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Christa Cole

McAuliffe speaks to a cafeteria worker about the second breakfast preparation

HHS is one of a few schools who are fortunate enough to have the second breakfast program implemented into our school day. First Lady of Virginia Dorothy McAuliffe is one of those who strongly advocates for this program and the nutrition it provides during the long schooling hours. Therefore, she drove down to our school after leaving Richmond this morning just to see it in action.

“So many things stood out, and that is the commitment of this wonderful principal, Prieto, the commitment of your teachers, the students moving through that line so quickly, wanting to have that opportunity for that second chance breakfast and all of the administrators here that make that happen, the great cafeteria staff, all that good food, all of those things really make a difference,” McAuliffe said.

McAuliffe and her husband, governor of Virginia Terry McAuliffe, are very passionate about the provision of food for children here in our state.

“We can’t imagine that any child in the commonwealth of Virginia would go hungry. It’s a long time until lunch, and it’s hard to focus when your stomach is growling and you can’t concentrate because you’re hungry,” McAuliffe said.

McAuliffe is looking to establish the program in other school systems, especially high schools, considering the stress and pressure the older students undergo and the emphasis that the feeding of their students generally lacks.

“We’re using models like Harrisonburg High School and talking to other high schools. I think a lot of time there’s a lot of focus on elementary schools and younger students, making sure they have opportunities to eat, but we feel very strongly, the governor and I, that all students need to have the opportunity to eat,” McAuliffe said. “Stigma is a very real important challenge, time crunches of all kinds, high school kids need a lot of sleep, and for whatever reason they might miss breakfast a certain day and we want to make sure that breakfast and second chance breakfast is available for all of our students.”

This push is making changes in our state.

“We’ve served 5 million more breakfasts since the time we’ve been in office, highlighting that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and we’ll keep pushing [for other] meals to be available for us,” McAuliffe said.