School Breakfasts in Illinois - Myths

It is important to understand some of the common misperceptions about the School Breakfast Program (SBP).

MYTH #1 Transportation difficulties prohibit school breakfast programs, and bus
companies are against it.

• Kids can be picked up at the regular time and eat in the classroom.
• The Illinois Hunger Coalition has met with bus companies including those in Will and Lake Counties serving multiple school districts and they were surprised to hear that opponents of school breakfast list bus schedules as a barrier to serving breakfast. They insisted that they can and could accommodate for the SBP.
• One company said SBP was started in the schools and they were never notified. This
  posed no problem for the bus service.
• As one Chicago Public School official remarked, if school districts are worried about it, they can just put it in their contract with the bus company.
• Illinois ranks 48th among the states for the provision of breakfast to low-income children. If all but two states can provide school breakfast without problems with transportation, why should Illinois bus service pose such a problem? They don’t.

MYTH#2 The unions oppose school breakfast.

• The Illinois Education Association, the Illinois Federation of Teachers, and the Chicago Principals and Administrators Association support school breakfast.
• The Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union Local One representing cafeteria workers support school breakfast.
• In schools without school breakfast teachers frequently buy food out of their own pockets to feed the children.

MYTH#3 School Breakfast is an unfunded mandate.

• SBP is a federal entitlement program. Last year Illinois received $40 million in federal dollars for SBP by serving only 27% of those eligible-190,000 children.
• If we served only half of the 700,000 children who receive free and reduced-price lunch, Illinois would receive an additional $38 million.
• For every free breakfast provided, the federal government reimburses Illinois schools a $1.20 per served breakfast. In those schools where a “severe need” is determined, that school would be reimbursed from the federal government up to $1.43 for each free priced school breakfast.
• The average cost of school breakfast in two diverse IL. school districts representing one downstate and one suburban area is $1.26. The average reimbursement from USDA is $1.26 and covers the cost of food, labor and benefits and overhead.
• In Illinois there are 380 schools who have 40% of their enrollment eligible for free and reduce priced lunches and no school breakfast.