Horacio Trejo will never forget the fourth grader who looked at him after the Second Chance Breakfast Program began and said, “Thank you for bringing this to Valleydale [Elementary]. I don’t always get to eat.”
The words hit him hard. No child should ever have to say that, yet he understood why it mattered so deeply.
From a young age, Trejo often helped his mom make sense of a school system that felt complicated and overwhelming. She moved from Mexico with limited formal schooling but carried a deep respect for education. He remembers translating for her and noticing the difference when educators treated her with compassion, and the pain when they did not.
Education was nonnegotiable in their home. His mother’s determination to give her children opportunities she never had continues to guide him. Those experiences are part of what shaped him into the leader he is today.
As principal of Valleydale Elementary School in Azusa, Calif., Trejo carries that sense of responsibility into everything he does. Since stepping into the role in 2022, his focus has been on making sure children feel cared for, supported, and ready to learn, and that is something you see as he greets every kid with care and love.
One of his guiding beliefs is simple: “kids can’t learn if they are hungry.” With support from No Kid Hungry, Valleydale introduced the Second Chance Breakfast Program, which gives students a chance to eat after the first or second period if they missed breakfast.
“[Before the program] the number of visits to the health aide’s office was huge because kids couldn’t focus,” Trejo said. “We always had graham crackers on hand, but that doesn’t compare to an actual breakfast. Since Second Chance Breakfast began, the time students spend out of class and the number of behavior issues have gone down dramatically.”
The results are clear. “We started the program, and we know it has gone up by at least 45%. That means more students are eating now who weren’t eating before,” Trejo said. “The program is feeding more than 2,000 students each morning through breakfast, lunch, and Second Chance Breakfast.”
Today, every Valleydale student can eat for free. For Trejo and his staff, that matters because it removes one big barrier for kids.
“You just want every single kid, 100 percent of your kids, to be set up for success,” he said. With fewer obstacles, students can focus on what matters most: learning.
Trejo believes school is about more than academics. It is joy, belonging, and safety. “Every interaction matters,” he said. “No interaction is too small. You just don’t know what kids are going to remember.” It's about fostering a belonging that nurtures kids with meals and resources in their language, and providing foods that honor their background, roots, and community. At No Kid Hungry, we understand this and work with schools to develop resources in Spanish and other languages, so parents are able to understand the benefits available for their kids.
Mr. Trejo’s story is proof that fighting childhood hunger is not just about meals. It is about dignity, opportunity, and care. It is about leaders who draw on their own experiences to create a better future for the children they serve.
This Hispanic Heritage Month, we celebrate leaders like Horacio Trejo, whose work reflects the traditions of care, resilience, and generosity that define Latino communities. By nourishing children, he is building a legacy of opportunity and showing that ending childhood hunger is possible, one meal, one classroom, and one student at a time.
