Well, any breakfast food, really can battle poverty.
A study done by the journal Appetite and reported recently in the Wall Street Journal indicates that breakfast is, indeed, the most important meal of the day–for school children, at least. Using 1000 children in poverty as their subjects, researchers found that, early in the school day, kids who had no breakfast before school tested out slower and less accurate on cognitive and memory tests as compared with kids who did have breakfast that morning. Girls without breakfast found it even harder to focus than boys.
In other words, breakfast matters. It has been established that education is the most effective tool to dig oneself out of poverty. If undernourished children can’t concentrate, they can’t learn effectively. If they can’t learn, they can’t live up to their full potential. If they can’t fulfill that potential, they’re stuck in the continuing spiral of poverty, a condition that dehumanizes them and costs society in terms of both money and our self-image as a nation of opportunity.
That’s why I support schools’ offering free breakfasts and lunches. If my small amount of tax money can take these on-the-edge children and provide them with the potential to become productive, successful adults, fine with me.