WOONSOCKET -- The School Committee has agreed to pilot a year-long universal free breakfast program, serving cost-free morning meals to every student in every school.

Starting Oct. 1 and running through the close of school in June, students will be invited, and encouraged, to eat breakfast, regardless of their family's income level.

It's a step that anti-poverty advocates have long called critical to the war on hunger in low-income communities such as this one.

After years of arguing about the benefits of a free breakfast, most school officials now embrace the program, which they say reduces the stigma of a handout and better prepares young bellies for the rigors of the day ahead. At Wednesday's meeting, the School Committee's four members attending voted unanimously in favor of the year-long pilot.

During the spring semester last year, Woonsocket tried a free breakfast program in two economically diverse city schools, Woonsocket Middle School and Bernon Heights Elementary School (a month-long pilot a year earlier was deemed too brief to produce any real data).

The results of the latest test, according to School Supt. Maureen B. Macera, were striking. At Bernon Heights, absences and tardiness decreased significantly, compared to statistics from a year earlier. At the middle school, the progress was slower, though still present.

"But the qualitative research from parents and students and teachers is overwhelmingly positive. [Students who attended the program] were more attentive, more pleasant and more on task," Macera reported.

The other thing that was clear is that children were taking advantage of the program, sometimes in overwhelming numbers. Before the universal free breakfast program was introduced at Woonsocket Middle School, as few as 100 of the school's 1,550 students were eating breakfast there each day. Last semester, the number of eaters averaged about 366.

School Committee member Anita Maguire-Forcier said she's not surprised about those jumps. Her own daughter, a student at Bernon Heights who would normally pay for meals, has taken advantage of the free breakfast program there.

"I always had to fight with her in the morning to get her to eat while she complained that it was too early. Now, by the time we get [to school] and she gets some fresh air, she's ready to eat," Maguire-Forcier said.

Benefits aside, critics say universal free breakfast is simply too taxing on district budgets, particularly when it means giving free meals to students who could otherwise afford them.

For years Woonsocket School Supt. Anthony D'Acchioli complained about the downsides of the program, but Macera, who took over as superintendent last year, agreed to pilot it as a way of generating some hard data and testing those costs.

Last semester's pilots did create a $9,000 deficit, the superintendent acknowledges, but Macera said those costs were offset by a recent increase in the price of school lunches for paying students.

This time around, the district will again count on school-lunch revenue to make up the difference in breakfast costs and Macera says she and Business Manager Miriam Goodman feel comfortable that the program will run in the black.

"Approximately 73 percent of our student body is on free or reduced lunch and we just feel this is the right thing to do," Macera said.

Other districts in Rhode Island that offer universal free breakfast include Cranston, Central Falls, Providence and Pawtucket.

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