Coos Bay and North Bend schools are working to make sure that when classes resume after the holidays, children don't start the day with empty stomachs.

As in other districts nationwide, schools here offer free breakfast to all students.

The national participation in school breakfast programs grew significantly this year, up to 7.7 million students eating breakfast at school, and students in South Coast schools are no exception.

According to a national anti-hunger group, the Food Research and Action Center, nationwide more students are eating breakfast at school, with Oregon schools serving about 50 percent of low-income families in the breakfast program.

South Coast schools have fairly high participation by low-income students, as Coos Bay provides free breakfast to all elementary and middle school students, and North Bend offers free breakfast from kindergarten through high school (see sidebar).

The federal breakfast program, run by the USDA, feeds only two in five of the children who need it. However, the number of students eating breakfast reached a record 7.7 million in the 2005-06 school year, according to a report provided by the research center.

Although Oregon participation rates increased last year, the state dropped from number one in the nation for student breakfast participation in 2004-05, to number four in 2005-06.

New Mexico posted the biggest increase, with 58 children getting breakfast for every 100 who qualify for free and reduced-price lunches, up from 53 a year earlier. Oregon stayed steady at 55 children of every 100, but West Virginia, South Carolina and Kentucky increased this year.

Coos Bay schools serve about 950 breakfasts a day at the elementary and middle schools, and only 120 breakfasts at Marshfield High School. Although 65 percent of Coos Bay students qualify for free or reduced meals, out of about 2,400 students less than half actually eat breakfast, said Tim Watson-Williams, the food services manager for Coos Bay.

Coos Bay's program began about five years ago and Watson-Williams said he has seen the numbers increase steadily. But there's always room for more, he added.

“We're in an a community with a lot of poverty and anything we can do to help feed our kids is worth it,” Watson-Williams said. “Plus, we believe kids who are getting more nutritionally sound meals perform better in school.”

Like North Bend, Coos Bay provides a blanket program for all students to receive free breakfast. According to Rhonda Hoffine, food services manager for North Bend and food service coordinator for Coquille, Myrtle Point and Reedsport school districts, although many of the children eating breakfast qualify for free and reduced meals, the district has to cover some of the costs.

“If your school meets a certain criteria as far as percentages of students who qualify as free and reduced, you can give everybody free breakfast. We get reimbursed by the state based on our percentage of free and reduced students in our base year,” Watson-Williams said.

However, schools don't get reimbursed for serving breakfasts to children who can afford to pay, Hoffine added.

North Bend started its program in 2002-03, because many children used to come to school hungry or wanted to eat before lunch time, Hoffine said.

“There were a lot of students who weren't eating because they didn't have time, or even though we offered breakfast for free and reduced students, there was a stigma about who was eating in the cafeteria,” Hoffine said. “We wanted to offer it across the board because then everyone gets a chance to eat and there's no stigma, especially if students eat in their classroom.”

Hillcrest Elementary School in North Bend doesn't serve students in their classrooms, said Principal Bruce Martin, but keeps meals contained in the cafeteria area, due to a dwindling maintenance staff.

Students at Hillcrest are required to go through the breakfast line and receive a hand stamp at the beginning of the school day, even if they don't want to eat. This ensures that students who need to eat will do so, Martin said.

“If we don't require the kids to go through, many won't,” he said. This way, students who don't have breakfast at home have a chance to eat without being singled out, he added.

Although Martin said nobody has to eat in the morning, it's important to offer kids the option.

In breakfast for students, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Nebraska, New Jersey, Colorado, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Alaska, Utah and Wisconsin lost ground this year, especially Louisiana, which saw a big drop - nearly 12 percent - because of Hurricane Katrina. More than three-quarters of the 31,000 students who left Louisiana schools were eligible for free and reduced lunch or breakfast.

Most breakfast programs are managed the same way as lunch, with students who qualify getting free and reduced meals, and those who don't qualify paying 30 cents to $1 for breakfast. But Lynn Parker, director of child nutrition at the national the research center, said she'd like to see more schools moving toward universal breakfast, providing free meals for all students - as Coos Bay and North Bend schools do now.