I am a parent or teacher at Coeur d’Alene Elementary School and we ask the LAUSD School Board and Superintendent John Deasy to restore our former breakfast program (which included breakfast before school, as well as a second chance breakfast), to replace the current Breakfast in the Classroom Program.

When the School Board approved Breakfast in the Classroom, Dr. Deasy agreed to explore other options for non-title one schools, like Coeur d’Alene, who were never the focus when LAUSD was developing this program.We are serving about the same number of breakfasts as we did before BIC, but with more work for cafeteria workers, teachers,parent volunteers, much more waste, and less instructional time.We do not believe that any child should go hungry. We do believe there is a better way to offer breakfast to those children who need it. We also believe in the rights of parents to be able to choose what their children are eating, when they are eating it, and to provide a clean and healthy place to learn.

Things we will gain by restoring our former program:

*Removal of the ‘stigma in the classroom’ - most of our classrooms only have a few students taking the breakfast; this magnifies the stigma and is discouraging hungry children, who used to eat before school in the cafeteria (with a mixed group of students), from participating

*Children who come to school late, will once again have the opportunity to eat at the second chance breakfast

*We will keep our classrooms allergy-free zones, to help protect children with food allergies

*Removal of the temptation of processed and sugar-laden foods from the classroom

*We will regain at least 45 hours of lost instructional time

*Reinstate morning PE for some of our classes

*Environmental friendliness – there will be less food and plastic packaging waste

*Sanitary classrooms without pests and dirty surfaces

*Teachers won’t have to be breakfast monitors and clean up after students

*Parents will regain the freedom to make our own decisions about what to feed our children

Let’s come together to restore our former program.