A simple change to the rhythm of the school day is helping New Hampshire feed more students, and the strategy has less to do with food than with dignity. Across the state, schools are adopting a model called breakfast after the bell, or second-chance breakfast, and the early results suggest it can sharply raise participation while stripping away the stigma that has long kept hungry students from eating. The approach was detailed by New Hampshire Public Radio in a story originally produced by the Concord Monitor and shared through the Granite State News Collaborative.

The core insight driving the shift is that most students who skip breakfast are not refusing food. They are running into barriers. “The issue is not the lack of food; it’s barriers to access, such as busy mornings, running late or simply not being hungry when they first get to school,” said Tricia Labelle, child nutrition manager at New Hampshire Hunger Solutions, an advocacy organization working to expand school breakfast participation statewide. “When breakfast is offered after the bell, it becomes a normal part of the school day, just like lunch.”

How Breakfast After the Bell Works

Traditionally, schools set aside a 10- or 15-minute window before the first bell to serve breakfast in the cafeteria. That model quietly excludes the students who need it most, because arriving early and eating in a near-empty cafeteria can mark a child as poor. Second-chance breakfast flips the timing. Instead of a narrow pre-school slot, it opens an extended block during the school day when students can grab breakfast as they move between classes or during a study hall.

Twelve schools are currently running second-chance breakfast in collaboration with NH Hunger Solutions, according to executive director Laura Milliken, including recent pilots in Milton and Somersworth. The organization provides technical assistance, helping schools market the program to parents, address teacher concerns about classroom disruption, and apply for grants. Each school tailors the model to its own schedule and space.

Milliken is blunt about the problem the new model is meant to solve. “The way that breakfast is offered typically is early in the morning, so it’s thought of as ‘poor kids’ breakfast,’ and so once kids figure that out, they’d rather go hungry until lunch than participate,” she said. By folding breakfast into the ordinary flow of the day, schools make it something every student does, not a service that singles anyone out.

A Turnaround in Tilton

Nowhere is the payoff clearer than at Winnisquam Regional High School in Tilton. Trevor Haggerty, the district’s food service director, recognized a problem after noting that only about one-third of the student body was enrolled in the free-or-reduced lunch program. Of the school’s 345 students, 90 receive free lunch and 26 receive reduced lunch, and all of them automatically qualify for a free school breakfast funded by a mix of federal and state dollars plus modest contributions from the school’s general fund. Yet in the fall of 2025, only 29 teenagers were actually eating that breakfast.

The path to a fix started with listening to students. Staff invited teens to sample a range of options, from egg bites to overnight oats, and let them vote. Their favorite, a banana-strawberry-blueberry smoothie, became a centerpiece of the new program. Jacqui McGettigan, the district’s family student support liaison, championed the effort even while recovering from shoulder surgery, packing treats one-handed ahead of the launch. McGettigan, whose role typically involves working with the roughly 35 students across the district identified as homeless, knew success would hinge on flexibility, so she turned to a model NH Hunger Solutions had promoted across 58 other schools statewide.

The results have been dramatic. Since launching in late January, when students can filter into the cafetorium until 9:45 each morning to eat, participation has almost doubled. The school now serves an average of 48 breakfasts a day, and on one occasion served as many as 61. According to Labelle, Winnisquam Regional has seen the highest participation increase in the history of NH Hunger Solutions’ School Breakfast Challenge. “Those aren’t just numbers on the spreadsheet,” Haggerty said. “They represent students who are no longer in class, distracted by hunger, and we’re ensuring no child starts their day on an empty stomach.”

A Statewide Problem Worth Solving

The push matters because New Hampshire has room to improve. Nationally, the state ranks 46th in school breakfast participation, a measure of how many students eligible for free breakfast actually eat it at school, according to the Washington, D.C.-based Food Research and Action Center. Milliken’s organization reads that low ranking not as an embarrassment to hide but as a mandate to innovate.

The model is also gaining traction in larger districts. In Concord, Broken Ground School has seen a 7 percent increase in breakfast participation since implementing a second-chance program with NH Hunger Solutions last year, and that gain has carried into the current school year, according to district school nutrition director Donna Reynolds. Participation in Concord has historically been low, in part because students sometimes had to choose between eating in the cafeteria and spending free time outdoors before class. “Initially, our numbers didn’t really change drastically, but things shifted towards the end of the school year, they did start to increase,” Reynolds said.

The benefits extend well beyond a full stomach. Research from the University of Minnesota and St. Catherine University has documented that breakfast after the bell reduces barriers to participation, and educators have long connected morning nutrition to better focus, attendance, and behavior. A student who is fed is a student who can learn, which is why the model sits at the intersection of nutrition policy and academic outcomes. It is a practical complement to broader efforts to shore up student academic growth across the state, and it eases pressure on community hunger programs like the food drives that brace for summer pantry shortages.

What Comes Next

For advocates, the goal is universal. The hope, Labelle said, is someday to see second-chance breakfast offered at every school in New Hampshire. That ambition will run into real constraints, from cafeteria logistics and staffing to the budget pressures that already strain districts wrestling with teacher pay and rising costs. But the Winnisquam story offers a template that is hard to argue with: ask students what they want, serve it when they can actually eat it, and make the program ordinary rather than exceptional.

“The reason you did it was to really banish the stigma and make breakfast for everyone,” Milliken said. “This school’s experience, we hope, will influence other schools to see that it’s possible, that it’s beneficial for the students.” If the model continues to spread at its current pace, New Hampshire’s national ranking may finally start to climb, one smoothie at a time.

For related coverage, see our reporting on NH’s Voucher Program Admits It Doesn’t Track Whether Special Ed Students Are ….

What is second-chance breakfast?

Second-chance breakfast, also called breakfast after the bell, replaces the traditional pre-school cafeteria window with an extended block during the school day when students can eat breakfast as they move between classes or during a study hall. The goal is to remove barriers like busy mornings and to make breakfast a normal part of the day for every student rather than a service that singles out lower-income children.

How much did breakfast participation increase at Winnisquam Regional High School?

Participation nearly doubled. In the fall of 2025, only 29 students at Winnisquam Regional High School in Tilton were eating school breakfast. After launching second-chance breakfast in late January 2026, the school now serves an average of 48 breakfasts a day, and once served as many as 61. NH Hunger Solutions says it is the largest participation increase in the history of its School Breakfast Challenge.

How does New Hampshire rank in school breakfast participation?

New Hampshire ranks 46th nationally in school breakfast participation, according to the Food Research and Action Center. The ranking reflects the share of students eligible for free breakfast who actually eat breakfast at school. Advocates view the low ranking as a reason to expand models like breakfast after the bell.

Who pays for school breakfast in New Hampshire?

Students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch automatically qualify for a free school breakfast, which is funded by a combination of federal and state dollars along with modest contributions from a school’s general fund. At Winnisquam Regional High School, for example, 90 of 345 students receive free lunch and 26 receive reduced lunch, and all of them are eligible for free breakfast.

How many New Hampshire schools offer second-chance breakfast?

Twelve schools are currently running second-chance breakfast in collaboration with NH Hunger Solutions, including recent pilots in Milton and Somersworth. The organization has promoted the breakfast-after-the-bell model across 58 schools statewide and hopes to eventually see it in every New Hampshire school.