Features

All Berkeley Children Eligible for Summer Breakfast

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Friday June 15, 2007

This summer kids in Berkeley will be treated to free breakfast every day, courtesy of the Berkeley Unified School District. 

Four Berkeley public schools will serve Universal Breakfast from June to August to all children in the community.  

Martin Luther King and Willard middle schools—located on Rose and Stuart streets respectively—and Thousand Oaks and Cragmont elementary schools—on Colusa and Regal Road respectively—will open their doors every morning to any child who is hungry. 

“It’s open to any child who lives in the vicinity of these schools,” said Ann Cooper, who heads the school district’s lunch program. 

“We are already doing Universal Breakfast for our students, but this new program is going to be just great. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day and I am happy to see that something is being done to ensure that all kids get access to that.” 

Universal Breakfast was launched as a pilot program by Karen Candito, former food services director for the district, at LeConte Elementary School in 2005. It has caught on at other Berkeley public schools since then, the most recent of them being Berkeley Technology Academy (B-Tech). 

Funded through a federal grant and state reimbursements, the program aims to provide students with trans fat-free corn-syrup-free food in the morning. 

Cooper, who writes food menus for 10,000 students in Berkeley’s 16 public schools herself, has already made up a list of edibles she wants to serve at summer breakfast. Cereals, granola bars, fresh fruits and healthy muffins get top priority as do low-fat milk, yogurt and fruit juices.  

“I am not sure of the exact number, but I expect to feed a total of 300 children every day,” she said. “Cereal will be provided two days a week. On other days it may be a healthy muffin or a bagel.” 

School board vice president John Selawsky, who supported the program, called it a “great idea.” 

“There are many kids in the neighborhood who need access to a good breakfast in the morning,” he said. 

“We already have food available for kids attending summer school, so why not have it made available to all children? It’s going to start off as a pilot program. Hopefully, we will see it in all the schools in the future.” 

District spokesperson Mark Coplan said that the advent of the free breakfast program was vital information for families and neighborhoods in Berkeley. 

“It will be a seamless summer feeding program,” he said. “This means that all children in the neighborhood can eat breakfast at these sites for free, and they do not need to be enrolled in our program or our schools to participate. Like the Universal Breakfast that feeds Berkeley students during the school year, all children are served, and families do not have to qualify for the Free and Reduced program. The more participation, the more children that we serve, the better.”