The LAUSD School Board will vote on the future of Breakfast in the Classroom on May 14. Thousands of children could be left without breakfast and nearly 1000 cafeteria workers could be laid off if this program is eliminated.
To that, we say enough is ENOUGH! We will fight to SAVE Breakfast in the Classroom, PROTECT good jobs, and STOP hunger in our schools!
Parents join us at rallies!
Hundreds of parents joined with SEIU Local 99 members on April 30 at Hooper Avenue Elementary School, May 1 at Hoover Elementary School, and May 2 at Shenandoah St. School to rally in support of Breakfast in the Classroom at LAUSD. These rallies were held to urge the School Board to vote to maintain the program in our schools. Check out all the photos of our rallies at Hooper and Hoover. Just about every major media outlet covered our event! CBS 2, Univision, ABC 7, KTLA 5, The Los Angeles Times, KNX 1070 Radio, and many more!
Breakfast in the Classroom tackles the difficult issues of hunger and poverty in our schools. It provides breakfast to students directly in the classroom and ensures that children who would otherwise start the day hungry, have a healthy meal before their first lesson. The program currently serves breakfast to nearly 200,000 students a day at 279 schools.
The program was introduced this school year with the goal of expanding it to all District schools in five years. By the District’s own accounts, the program is necessary because over 553,000 students at LAUSD qualify for a free or reduced price breakfast, but only 29% of students participate in the traditional cafeteria breakfast program. This means over 400,000 may start the day without breakfast.
And in these difficult economic times, the program has also saved thousands of cafeteria worker jobs, many of them held by parents of children attending LAUSD schools. If the program is eliminated, nearly 1000 cafeteria jobs would be cut immediately.
Prior to our rallies, the Los Angeles Times, LA Daily News, and KPCC took a look at the issues surrounding Breakfast in the Classroom.
Read Local 99’s official press release here.
See photos from our April 30 action at Hooper Avenue Elementary
