Share your Breakfast for a Child in Need

We've heard for years that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, yet too many children in the United States are going without. The Kellogg Company of Battle Creek is setting out to help change that, and they want your help to do it.

According to a 2009 study by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1 in 4 American children live in homes where food is not always available.  That sometimes makes breakfast hard to come by, which can have a negative impact on a child's ability to learn.  Dietician Joan Cranmer, R.D. says, "Eating a healthy breakfast, especially one that is high in fibre, typically leads to healthier eating habits throughout the day.  Plus, it gives students the fuel they need to focus on their studies."

To help stem the tide of this nutritional breakdown, Kellogg's® has partnered with Action for Healthy Kids® to launch the Kellogg's Share Your Breakfast program to encourage Americans to help children who might otherwise go without.

For every breakfast photo or description uploaded to www.shareyourbreakfast.com or sent via text with the word "share" to 21534, from now until July 31, 2011, Kellogg's will help increase participation in school breakfast programs.  Their goal is to help share one million breakfasts during the 2011-2012 school year.

"Kellogg's believes in the power of breakfast and its ability to help bring out the best in each day," said Doug VanDeVelde, senior vice president of marketing and innovation at Kellogg Company. "If more schools can offer breakfast to their students, students will be better equipped to reach their potential, both inside and outside the classroom."

Their partner in this endeavor, Action for Healthy Kids, provides funding directly to school districts and individual schools to expand or initiate innovative breakfast programs to increase the number of children who start the school day with a nutritious breakfast.  

"At a time when communities across the country are struggling with budget cuts, organizations such as ours are seeing an increased need for school breakfast programs," said Rob Bisceglie, executive director of Action for Healthy Kids. "The Kellogg's Share Your Breakfast program offers people across the country an easy and free way to help get involved to help fund our mission to ensure that school kids have access to the proper nutrition."

In addition to texting or visiting www.shareyourbreakfast.com to upload a photo or description, participants may also support the program on Facebook or by Tweeting using the hashtag #shareyourbreakfast.  You may take part once, or make it part of your daily breakfast habit to increase awareness of the importance of that meal and to help Kellogg's to meet their goal of one million breakfasts shared with America's at risk kids.

Check the program out.  IT'S GR-R-REAT!