The After the Bell (ATB) School Breakfast Initiative seeks to increase school breakfast participation in high-poverty school districts across Massachusetts by (1) providing one-time launch grants and technical assistance, (2) publishing an annual School Breakfast Report Card, and (3) hosting an annual Healthy Start Awards event celebration.
In our Commonwealth’s high-poverty communities, school breakfast participation dropped to 48% in SY 23/24 from the high of 58% in SY 19/20. As a result of this low participation, over 150,000 children are missing out on school breakfast each school day, and our state is leaving over $67 million in USDA school breakfast reimbursements on the table each year.
ATB Breakfast is proven to increase access to and participation in school breakfast. Benefits of the program include: lower absentee and tardy rates, fewer morning nurses visits and behavioral problems, and higher academic achievement. Since 2013, when Eos began this grant program, over 70,000 more high-need students are participating in breakfast each school day. Click here for a list of schools that have received ATB launch funding to date.
Breakfast in the Classroom: Stefanik School, Chicopee from 2018.