A coalition of anti--hunger advocates on Thursday called on Mayor Bill de Blasio to allow more kids to eat breakfast in class, not just in the cafeteria, citing data showing only 25 percent of New York City students participate in the free meals program.

All public schools serve free breakfasts in their cafeterias before the start of class, but the advocates said only about 224,000 students actually eat the meals. That puts the city dead last In breakfast participation rates among 63 large U.S. districts including Chicago, Los Angeles and Newark, which also enable kids to eat in their classrooms.

"There's no disputing that kids need a healthy breakfast to help them do their best every day at school," said Josh Wachs, chief strategy officer of Share Our Strength, a national nonprofit that leads the Powered by Breakfast NYC Coalition.

The coalition said raising the breakfast participation rate to 70 percent could result in 176,400 fewer school absences per year, and could even lead to higher test scores and graduation rates. One in five children in New York City is at risk of hunger and many skip breakfast at home. Wachs said too many students don't eat the free breakfast at school because of the stigma of being seen in the cafeteria, or because they simply don't arrive early enough.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg enabled a few hundred schools to serve "breakfast after the bell" which meant students could get on-the-go items such as yogurt or bagels they bring to their classrooms. But Bloomberg declined to take the program citywide, citing concerns about childhood obesity if kids ate at home and at school.

During last year's mayoral campaign, de Blasio said Bloomberg's decision cost the city more than $50 million in federal aid designed to keep kids from going hungry. As mayor, he said he would require schools to make free breakfasts available in classrooms. On Thursday, his administration said it's still serious about that pledge.

"We are committed to expanding access to free breakfast in the classroom and are developing new approaches to reach more children," said Department of Education spokeswoman Devora Kaye.

Unions representing city teachers and principals support serving breakfast after the bell. But there also have been concerns about creating a mess.

At the School for Global Leaders, a middle school on the Lower East Side, Principal Carry Chan-Howard offers students bags of breakfast items that they can take to class. This way, her students could get breakfast without having to share the cafeteria with the older students from another school in the same building. She said she told her teachers, "Don't worry, we're going to keep your classrooms clean."

With reporting by Matt Collette