It is National School Breakfast Week, when schools and districts across the nation celebrate the benefits of a healthy school breakfast.

But in Hawaiʻi, we don’t have as much to celebrate. Our state ranks a dismal 49th in school breakfast participation, with only about four out of 10 low-income students who eat school lunch also getting school breakfast.

In the face of some of the highest food costs in the nation, many Hawaiʻi families can’t afford to provide their children with a healthy breakfast every morning. Even higher-income families often can’t find time to sit down for a good breakfast before school. Meanwhile, studies show that students who skip breakfast have poorer cognitive functioning.

Hawaiʻi Appleseed has launched a School Breakfast Challenge to help Hawaiʻi schools increase their school breakfast participation numbers, especially among low-income students. We’re offering technical support and small grants to help with start-up costs.

All of our children deserve a good education that opens up opportunities for the rest of their lives, and school breakfast is an important tool that can help our students succeed. We can and must do better than 49th in the nation. Our keiki deserve it!