The loss of a breakfast program at Westdale Secondary School has sprung the students there into a rally.

They held a rally at the west Hamilton high school on Thursday to support the student-led movement “Bring Back Breakfast.”

The movement aims to restore funding for programs that provide students with free meals.

Recent cuts made by the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board (HWDSB) forced the school to pull the breakfast program in February after it had been in operation for seven years.

Now, it only serves one meal a day: lunch.

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According to figures presented at a recent school council meeting, food programs at Westdale distributed 50,000 meals last year, or around 200 meals per day.

Now, with the sudden lack of funding, it can only afford to operate a lunch program.

Tomi Olagunju, a grade ten student at the high school, says that’s not enough when “students are depending on school, and have over two hours of class time before eating at all.”

She’s hoping today’s rally will draw attention to their cause and help garner more support for the movement.

“Currently, we’ve launched a board-wide petition to increase funding to restore our breakfast programs which has received hundreds of signatures so far,” she said in an email to CHCH News.

“We hope to fundraise for Westdale and bring attention to this issue so that students across HWDSB receive access to proper nutrition.”

READ MORE: Federal budget to include funding for Canada-wide school food program

Joining the students at their demonstration was retired Hamilton Tiger-Cats player Simoni Lawrence, who was recently appointed to the board for Food4Kids, a local charity that provides food to kids with “little or no access to food on weekends.”

Earlier this year, the federal government announced its plans to include funding for a Canada-wide school food program that would aim to provide over 400,000 meals to students nationwide per year.