AUSTIN - Anyone keeping score knows breakfast is for champions, and thanks to schools across the state more young Texans can be winners. As the nation celebrates National School Breakfast Week, March 8-12, Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples encourages more children and parents to take advantage of school breakfasts.

 WASHINGTON, March 9, 2010 - Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced approximately $1.9 million in grants to five State agencies to increase enrollment in school meal programs through direct certification and verification processes. Direct certification allows States and local educational agencies to automatically certify children enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) or the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families Program (TANF) for free school meals without the need for household applications. Medicaid records also can be matched to simplify verification of eligibility for school meals programs.

The findings help explain disproportionately high obesity rates in minority children. Family income is often a factor, but so are cultural customs and beliefs, the study authors said.

Today, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan released a statement supporting the reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act to reduce hunger and improve the health and nutrition of our nation's children. "The priorities announced by Secretary Vilsack for the upcoming Child Nutrition bill would be a major step in the right direction for the health and well-being of our school children," Secretary Duncan said. "I strongly support Secretary Vilsack's vision for a robust bill that improves program access and helps us achieve the First Lady's goal of solving the epidemic of childhood obesity in a generation."

On Monday, Central High School Principal Bill Waters launched a change in the daily lunch schedule at the campus. Instead of two 35-minute lunch periods, the campus, which includes 10th, 11th and 12th grades, will take a one-hour lunch from 12:37 p.m. to 1:37 p.m. Mandatory tutorials will be offered only during the lunch period.

 Pancake on a stick, pigs in blanket, specialty pizza — all are breakfast foods aimed to appeal to children and part of a strategy behind a San Angelo school district pilot program. Since January, all students at Alta Loma Elementary School and Fort Concho Elementary School have been offered a free breakfast in their classrooms they can eat during roll-taking and announcements.

 FORT WORTH — Principal Marion Mouton has always stored snacks and dry cereal in his office at Sunrise-McMillian Elementary School. Many times when a student came to him for discipline problems, it was because the child was hungry. This year his school is one of four in the Fort Worth district participating in a free program that offers breakfast to each of his 450 students, most of whom are economically disadvantaged. The change at his school has been remarkable, Mouton said. "Discipline problems are down, and student focus is up," he said. This week, the Food Research and Action Center reported that about 8.8 million low-income students ate breakfast at school on an average day, more than in years past. But the number is still less than half of the 18.9 million students who qualify for free or reduced-price meals.

 WASHINGTON — Texans' obesity rates continued to climb last year, but the Lone Star State actually improved its national ranking because people in other states are getting fatter faster. In the annual “America's Health Rankings” report released Tuesday, Texas' rate of severely overweight residents continued its unabated 20-year upward trend, inching up to 28.9 percent from 28.6 percent last year. Obesity in Texas has more than doubled since 1990, when the Texas rate stood at 12.3 percent. The good news — at least in relative terms — is that other states are packing on the pounds at an even-faster clip. Texas dropped from being the 12th-fattest state in the union last year to 14th this year — with Missouri and Michigan getting fatter.

Sadly 1,100 Longview school students go hungry on weekends. But one program is reversing those alarming numbers and giving hungry students the nutrition they need away from school. Lunch has just wrapped up and these folks are preparing meals for students to eat this weekend.

 A program that offers breakfast to all elementary students in CCISD may undergo changes after employees voiced several concerns about classroom cleanliness and difficulty transporting the food. The district wants to improve the Breakfast in the Classroom program after getting information from teachers through an anonymous survey, Corpus Christi Independent School District Superintendent Scott Elliff said.

 Longview Independent School District is expanding its Backpack Meal program to include all elementary schools by December, and it needs community support with the process, district officials said Friday. The district received a $161,809 grant from the East Texas Council of Governments to expand the program to send about 1,100 children home with weekend backpacks filled with non-perishable food ...

 The Bryan Adams High School cafeteria looks a lot like it's looked for 40 years, plus some new paint and bright banners. And the lunch line food looks familiar, too – hot dogs, chips, onion rings, peach cobbler.