Are the Breakfast Programs in Philadelphia Public Schools for Urban Children really Fueling Students for Success?

     It has been a while since I last blogged, because life gets busy when you are an adult, but when you have a topic that has been on your mind for a while, you know that it is time to start blogging again. If you have read any of my other blogs, you will be able to piece together fairly quickly, that I am a Black educator who is very passionate about the lives of urban children. There are so many elements outside of just education that becomes a barrier for urban children. These children are facing poverty, lack of resources, and trying to escape the jail cells that society has already put their names on. The school to prison pipeline and the zero tolerance policies is just a few examples of how urban children find themselves first in juvenile detention center, and then in prison not to long after. Even though these topics are very important as well, I want to spend today's blog speaking on behalf of the breakfast programs in Philadelphia that is not supplying urban children food to fuel them for success throughout the day. 

    There once was a time when every student ate in the cafeteria for breakfast before class started, but due to the drop in attendance for students eating breakfast, Philadelphia on behalf of SNAP-Ed, decided that they wanted to give other alternatives for students to be able to eat breakfast. One of the alternatives that they created was breakfast in the classroom, and this trail run was done for the first time in selected schools in 2017. The hope in dong this is that it would increase breakfast attendance, and more children would have access to eating breakfast. Originally, this sounded like a great idea, but the quality of the breakfast only became worse, and here is where the problem lies. The problem is not the children having breakfast in the classroom, but the quality of the food that is being given to the children.  

    Since I am currently teaching in an Urban setting, I can actually write this blog, and speak on behalf of the quality of food that is being given to urban children. Everyday, the big green bag comes up from the cafeteria for morning breakfast, and it is always wrapped processed food that is saturated in high-fructose corn syrup and other harmful ingredients. The issue is that these programs who provide the breakfast thinks that as long as there is a piece of fruit in the bag as well for the students to consume, that it somehow will offset the unhealthy breakfast that is given. The problem is that it does not offset it, and once again public schools fail urban children with not only their education, but also their food. The bulk of urban children are already surviving off of corner stores that do not provide much nutrition, because it is close and convenient. We also have to take into consideration that a lot of urban children are facing not only poverty, but lack of transportation, which means a trip to the grocery story may not be feasible. 

    As a Black urban educator who is now inspiring to be a principal, I say enough is enough. There are so many injustices in urban education that just get swept under the rug everyday, because people have become brainwashed into thinking that their voice doesn’t matter anyway, so why say anything. The good news is that there is still hope in a very devastating situation. The future desire in this all is that change does not necessarily happen over night, but with guidance on what next steps to take to challenge the system, and discussions on these difficult topics, we as a people can change the narrative over time.