This fall, an additional 17 schools have qualified for the provision. In Kansas City, Missouri, every school participates in the School Breakfast Program. Thirty years ago, Kansas City became the first Missouri jurisdiction to offer breakfast in a private program. The School Food Services Department has recently targeted this program for expansion and is employing a variety of methods to achieve its goal. This means that no students are charged for meals.
All meals still receive federal reimbursement.
Secondary schools have been targeted for this incentive program because it is where student participation tends to drop dramatically and the highest percentage of students eligible for free or reduced-price meals fail to return their applications to the school. Stigma is identified as one of the main factors at the root of this phenomenon. School breakfast is often mistakenly viewed as a program only for poor children and this has been a deterrent to participation, because neither poor nor non-poor children want to be identified as poor. Current public debates regarding policies to address welfare and other poverty programs has some mean-spirited elements, with the poor often being blamed for their condition. This only serves to heighten negative views toward programs for people in poverty, unless countered.