Children who eat breakfast, Boys and Girls Club staff members report, are more focused, more energetic, and more likely to get to the club on time. The Kids Cafe program, which started in Nashville last summer, has more than doubled in size this year. About 2,500 youngsters ages 3 to 15 in 25 different places all over the city eat a free breakfast five days a week. Thanks to donations from Kroger, Caruso Foods, Ronald McDonald House Charities, Kellogg's and Purity Dairies, it costs only 18 cents in donated money to feed each child a breakfast.
Organizers say they hope the program continues to expand.
There are so many children in this community that meet this profile. When the lunchroom closes in the summer, he said, some of those children go hungry. Several of the children at the Andrew Jackson club said they had eaten breakfast at home, but about half of them lined up eagerly to accept a box of cornflakes and a carton of milk Friday. Many of those said they wouldn't have eaten without the free breakfast at the club. Associated Press content is Copyrighted by The Associated Press.