Fuel Up for Your Day

Perhaps the saying, “breakfast is the most important meal of the day,” may be worth abiding by when it comes to doing well in school. According to healthychildren.org, 8 to 12 percent of all school-aged kids skip breakfast. By the time kids enter adolescence, as many as 20 to 30 perfect of them have completely given up the morning meal. The Director of Nutrition Services for the Colton Joint Unified School District, Diana Herington, recently shared information about the National School Lunch Program and application process in a video posted online for students and their families to learn more about. Standing in the Grand Terrace High School cafeteria, Herington discusses the importance of completing the meal application so that students may have a meal 30 minutes before the start of their school day. “Applications must be completed annually,” she shares. “There is a 30-day grace period in which the application from the previous school period is carried over into the new school year. This allows time for parents to submit the application.” Although the grace period has ended for this school year, Herington explains how some students can be “directly certified.” She explains, “This means our department has received some information from San Bernardino County or the State of California informing us of students who partake in the food stamp program. These students automatically qualify for three meals when we receive this information. We do send out letters to households informing them that they do not have to complete an application once we have this information.” Families who receive these benefits, but haven’t received a letter, may submit an application for their student to be qualified. If you are not sure whether you are qualified or not, Herington suggests to “please submit an application and we will notify you by letter of the results of that application.” If you would like to submit an application, you can do so from any school site, school cafeteria, or from the school office at 325 Hermosa Avenue in Colton. You may also find the application on the district’s webpage. “As studies have shown, learning improves when a student has eaten breakfast,” says Herington.