By Anna Guido
Enquirer contributor

Emma Barr, a food service worker at Heritage Hill Elementary, sets out breakfast food for the children at the Sharonville school. (Ernest Coleman photo) | ZOOM |

SHARONVILLE - Alexus Parson is only 7, but she already knows the value of a good breakfast.

The first-grader at Heritage Hill Elementary in the Princeton School District started the day Thursday in the school cafeteria, drinking grape juice and eating Cheerios with milk. One seat away, her brother, kindergartner David Pitts, 6, was eating his cereal dry.

"I tell him that he needs to eat milk on his cereal or he's not going to be strong and healthy," Alexus said.

Alexus and David are among some 230 students in the pre-K-6 school who start each school day this way. But Ohio officials say many more students need to take advantage of free or reduced-cost breakfast programs, and more schools in Ohio need to offer them.

Participation in such programs in Ohio has increased the past decade, but is still below the national average. In 2002, for every 100 students who ate free or reduced-cost lunches, 36 ate breakfast at school. The average is 42.

Studiesshow that children who eat a healthy breakfast:

• Attend school more regularly.

• Are more attentive.

• Misbehave less.

• Score higher on tests.

Funding for children's nutrition programs, in part from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is available for free and reduced-cost school breakfast programs, yet Ohio has trailed most states in taking advantage of these dollars.

The Children's Hunger Alliance, a non-profit group, and Ohio Department of Education are leading a one-year initiative - helped by a $1 million appropriation from the Ohio Legislature - to increase the number of children using school breakfast programs.

Of the 4,146 schools in Ohio that offered school lunch last year, only 2,363 (55.3 percent) offered school breakfast. Nationwide, 76 percent of the schools that offer school lunch offer breakfast.

The Ohio initiative has targeted schools in areas with the highest population density and poverty rates, including Cincinnati, Dayton, Columbus, Cleveland and Akron.

Locally, Princeton, North College Hill and Cincinnati Public schools are part of the effort.

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