In October, Venice High was introduced to the Breakfast in the Classroom (BIC) program. The program offers students breakfast during their second period class.

According to an article in the Huffingtonpost.com, 73% of teachers in the U.S. have students who regularly come to school hungry. The BIC program was implemented to provide low-income students who don’t have the opportunity to eat breakfast at home a chance to eat at school.

Breakfast in the classroom offers foods such as: yogurt, Rice Chex, Cheerios, mini-pancakes, and other breakfast foods.

Many students are excited about food BIC provides. “The coffee cake and granola are pretty good,” said sophomore Jay Hernandez about the two most well-liked breakfasts.

The food BIC provides isn’t special, but it does fill hungry stomachs.

Even with all the positive reviews I’ve heard, a few still don’t enjoy the breakfasts provided.

“We deserve a little better food,” says freshman Chynna Garrett. Which is true. BIC should at least provide condiments in their meals such as syrup, butter or jam to accompany the pancakes or French toast.

Other students think BIC helps them focus better in the classroom. Senior Chelsea Ramseur thinks “it gets kids brains going.” Even though I usually eat breakfast at home, I feel more focused on schoolwork if I eat BIC. And it was reported in the article “Study finds school breakfast is a key to future success” on Eatocracy.cnn that students who eat breakfast are 20% more likely to graduate from high school.

Having breakfast at school is good because it can help students be more motivated in attending school and it can potentially lead to academic improvement.

A complaint that students have about the breakfast program is the mess it creates in the classroom.

Sophomore Sandra Rosales states that she doesn’t enjoy BIC “because the teachers make us clean it up after.”

BIC is successfully executing its plan of satisfying hungry students and boosting students’ productivity throughout the day. Sure, cleaning up messes is a little annoying but all Venice students are capable of cleaning up after themselves.

No program will ever be flawless, but having the opportunity to take a break in class to eat breakfast is nice and it helps when trying to focus better in class.