Massachusetts Breakfast Report Card

2024 Massachusetts Breakfast Report Card, Ending Hunger in Our Classrooms: Expanding After the Bell Breakfast to Fuel Student Learning, ranks the state’s high-poverty schools on their breakfast participation rate for October in SY 2023/24. To view the rankings, please click here.

This year’s report revealed that only 48% of students enrolled in the Commonwealth’s high-poverty K-12 schools receive the free breakfast to which they are entitled, down from the high-water mark of 58% during the 2019/20 school year. High-poverty schools are defined as those with 60%+ free/reduced-price student populations. The drop in participation is largely explained by the decrease in the number of schools serving breakfast After the Bell and in the classroom. Most schools serve breakfast in the cafeteria before classes begin, making it difficult for some students to access.
To see how your school is doing, click here.

Participation rates would jump if schools switched to the After the Bell breakfast model, which could increase participation rates to 80% or more. If all 813 of the state’s high-poverty schools reached 80% of their students with free breakfast, 150,000 more students would eat school breakfast each day, and collectively, these schools would receive an additional $67 million in federal USDA reimbursements, which is currently being forfeited.