Press Releases

I rise today to congratulate Donna Lombardi, the Director of Nutrition for the Worcester Public Schools in my hometown of Worcester, Massachusetts, for receiving the Healthy Start Leadership Award. This award is being presented by the EOS Foundation, a Massachusetts-based foundation that is committed to expanding universal, free breakfast in the classroom across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

I want to thank Donna for her tireless work at the Worcester Public Schools. She is a leader in our efforts to provide quality, nutritious meals to all kids in our school systems. She recognizes the critical importance of not only providing nutritious meals to our kids but also ensuring that every single child in our school system starts off the day with a healthy, nutritious meal.

The breakfast at the bell plan – where every child would receive a nutritious meal in the classroom after school starts – is an important part of the school day and should be implemented in every school across this country. There are two important reasons why universal, free breakfasts or breakfast at the bell is the right policy for every school to implement.

First, we know that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Kids physically and mentally develop better when they eat healthy meals – that’s a simple fact. But we also know that kids learn better on a full stomach than they do on empty ones.

Second, universal breakfast served at the beginning of school ensures that every kid gets to eat and not just the ones who get to school early. It removes a stigma that adults may not recognize but that children feel. It’s that feeling that a child is different, that because they are poor they need to come in early to get food they don’t have at home.

Donna Lombardi is a leader in breakfast at the bell. I’m proud of the fact that she is leading Worcester Public Schools in this direction and I’m proud to call her my friend.

Unfortunately, not everyone is on the same page. Many school districts and employees are opposed to this idea. There are some who think that this is too onerous on schools – that it creates too much waste and that it isn’t a good use of time in the morning. I think those are shortsighted excuses and I’m dismayed that there are those who continue to cling to these notions that have been disproven time after time.

We know what works and what doesn’t. And we know that breakfast at the bell is one of those policies and programs that works, and I want to congratulate the EOS Foundation for its hard work and dedication on this issue.

Most importantly, I want to state that Donna Lombardi is an incredible individual with the passion and talent for providing nutritionally balanced meals to the children of Worcester.  Sadly, as in every community in our country, thousands of children go to bed hungry in Worcester.  Donna has made it her mission to feed them – to reach them first thing in the morning with a nutritious school breakfast, and throughout the day with school snacks, school lunch, afterschool meal programs, and summer meals too – school by school, classroom by classroom, child by child.  The magnitude of her impact on the lives of thousands of children inspires me – it inspires all of us. I’m delighted to congratulate Donna on this much deserved recognition.