EFFECT OF A BREAKFAST PROGRAM ON THE NUTRIENT INTAKE OF BLACK-CHILDREN

The effect of a free breakfast program was evaluated by comparing the 24-hr. dietary intake of 252 black children who attended one school offering a breakfast program with the intake of 303 black children at a nearby school where breakfast was not served. Although the mean intake of the children in both schools was close to, or greater than, the RDA for all the nutrients under study, approximately 48 percent of the children report diets that provided less than two-thirds of the RDA for one or more nutrients. The children attending the breakfast school consumed significantly more of their total daily nutrient intake before 10 a.m. than the children in the control school. These differences were more pronounced among the children with poor diets. Also, a significantly greater number of children from the control school reported that they had nothing to eat prior to 10 a.m. These observations indicate that the breakfast program had a beneficial effect. © 1979, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. All rights reserved.