National Dairy Council (NDC) is the nutrition research and education arm of the national dairy checkoff program. NDC’s Child Nutrition and Fitness Initiative (CNFI) encourages fitness and good nutrition, including dairy consumption, among our nation’s school children.

“America’s dairy producers applaud the commitment from General Mills to address a very important issue such as school breakfast,” said Paul Rovey, Arizona dairy producer and chair of Dairy Management Inc.™, which manages the national dairy checkoff. “These efforts help create lifelong dairy consumers and healthier future generations.”

About 10 million children eat breakfast on any given day in U.S. schools – nearly a third of the 30 million students who eat school lunch regularly. School foodservice administrators understand that a breakfast program provides significant benefits regarding healthy diets and increased learning capabilities. A review of data from the Bogalusa Heart Study suggests that kids who skip breakfast rarely make up for missed nutrients later in the day. Furthermore, a study in Philadelphia and Baltimore public schools found that children who regularly participated in breakfast programs scored higher on math tests, were less likely to be tardy or absent, and had fewer reported discipline problems when compared with children who skipped breakfast.