Breakfast programs in schools are fairly common these days, but efforts continue around Chatham-Kent and the country to organize a national school lunch program.

It is something that is very much needed according to local organizer Catherine Staal, but it doesn’t come easy, and it doesn’t come cheap.

Staal say they have a team in place and are ready to go.

“We’re right now working with the federal government and working with various levels of government for the past 16 years,” Staal says. “This Liberal federal government has said they’ve pledged to support a school lunch program, so we’re working with the Prime Minister’s office, waiting for them to get back to us as to how that funding looks, where it comes from, and so on.”

So what now?

“We would love for people to voice their support with our different government levels, municipal, provincial, and federal. This is big, lots of resources are needed but we can make this happen if we all work together.”

Staal says whenever they get the go-ahead, they are ready to hit the ground running and launch a pilot project in CK on day one.