• What is PP?
• Policy Advice

Public Policy Recommendations

Increase School Breakfast Participation
School breakfasts offer significant benefits to students and teachers alike. Famished students are distracted students, ones more prone to misbehavior; an inability to concentrate and an unwillingness to cooperate in the classroom, all of which leads to poor grades and lower standardized test scores. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and yet a mere fraction of eligible Ohio children are beginning each day of their most formative years with a balanced school breakfast. 345,000 students benefited from school breakfasts in the 2007-2008 school year. Should that number increase, Ohio’s children will not be the only beneficiaries: its schools will be, too. As such, local and state leaders must follow the legislative lead of other states and take a strong stance to make sure every single student has access to nutritious morning meals at school.

Increase School Lunch Participation
School lunches are not the cure-all for struggling schools, but no school- no matter how determined- can succeed when its students don’t eat between 8 in the morning and 3 in the afternoon. The remedy- the National School Lunch Program- is the best-known food program, but is still not taken advantage of by many of Ohio’s schools. The success of school lunch programs can be measured in improved classroom performance, improved attendance rates and improved life outcomes. Local and state officials should encourage more schools to participate in the National School Lunch Program so that their students receive more healthful meals during the school day and their budgets benefit from USDA reimbursement dollars.

Increase Participation in Summer Food Service Program
Although Ohio has increased the number of community organizations and feeding sites participating in the Summer Food Service Program in recent years, the numbers are still startling: 85% of the children who depend on school-based meals for nutrition do not have access to similar programs throughout summer vacation. Cognitive and recall skills suffer under the barrage of hunger pangs that go unsilenced by a lack of proper nutrition, stunting the intellectual growth in the classroom come August. By reaching more children and continuing to provide summer meals at recreation centers, faith-based organizations and schools, Ohio can be certain that its schoolchildren are being well-fed 12 months out of the year. Ohio’s policymakers should take action to ensure access to nutritious summer meals for students who benefit from school lunch and/or breakfast programs during the school year.

Increase Participation in the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP)
Providing breakfasts, lunches, snacks and dinners to pre-Kindergarten children in various care settings is one goal of CACFP and, coupled with the importance of early childhood education, renders this program perhaps the most crucial in serving the needs of hungry kids, physically and mentally. For decades, research has underscored the long-term benefits of nutrition and education prior to the start of formal schooling- and the long-term effects of inferior nutrition and education in those developmental years. The domino effect is seen everyday in Ohio’s successful and struggling school districts: Those with adequate early childhood education programs thrive; those without do not. Successful early childhood education and proper nutrition go hand in hand. Ohio policymakers should work to make sure Ohio’s early childhood education system makes proper nutrition a priority.

Develop Strategies to Decrease and Prevent the Growing Prevalence of Childhood Obesity
Across America, the waistlines of America’s youth have expanded at alarming rates in the past 20 years, and Ohio’s children are no exception. The costs of this trend are equally alarming: for our health care system, for our economy and for our education system. State legislatures in multiple states have enacted laws to combat childhood obesity. The Ohio General Assembly has debated different forms of obesity prevention legislation for years and has yet to pass any of these measures; state level wellness initiatives have been introduced by previous administrations to discuss and identify steps toward prevention, but no long term policies have been established. If we continue down this road, the cost of not taking action is one that will be borne by this state’s taxpayers for decades to come. Ohio’s elected officials and state agencies should work together to create and implement a comprehensive, strategic plan to address the growing prevalence of childhood obesity in Ohio.

Better Inform Working Families of Available Programs That Help Meet Nutritional Needs and Improve Accessibility to These Benefits
From WIC to cash assistance, state and local governments offer a number of public support programs to help working families who need a boost in difficult times. With the economy’s struggles and inflation taking its toll in grocery stores and at gas pumps, the diversity and breadth of public assistance is needed more now than in a generation. And yet, much of the populous remains unaware of how to access such programs, or incapable of sifting through the often complicated passageways to understanding such access. The State should make every effort to partner with local governments, community agencies, nonprofit agencies, the business sector, and other area interests to inform families of assistance for which they are eligible.