A statewide report lauds two Lancaster County school districts for adding breakfasts to their school menus and criticizes three districts for serving too few morning meals to economically disadvantaged students.

The Pennsylvania School Breakfast Report Card, released earlier this month by Pennsylvania Hunger Action Center, a 25-year-old organization that strives to shape public food policy, gives the state a poor grade overall on providing breakfasts to students from low-income families.

Gov. Ed Rendell in February urged the Legislature to mandate breakfast programs at all schools with at least 20 percent low-income students, but the plan was never approved and relatively few districts voluntarily complied with his recommendation.

Of the 239 school systems with at least 20 percent needy students and no breakfast programs, only 87, or 36 percent, added breakfasts this year, the report said.

Pennsylvania ranks 41st in the nation in the percentage of low-income students eating breakfast at school, according to the federal Food Research Action Center.

Fourteen of Lancaster County's 16 school districts provide breakfasts to their students, but overall participation is relatively low.

Only 6.8 percent of the county's 70,000 public school students eat a morning meal at school. The participation rate is more than twice as high — 17 percent — for low-income students. In comparison, 60 percent of all students eat school lunches.

Eating a nutritious breakfast helps improve student achievement and behavior, nutrition experts say, and children from low-income families are less likely than other students to be fed breakfast at home.

The Pennsylvania report evaluated school performance in 2006-07, praising districts that added morning meals or had high participation rates and criticizing those with no breakfast program or low participation.

Manheim Township and Conestoga Valley were lauded in the category of Moving Up! school districts for adding breakfast programs last year.

But CV also was cited for low participation in its program, which served only 4.3 percent of its 904 economically disadvantaged students.

Also flagged for low participation were Ephrata and Donegal school districts. Only 5.4 percent of Ephrata's low-income students and 9.4 percent of Donegal's needy pupils ate school breakfasts last year, the report said.

Officials at all three districts said their schools have taken measures to serve more needy students this year.

In the first three months of 2007-08, Ephrata increased the participation of low-income students to 11 percent, food services director Teri Knopf said in a prepared statement.

Over the summer, the district sent a letter explaining its breakfast and lunch programs to all families, and Ephrata is considering other ways to increase participation, Knopf said in the statement.

Donegal's participation rate is relatively low because it serves breakfast only at its elementary schools.

Participation among low-income students has inched up to 10 percent this year, Sue Ursprung, Donegal's director of curriculum and instruction, said.

The district publicizes its breakfast program on the back of every elementary school menu, she said, and students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunches automatically receive information about breakfasts.

CV's new breakfast program was offered only at its high school and middle school last year. This year, it has been expanded to the district's four elementary schools.

"We expect a doubling of free- and reduced-price (breakfast) participation in '07-08," Adele Huntzinger, CV assistant director of business services, said.

Of the secondary students who participated last year, about 40 percent were from low-income families, she said.

"What thrilled me the most last year was that we really reached out to those students who needed it most," Huntzinger said.

Students qualify for free or reduced-price meals based on their annual family incomes. The cutoff for a family of four this year is $38,203.

While the government does not require Pennsylvania schools to serve breakfasts, it offers financial incentives to those that do.

Schools receive partial reimbursements from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for each meal they serve, and the state kicks in a few cents per meal for districts that add breakfast programs or exceed participation targets.

Manheim Township School District, for instance, receives $1.35 for each free breakfast it serves, $1.15 for each reduced-price meal and 34 cents for each full-price breakfast, food service director Gavin Scayler said.

The full student price for breakfasts is $1; the reduced price is 30 cents, but the district has been absorbing that cost and providing the meals for free, Scayler said.

The district piloted a breakfast program at Brecht Elementary School last year and briefly offered breakfasts at Reidenbaugh Elementary.

Reidenbaugh and Manheim Township Middle School will be added to this year's program in January, and Scayler said the district intends to offer breakfasts at all its schools in the future.

E-mail: bwallace@lnpnews.com