More Schools in State Move to Offer Students Breakfast : Hunger: In three weeks, 33 campuses joined program for needy pupils. But possible budget cuts threaten effort. : SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY: Daunting Problems Confront Program

By LISA RESPERS

Dec. 12, 1994 12 AM PT

In San Bernardino County, supporters of school breakfast say they struggle against resistance from some administrators and teachers, limitations on food preparation facilities, and the fact that many buses already roll as early as 5:30 a.m. to get students to school.

Wade Robinson, director of food services at Morongo Valley Unified School District--where none of the 11 schools that qualify offer breakfast--says that his schools are spread out in a desert expanse of 1,350 square miles and that some students have to catch buses at 5:30 a.m.

“We all recognize the importance of getting the children fed, but it becomes a severe problem of busing,” he said.

Colton Joint Unified is considering trying to deal with the problem by feeding students on buses, says food services director Esther Klepper.

At Monte Vista Elementary School in the Ontario-Montclair School District, 91% of students qualify for free or reduced-price meals. The school doesn’t offer breakfast because it lacks a preparatory kitchen. (Other California schools with similar problems offer simple fare that can be delivered: a muffin, juice and milk.) Lunch is trucked in to Monte Vista from a nearby middle school, and administrators say a proposed expansion of the district’s central kitchen will allow for a breakfast program.

“I’ve noticed a lot more apparent hunger,” said Monte Vista’s Edna Hart, a teacher for the past 32 years, who says social and economic changes are driving the increased need. “They are much more lethargic than in years past.”

Since 1975, Jody Novak has been a teacher in the Hesperia Unified district, which has nine “high-need” schools that do not offer breakfast. (Two have applied to join the program.) For a long time, Novak has handed out snacks to hungry students. “I used to give them hard-boiled eggs because I was raising chickens,” she said. “We have not really dealt with (hunger) as a district or as a community.”