At Ottawa's W. E. Gowling elementary school 80 to 90 kids arrive early every day, not to play, but to eat.
“I'm really hungry and I don't really get to have breakfast and the food here is really good,” says Anis Young, a grade 3 student.
This year the Ottawa School Breakfast Program is 85-thousand dollars behind budget and 5 schools are on the waiting list for services.
“There have been successive waves of job losses in both the private and public sectors," says Carolyn Hunter, the breakfast program director. "That's impacting the program in two ways, we are seeing an increase in the number of children that are coming to school hungry and it is impacting the community's ability to support the program and make donations.”
More than 11-thousand Ottawa children in 148 schools participate in the breakfast program.
“In our school there are many families, very hard working families, some working 2 and 3 jobs, who in fact as different areas of the month come up have a difficulty making sure there is healthy food on the table,” says W. E. Gowling's Principal Brian Begbie.
A study out of Toronto last year compared kids’ performance in school before and after a breakfast program was implemented. It showed a notable improvement in grades, attendance and behaviour once kids were starting their day with a healthy meal.
Two thirds of the funding for Ottawa’s breakfast program is from the Provincial Government. The rest, about half-a-million dollars, is from private donations. Now, it is appealing for donations so it can continue to provide a good start to the day for all the kids who need it.
Natalie Pierosara will have the full story tonight on CTV News at six.
