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A new report released by the Harvard School of Public Health assesses the educational and economic benefits of the School Breakfast Program. This work is especially timely as we face a perfect storm of rising hunger and declining budgets.

Hunger has clear costs to education attainment. Hungry students miss school more often. Even when they are in school, their cognitive abilities slacken. Not surprisingly, students who receive breakfast do better academically, enjoy better health and have fewer discipline problems than their peers who go without.

The Harvard report also lays out the economic costs of student hunger: "When schools do not provide breakfast to children, the loss of return on educational investment becomes a hidden tax paid by the local district and community." By eradicating student hunger, the authors estimate, the nation could increase its return on educational investment by billions every year.

Stimulus, indeed.

(Hat tip to Boardbuzz, the National School Boards Association's blog.)

Image source: doe.virginia.gov