School breakfast support cut, but federal funding remains....

Gov. Bob McDonnell's budget proposal cut $5.3 million in Virginia funding for school breakfasts, but the cut doesn't hit the bulk of the federal money set aside for the morning meal.

I got a nice note from a food service coordinator with a local school division concerned that the majority of the news stories flooding out of Richmond grossly mischaracterized the cuts to the school breakfast program. The mixup stems largely from the fact that Virginia is cutting all state support for the morning nosh.

In hindsight it's obvious the $5.3 million over two years would not put an END to the school breakfast program, but with the flood of information coming out of the General Assembly it looked like the whole meal was ending.

Here's a 2010 memo from the Federal Department of Education explaining the outlay to various local school districts for school breakfasts.

And here's a quote from the fellow who set me straight.

"While these cuts are far from helpful, they do not come close to ENDING school breakfasts."

Fair enough.