in 2012, and already in 2013, two more agencies have expressed interest and began accepting applications from farmers.

It was a busy year for WIC in 2012, as two new policies were implemented and a third approved in order to make WIC more accessible and easy to use for women, infants and children. The planning process for moving to use of Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) cards for benefit delivery is complete and the implementation process ready to begin once the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) identifies funding for the project.

Split tender, which allows participants to pay the difference for produce that is not covered by the WIC voucher, allows participants to purchase larger amounts of produce without making two purchases through the cashier. Shelf labeling, which allows stores to identify WIC eligible items, makes shopping and finding the specific WIC items easier. Both of these processes have been approved and are up to individual stores to implement.

A third approved policy change that has yet to take effect is the change in certification period for children, from six months to one year. This change supports both the WIC office and the participants, as the participants  will less frequently have to be re-certified and bring supporting documents, such as income verification, into the clinic.

Campaign partners continue to work closely with CDPHE to support the nutrition of pregnant and postpartum women, as well as infants and children. Learn more about WIC in Colorado.

Instead of the traditional method of providing breakfast before the bell in the cafeteria, Adams County School District 14 (Adams 14) in Commerce City offers each student breakfast in the classroom at their elementary, middle and high schools. It all began when Cindy Veney, the district’s food and nutrition services manager, observed a seemingly common occurrence with before-the-bell breakfast.

“I saw two little sisters arrive to school late, through no fault of their own. They ran to the cafeteria to get breakfast and were then told to hurry up and finish before the first bell rang,” said Cindy, who led the implementation of Breakfast in the Classroom district-wide. “One sister stuffed a bagel in her mouth and ran off to class, and the younger sister took sips of milk, crying, as she walked down the hallway. I knew right then that it had to change. We could either find a way or create a way to more effectively feed our kids.”

Adams 14 piloted Breakfast in the Classroom at one of their schools in 2010. On the first day, school nurses were surprised by the lack of missing-nutrition complaints like stomach aches, lightheadedness and headaches. Teachers immediately noticed a difference in student behavior and alertness. Due to its success, the program has expanded district-wide with more than 38,000 breakfasts served each week to every first-period classroom.

When offering before-the-bell breakfast, the district only had a 30 percent participation rate in their school breakfast program. Now, more than 87 percent of their students district-wide eat breakfast after the bell, with 1,200 of their 1,700 high school students participating. The academic and behavioral differences have been noticeable, too.

“Several principals have seen a decrease in behavior problems,” shared Cindy. “Teachers report students are calmer; school nurses and teachers don’t need to keep a stash of food for hungry kids; and parents support the program, too.”

Cindy started this program after witnessing two young girls unable to get the needed nutrition in the morning to fuel their brain, stop their rumbling bellies and set them up for success in the classroom—all because of how breakfast was served. Now, with Breakfast in the Classroom, Adams 14 principals, teachers, nurses, administrators and other staff know firsthand the benefits of an after-the-bell serving model for their schools and, more importantly, their students.

“If students are hungry, they are not going to learn,” said Cindy. “There are pending circumstances why some children don’t get breakfast before school each day, so why not give them all the opportunity to start their day with a healthy meal and be better prepared learn?”

For me, this film was deeply personal and troubling on several levels. I grew up on the Western Slope, and I know Collbran and small towns like it. I could relate to those living there. They are hard-working people in a small community with pride and heart, and bearing witness to their collective struggle to feed their families was difficult for me to watch. The rancher who spoke of working the ranch during the day and then cleaning the school at night—just to make ends meet—sharply contrasts the rhetoric about people taking advantage of or relying on public assistance programs out of laziness.  Here is the true American patriot—a cowboy, a dedicated father, a hero by my count—and yet he isn’t able to provide fully for his family because what he earns from working long hours at two difficult jobs just isn’t enough. A Place at the Table will certainly challenge negative stereotypes about the recipients of food assistance programs.

Growing up the son of a law enforcement officer, I understand the sacrifices that police officers make every day. Most of them give far more than they get back, and I saw how hard my father worked for his community. During a scene in the film, a local police officer from Collbran talks about his own personal need to get a meal and food for his family from the church. For me, this was a defining moment; if our own police officers and public servants need help with putting food on the table, then we need to open our eyes and get serious about this problem. These people are full of pride and clearly do not want to be receiving charity, but they need this support because they can’t let their children go hungry.

As a new father, I can’t fathom the heartbreak that would come with not being able to provide my daughter enough food, yet millions—yes, millions—of hard-working parents are facing this crisis. The cost of solving this issue is far less than the consequences of not solving it.

With respect to education reform, the return on investment is so much greater if our children come to school with full bellies—ready and able to participate and learn—without the distraction and health consequences of persistent hunger. Yet, in Colorado, 22% of our children don’t have enough to eat. The costs from malnutrition are exponentially greater than the cost of the solution. The idea that more than 49 million people (that’s Colorado eight times over) are facing food insecurity clearly demonstrates the magnitude of families facing this issue every day.

I find the situation of tens millions of Americans going hungry each day completely unacceptable; it is something that can and must be solved as an issue of national security. It’s patriotic to ensure our people, our children, our seniors, our hard-working parents and caregivers, our own neighbors are not hungry. Together we need to rise up, say enough is enough and start focusing on the issue of hunger in our own country. 

I encourage people to see A Place at the Table and help us take action because we don’t need to live with this problem in Colorado and across the U.S. For more information on what you can do, visit HungerFreeColorado.org.

William Browning is the Board Chair for Hunger Free Colorado, the state’s leading anti-hunger organization leveraging the power of collaboration, system change, policy change and social change to end hunger in Colorado.

To learn more about how you can get involved, visit A Place At The Table’s action center and Hunger Free Colorado’s website.

The kitchen staff know what menu items students prefer and when to pickup leftovers. They are also able to get back to the kitchen with more time to prep for lunch. They are trying to convince the adjacent charter school, which shares campus and kitchen space with them, to make the switch to Breakfast in the Classroom as well, so no kitchen staff have to spend time serving cafeteria breakfast on the line.

Smiley’s administrative and teaching staff are pleased as well. An assistant principal noted the program’s importance to students; this week, she had an extremely late student come in whose first concern was whether or not she could still get breakfast. Most teachers begin the day’s lesson the minute that the bell rings, and they feel Breakfast in the Classroom contributes to building a community atmosphere in the classroom. One seventh-grade teacher commented, “I used to keep crackers for hungrier students to eat in the hall when they complained of headaches. Now, with Breakfast in the Classroom, I don’t have to do that.” When teachers verbally encourage students to eat (and drink milk), participation rates are especially high. Last October, 77% of students were eating school breakfast at Smiley!

Students have come to count on their classroom breakfasts, and more students now are getting something healthy in their stomachs to start the day. Anyone is welcome to see this program in action at Smiley Middle School!

Abby Isaacson, MPH, serves as one of the Breakfast Expansion Ambassadors for Hunger Free Colorado. Learn more about the organization and school breakfast programs in Colorado by visit www.hungerfreecolorado.org.

STRIVE Lake and Lake International School share the same building, and both schools just started Breakfast in the Classroom this year. Students were just filing into their seats, and breakfast had been delivered in coolers and bins to every classroom earlier in the morning. At my visit, students chose an apple, orange juice or milk, and either a homemade whole wheat cinnamon roll or cinnamon crisp breakfast bar (YUM!). As students grabbed breakfast, they also managed to quietly put away their coats and backpacks, turn in their homework, and pull out their books at their desks.

For the kitchen manager, Yvonne, this is only her second year at Lake—and her first time implementing Breakfast in the Classroom. She admits being skeptical at first, but says with a little time and an excellent food service team, things run without a hitch. It took them “no time at all” to get organized at the beginning, adjusting the number of breakfasts for each classroom and figuring out what items students eat the most. For example, students love that morning’s menu, as well as pancakes, homemade egg and cheese biscuits or burritos, but dislike quesadillas and are on the fence about yogurt.

Lake’s kitchen staff, also skeptical at first, became excited about some extra hours necessary at the beginning to start figuring the system out. Now, they have the process down pat, are back to their regular hours, and actually have more time to spend preparing for lunch. Facilities managers have been extremely supportive as well.

Yvonne stated that she’s less stressed overall with this program compared to cafeteria breakfast. She could use a little more consistency from teachers filling out the student rosters appropriately, especially in communicating the process with substitute teachers. And, she has made herself available to answer any teachers’ concerns or questions at any time.

Now that things are organized, she has the opportunity to think of ways to make it run even more smoothly for her team and the entire school, so every student who wants a healthy breakfast at school can have it. The program is off to a great start!

What do you think about Breakfast in the Classroom?

Abby Isaacson, MPH, serves as one of the Breakfast Expansion Ambassadors for Hunger Free Colorado. Learn more about the organization and school breakfast programs in Colorado by visit www.hungerfreecolorado.org.