Breakfast Club for hungry children launches fundraiser to meet rising demand, costs

With the school year about to begin, it is glaringly apparent that more families are struggling with costs, from paper and pencils to a healthy meal.

As with free backpack programs helping students with school supplies, the provincial and national Breakfast Club programs are seeing larger numbers of children at risk of starting the day at school hungry.

The Breakfast Club of Canada says one in three children is vulnerable.

"In Quebec alone, more than 180,000 children still do not have access to quality breakfast programs," said Breakfast Club spokesperson Jasmine Guilbert.

• WATCH: Backpacks full of school supplies given to children in need

With this demand in mind, the Club is launching a fundraising campaign to meet demand for the around 3,000 schools the Club operates in, including over 500 in Quebec.

Guilbert said that the Club helps over 87,000 children in Quebec and over 650,000 across Canada.

"With food prices rising by over 20 per cent in the last three years, feeding young people has never been more crucial," said Guilbert. "Although the Club is receiving an increasing demand for new breakfast programs and is experiencing increased attendance at its existing programs, the current financial situation does not allow them to set up new programs to meet the demand."

The Club says that expenses are outpacing revenues even with the federal government's announcement that it would invest $1 billion over five years into the National School Food Program (NSFP).

This program has not been implemented.

"While we are pleased to see the federal government take a great step forward and be part of the solution with private and community stakeholders, as well as provincial, territorial, and Indigenous governments, the fight against school hunger is far from over," said Judith Barry, co-founder and government relations director of Breakfast Club of Canada. "The National Food School Program has yet to be implemented, and in the upcoming school year, one in three children are still at risk of going to school on an empty stomach."