Speakers Demand West Covina Schools Join Breakfast Program

Deluged by phone calls and offers of help from people concerned that West Covina children may be going to school hungry, the city’s school board Tuesday got an earful from parents at a public meeting.

Gathering publicly for the first time since the problem of undernourishment at Edgewood Middle School was detailed in a Times story on hunger Sunday, the West Covina Unified School District heard from more than half a dozen parents and activists demanding that subsidized breakfasts be approved at local schools.

Edgewood was cited in the article as an example of the hundreds of schools statewide that have not taken advantage of a longstanding, federally funded breakfast program for low-income students. Although the article stressed that the school is one of many, the suburban community surrounding it has been rocked by the publicity and the assertions of faculty and administrators that trustees opposed the program simply on conservative philosophical grounds.

“It has been proven over and over again that hungry kids don’t do well at school,” said Bill Felix, 71, a retired West Covina principal. Felix said he agrees with board members who contend that parents should take responsibility for making sure children are properly fed, but noted that often, even well-intentioned parents fall short.

“They don’t have a job,” he said. “They’re too proud to ask for welfare. They mismanage their meager resources. There’s no money left over for food.”

Felix urged the board to soften its stance on the breakfast program. “We feel conservatives can do good things for kids, too,” he said.

The remarks by Felix and others came despite an announcement this week that the board will discuss and possibly vote on the breakfast program at its next meeting, Dec. 13. School Supt. John Costello and some board members said the trustees have been exploring the breakfast issue for at least several weeks, and Costello predicted that the board will approve it next month.

The school officials contended that the board never explicitly opposed the program, which Costello said was considered three years ago but failed to get off the ground because of problems in assessing need. Since then, trustees said, no one has formally called for subsidized morning meals.

However, critics of the board contended that the trustees for years have made it clear that the program would be defeated if it were proposed. Similar programs, they said, have been voted down by board members who argued that certain responsibilities should be left to parents and not schools.

Some contended that the issue came up only because Edgewood was publicly named in the newspaper coverage.

Although Costello said he expected that the district would approve the subsidized breakfasts, board President Mike Spence said this week he continues to oppose government-sponsored breakfast programs but is willing to consider private charitable efforts. Other board members indicated that they are more open to the government-funded program.

Meanwhile on Tuesday, a community group announced that it has launched its own breakfast program in the interim, and plans to begin serving morning meals today at Edgewood.

Times staff writer Shawn Hubler contributed to this report.