skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Monday, March 18, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Report says a second Trump term would add 4 billion tons of climate pollution; Trump predicts a bloodbath for the country if he is defeated in November's election; Nevada leaders discuss future of IVF, abortion in the Silver State; and anglers seek trawler buffer zone as Atlantic herring stock declines.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The SCOTUS weighs government influence on social media, and who groups like the NRA can do business with. Biden signs an executive order to advance women's health research and the White House tells Israel it's responsible for the Gaza humanitarian crisis.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Midwest regenerative farmers are rethinking chicken production, Medicare Advantage is squeezing the finances of rural hospitals and California's extreme swing from floods to drought has some thinking it's time to turn rural farm parcels into floodplains.

Arkansas Boosts Participation in School Breakfast Program

play audio
Play

Tuesday, February 21, 2017   

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – The annual School Breakfast Scorecard ranks Arkansas seventh in the nation for the number of low-income students who participate in both breakfast and lunch programs.

The report from the Food Research and Action Center charts the progress of its national push to increase the number of public schools that offer breakfast to kids on a daily basis.

Patty Barker, director of the Arkansas No Kid Hungry campaign, says this allows students who would otherwise start the school day hungry to focus on their studies and achieve more.

"School leaders and teachers, and school nurses and even counselors say adding that breakfast gives those students that boost needed to get them engaged and ready to learn," she said.

The scorecard ranks all 50 states and the District of Columbia on participation of low-income children in the School Breakfast Program. Barker says more than 155,000 kids regularly ate breakfast in Arkansas schools during the last school year, an increase of almost three percent over the previous year.

She says the report shows about 63 low-income children in Arkansas eat school breakfast for every 100 that receive a free or reduced-price lunch. Barker says many students come from homes where the family can't always provide regular meals.

"The food insecurity rankings fall in line with poverty rankings across the state," she explained. "We've got about one in four kids considered living in households in poverty in the state of Arkansas."

The Food Research and Action Center says since 2006, the average number of low-income children eating breakfast at school has increased significantly, but there's room for improvement. The school meal programs are funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and administered by state and local officials.


get more stories like this via email

more stories
Corporate partners sign contracts to offer a graduate assistantship and pay the students. In turn, MSU pays the graduate assistant's tuition, fees and salary, so the assistantship is directly tied to the academic experience. (pressmaster/Adobe Stock)

play sound

By Victoria Lim for WorkingNation.Broadcast version by Farah Siddiqi for Missouri News Service reporting for the WorkingNation-Public News Service Col…


Social Issues

play sound

A new report brands Connecticut's tax system as "regressive" for low- to middle-income residents and uses a report from the state to make its point…

Environment

play sound

Backers of a new federal rule said it will increase fairness for livestock and poultry producers, in North Carolina and across the country. The U.S…


A study by the advocacy group Inseparable showed one in five adults said at any given time, they consider their mental health to be either 'fair' or 'poor.' (Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

Mental health care advocates are encouraging federal agencies to adopt a proposed update to regulations which would expand access to psychological car…

Social Issues

play sound

With hotter summers bringing hotter working conditions, the Maryland Department of Labor is implementing a heat stress standard to protect workers …

Social Issues

play sound

By Jimmy Cloutier for OpenSecrets.Broadcast version by Roz Brown for Texas News Service reporting for the OpenSecrets-Public News Service Collaboratio…

Environment

play sound

Recreational fishermen in New England say commercial trawlers are threatening the survival of smaller businesses relying on a healthy stock of Atlanti…

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021