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 DIEGO COUNTY: Some Say Choice is This: Food or Books

San Diego Unified School District offers breakfast daily at 138 schools to an average of 17,041 students. The reason is simple.

“What we know from our research is that you can’t teach a hungry child,” said Jane Boehrer, food services director.

Of those students, 15,515 come from low-income families and thus qualify for a free breakfast. Since not all schools have kitchen facilities, many have breakfast delivered by the district’s fleet of 31 food trucks.

San Diego has been involved in the breakfast program since its inception in the early 1970s. Only one school in the district, Whitman Elementary, exceeds 40% low-income students--the level set by the government for its highest subsidy--and does not offer breakfast. Whitman only recently pushed above the 40% mark.

Principal Alex Cremidan, who has requested a breakfast program, says his experience at another school taught him that breakfast decreases discipline problems and tussles on the playground.

“Kids behave better when their stomachs aren’t growling,” he said.

Some school officials in San Diego County express concerns that the federal and state subsidies will not cover the entire cost of the program. (A California Food Policy Advocates survey of schools offering breakfast found 84% broke even or did better with the subsidy provided.)

“We had to decide: do we buy textbooks or do we buy breakfast?” said Judith Endeman, superintendent of the Ramona Unified School District in northern San Diego County. “We’ve never been philosophically opposed, it’s a matter of money.” Ramona has applied for state start-up grants for all schools that qualify, but Endeman notes that the grant will pay $10,000 toward a truck to take the meals to far-flung schools. But a specially equipped truck can cost upward of $30,000; the difference is seen as daunting for many tight-budget school districts.

Also, like their counterparts in other districts, administrators in some rural districts in San Diego County cited logistic problems.

“I’d love to have the breakfast program here, but many of our buses arrive at school only a minute or two before classes begin,” said Steven Enoch, superintendent of the Bonsall district, which serves students from Oceanside to the Pala Indian Reservation.

To have buses pick students up earlier would force the students to wait in the dark, Enoch says. Hiring more drivers and buses costs too much.

“We know we have kids arriving at school hungry,” Enoch said. “Of all the federal intervention programs, I think the breakfast program is one of the best, but it’s a transportation problem for us.”