Welcome  to  Public  Health  moment from  the  University  of  Minnesota. This  is  National  School  Breakfast  Week, a  campaign  to  educate students  and  families  about  the  importance of  breakfast  and  the  benefits  of the  National  School  Breakfast  Program. The  federal  program  began  in  the  1960s  as a  pilot  project  to  provide free  breakfast  to  children  from  low  income  families. University  of  Minnesota  nutritionist Jamie  Stang  tells  us  more. So  the  free  and  reduced  price  breakfast, or  the  National  School  Breakfast  program, really  originally  was  aimed  at  meeting  the  needs  of kids  who  were  lower  income or  may  not  have  adequate  food  at  home. But  now  most  schools  offer them  across  the  board  to  all  children. It's  been  a  very  successful  program, partially  because  even  in  rural  areas, which  I  think  were  some  of the  later  schools  to  become  involved, They  found  that  these  children  who  have  to ride  the  school  bus  for  half  an  hour, if  they  can  go  to  school  and  have  a  healthy  breakfast, they  pay  attention  better  in  class, they  do  better  on  test  scores, and  overall  just  have  a  better  school  environment. Stang  says  that  studies  have shown  that  children  who  regularly  eat a  healthy  breakfast  are  less likely  to  become  overweight  or  obese. Several  recent  studies  have  shown  that children  who  have  breakfast  consistently, and  that's  four  to  five  times  a  week  or  more, actually  have  a  lower  BMI. Bmi  is  body  mass  index, which  is  what  we  use  to  assess  whether  a  child's overweight  or  not  with  another  public  health  moment. I'm  John  Finnegan.