Action for Healthy Kids® and Kellogg’s® Celebrate National Breakfast Week by Giving Students a Great Start with Breakfast

CHICAGO (March 3, 2014) - This week, Action for Healthy Kids® (AFHK) and Kellogg’s® will help schools around the country celebrate National Breakfast Week (March 3-7) with family and community breakfast events that will highlight the benefits of the national School Breakfast Program.

It’s well known that kids who eat nutritious breakfasts do better in school. In fact, studies indicate children who eat breakfast show improved cognitive function, attention and memory[1] and that school breakfast participation is associated with improved math grades, attendance and punctuality.[2],[3] Yet, one in five kids in the U.S. are sent to school each day from homes where breakfast isn’t always available.[4]

So Action for Healthy Kids and Kellogg’s are teaming up for a fourth consecutive year to make sure more children get breakfasts in school. Through AFHK’s School Grants for Healthy Kids program and Kellogg’s Give A Great Start, they’re working to help provide two million breakfasts during the 2014-2015 school year to kids across the country who otherwise might not get that first meal of the day[5] by helping schools create or improve existing breakfast programs. Action for Healthy Kids’ goal is to increase overall participation in the national School Breakfast Program.

During the first three years of the partnership, grants awarded by Action for Healthy Kids and funded by Kellogg’s have benefitted more than 260 schools in 32 states, along with grant support to increase participation in their school breakfast programs. To date, the program has provided more than six million breakfasts to children in need.

“We know that nutritious breakfasts each day can improve kids’ health and help them perform well in school. That’s why our partnership with Kellogg’s is so important. Through our joint efforts, we’re helping to increase participation in the national School Breakfast Program and helping provide two million nutritious breakfasts to the kids who need it,” says AFHK CEO Rob Bisceglie.  

And, during National Breakfast Week, 25 School Grants for Healthy Kids recipients will hold special events ranging from family and community gatherings to large community events with financial support from the Give A Great Start campaign to highlight the importance of school breakfast programs.

“At Kellogg, we understand what a healthy breakfast can mean for a child. Through Kellogg’s Give A Great Start program, we can help make a difference by giving children the start they need to unlock their potential,” said Noel Geoffroy, senior vice president, Marketing & Innovation for Kellogg’s U.S. Morning Foods.

Visit www.kellogs.com/teamusa to learn about all the ways you can get involved and Give A Great Start.

And, learn where school breakfast events will occur: http://www.actionforhealthykids.org/component/content/article/30-special-pages/1036-action-for-healthy-kidsr-and-kelloggsr-help-schools-celebrate-national-breakfast-week-2014

[1] Wesnes KA, Pincock C, Richardson D, Helm G, Hails S. “Breakfast reduces declines in attention and memory over the morning in schoolchildren.” Appetite 2003;41(3):329-31.
 
[2] Murphy JM, Pagano M, Nachmani J, Sperling P, Kane S, Kleinman R. “The Relationship of School Breakfast to Psychosocial and Academic Functioning: Cross-sectional and longitudinal observations in an inner-city sample.” Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine 1998;152:899-907.

[3] Powell CA, Walker SP, Chang SM, Grantham-McGregor SM. “Nutrition and education: a randomized trial of the effects of breakfast in ruralprimary school children.” American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 1998;68:873-9.

[4] U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. 2012. Breakfast: Percentages of Selected Nutrients Contributed by Foods Eaten at Breakfast, by Gender and Age, What We Eat in America, NHANES 2009-2010. Available: www.ars.usda.gov/ba/bhnrc/fsrg
 
[5] For each “Great Start” consumers activate, Kellogg will provide $.27, up to $540,000, to Action for Healthy Kids to help increase participation in new or expanded school breakfast programs resulting in a projected 2 million additional breakfasts served if the maximum contribution is reached.

Lorna Grisby
Communications Manager
Action for Healthy Kids
600 W. Van Buren Street, Suite #720
Chicago, IL 60607
312 878 7672 (T, W, F)
773 280 9256 (M,Th)
lorna@ActionforHealthyKids.org
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About Action for Healthy Kids®

Action for Healthy Kids® (AFHK) fights childhood obesity, undernourishment and physical inactivity by helping schools become healthier places so kids can live healthier lives. We partner with a legion of dedicated volunteers - teachers, students, moms, dads, school wellness experts and more - from within the ranks of our  65,000+ network to create healthful school changes. After all, everyone has a part to play in ending the nation’s childhood obesity epidemic.  Our programs, tools and resources make it possible so that many people can.

Our grassroots efforts are supported by a collaboration of more than 75 organizations, corporations and government agencies. Working together, they’re giving kids the keys to health and academic success by meeting them where they are - in the classroom, in the cafeteria and on the playground - with fun physical activity and nutrition lessons and changes that make it possible for them to eat nutritiously and play every day. More information is available at www.ActionforHealthyKids.org, on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Action-for-Healthy-Kids/267076500068?ref=mf and on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Act4HlthyKids.

About Kellogg Company

At Kellogg Company (NYSE: K), we are driven to enrich and delight the world through foods and brands that matter. With 2013 sales of $14.8 billion and more than 1,600 foods, Kellogg is the world’s leading cereal company; second largest producer of cookies, crackers and savory snacks; and a leading North American frozen foods company. Our brands – Kellogg’s®, Keebler®, Special K®, Pringles®, Frosted Flakes®, Pop-Tarts®, Corn Flakes®, Rice Krispies®, Kashi®, Cheez-It®, Eggo®, Mini-Wheats® and more – nourish families so they can flourish and thrive. Through our Breakfasts for Better Days™ initiative,  we’re providing 1 billion servings of cereal and snacks – more than half of which are breakfasts – to children and families in need around the world by the end of 2016. To learn more about Kellogg, visit www.kelloggcompany.com or follow us on Twitter @KelloggCompany.