More and more elementary and junior high schools in the nation are serving breakfast to students.

At one elementary school in Osaka city, local residents prepare breakfast for students three days a week.

The aim is to help students have a healthy lifestyle by serving them a hearty meal at the beginning of the day. The system has also led to a decrease in children arriving late.

At Nishi-Awaji Elementary School in Osaka city, a breakfast cafeteria called Asagohanya-san (Breakfast shop) operates in the school’s home economics classroom in the mornings on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

The menu one October morning was stir-fried vegetables, udon soup noodles, a banana and a slice of pound cake. Children gathered in the room after 7 a.m. to eat and then went to their homeroom classrooms. Thirty students used the breakfast cafeteria on the day.

“It’s warm and delicious. I always look forward to it,” said one smiling fifth-grade student, aged 11.

The service was started in November 2016 for children who could not have breakfast at home due to family circumstances by a group led by Hiroko Omonishi, 72. Omonishi has served as a welfare volunteer and a volunteer probation officer for many years.

Some parents who go to work very early in the morning also let their children use the service because they want their children to have a warm meal rather than a cold, pre-made breakfast at home.

“I want children to eat their fill with friends and have a good day,” Omonishi said.

The school receives applications from students in advance. Omonishi and 10 other volunteers, aged in their 60s to 80s, take turns preparing breakfast. Each day’s meal costs about ¥200, of which ¥50 is billed to each student’s family, and the rest is subsidized by the city.

“Children’s faces shine when they’re content physically and psychologically,” said the school’s principal, Masashi Fukunaga. The students who use the service arrive late less frequently and concentrate better during classes, Fukunaga said.

According to a nationwide survey by the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry on children’s academic performance and learning conditions in fiscal 2018, 84.8 percent of sixth-grade elementary school students have breakfast every morning, as do 79.7 percent of third-year junior high school students.

The sixth-grade elementary school percentage for this was down 3.8 percentage points from fiscal 2013, and the third-year junior high school figure was down 4.6 points.

Children in the habit of having breakfast did better in answering questions correctly, which stresses the importance of breakfast.

By the end of this fiscal year, Hiroshima Prefecture is planning to start a trial offering breakfast to elementary school students who want to use the service, with the help of local companies that have agreed to provide food.

“Some schools are hoping to serve students breakfast, but it’s difficult for them to start such a service on their own because there’s no precedent in the prefecture. We want to take the initiative, and thereby gradually spread the activity to other schools,” said a prefectural government official in charge.

In Fukuoka city, nine elementary and junior high schools are offering bread, bananas, milk and other items provided by co-ops, food banks and other entities to students who want them. One of the schools started the move in fiscal 2015 and was gradually joined by the other schools.

Some elementary schools in Kochi city and Adachi Ward, Tokyo, also have similar services in which local residents or others serve breakfast to students once or twice every month.

“Having breakfast, even if not every day, can be a starting point for children to improve their everyday habits,” said Noriko Yamano, a professor of child welfare at Osaka Prefecture University. “Currently, most of the services are provided voluntarily through the goodwill of local residents. It’s necessary to establish a more sustainable framework, involving families, local governments and schools.”Speech