Celebrating School Breakfast with the Inaugural Closing the Hunger Gap Award

Hunger Free Washington is proud to present the inaugural Closing the Hunger Gap Award to Federal Way Public Schools and Yakima School District for their leadership in expanding access to school breakfast.

Across Washington, school breakfast remains one of the largest gaps in our child nutrition safety net. Students who qualify for free school lunch are also eligible to receive free breakfast, yet thousands of students across the state don’t participate in school breakfast programs. This is often due to everyday barriers, including transportation schedules, morning activities, and stigma.

Breakfast After the Bell is a proven solution to this challenge. By serving breakfast after the start of the instructional day — often in classrooms or from grab-and-go carts — schools remove the logistical barriers and stigma that can keep students from eating. When breakfast is integrated into the school day, participation increases dramatically and more students begin the day ready to learn.

Federal Way Public Schools and Yakima School District have demonstrated what’s possible when districts commit to closing the breakfast gap.

At Rainier View Elementary School in Federal Way, school breakfast participation more than doubled after the district implemented Breakfast After the Bell.

Over the past year, each district has gone above and beyond to refine and expand their Breakfast After the Bell models. Guided by strong leadership from nutrition directors Alisha Barlow and Cassie Davidson, Federal Way and Yakima built robust training systems for staff, established clear and continuous feedback loops, and strengthened cross-department collaboration.

A key element of their success has been the strong relationships built with administrators, teachers, and custodial staff, to create schoolwide systems that support breakfast as an essential part of the school day. Their commitment has resulted in high-quality, scalable Breakfast After the Bell models that can serve as examples for communities across Washington.

By prioritizing school breakfast, both districts are helping ensure that more students start the day nourished and ready to learn — an essential step toward closing the hunger gap in Washington schools.

Learn more about implementing Breakfast After the Bell in your school district.

Hunger Free Washington is a statewide initiative coordinated and led by United Way of King County. Through shared resources, policy leadership, and cross-sector partnership, Hunger Free Washington works to align advocates, schools, community organizations, and policymakers around a common goal: ending food insecurity in Washington State.