Break that fast

Experts say half of Maine’s students go to school hungry. Going without breakfast means they continue their 12 hours or so of overnight fasting through the morning. If they miss lunch, too, their fasting goes on into the afternoon.

A special commission appointed by the legislature has spent the past year and a half questioning school administrators, parents and the children themselves. An interim report by this Maine Millennial Commission on Hunger and Food Security has come up with these findings:

. Hungry students tend to be lethargic in the classroom and slow at learning. If they gulp down a soda and a snack for temporary relief and a spurt of energy, they are heading toward a lifetime of obesity and bad teeth.

. Many Maine families can’t afford a decent breakfast. One third of the jobs in Maine don’t pay a livable wage. Parents – especially single parents – often don’t find the time to fix breakfast.

. Twenty percent of Maine’s schools don’t offer free food. Some schools lack the facilities. Some communities won’t accept federal or state food grants for fear of looking poverty-stricken. They seem to think if they don’t see poverty it isn’t there.

. The 80 percent that do provide free or reduced-price lunch (and in rare cases breakfast) for needy students find that many children won’t accept it. They don’t want to be seen as different, in a school society that puts high value on conformity in dress, behavior and lifestyle.

Putting these findings together, the commission proposes a universal breakfast and lunch program. The meals would be free or at a reduced rate for all students, regardless of need. No child would then bear the stigma of needing a special subsidy. John Hanson of the Bureau of Labor Education at the University of Maine says the additional cost of extending meal service to all students would be minimal – far less than some complicated system of magnetic cards aimed at avoiding the stigma while preserving the needs test.

Katherine O. Musgrave, professor emerita of food and nutrition at the university, points out that some students wouldn’t want the free meals, because they would have eaten well at home or brought their lunch. “That would give the kids a feeling of control over what they eat.”

She emphasizes the need for nutritious food, for adults as well as children. That means plenty of protein and vegetables and less sugar and fat and salt. She hopes that an expanded meals program would guide both students and their parents toward better eating habits.

She also would like to see the schools kick out the vending machines that sell snacks and sugar-loaded and caffenated drinks. But that’s another story.