According to the Ontario Association of Food Banks, in one of four households using food banks, children skip breakfast at least once a week, says Kimberly Hillier, a doctoral student in the Faculty of Education.

She is calling on the campus community to help meet a dire need for breakfast cereals in the monthly food baskets distributed by the Downtown Mission. She will collect new, unopened boxes of cereal in the lobby of the Neal Education Building, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Thursday, September 27.

A teacher for the Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board, Hillier has seen firsthand the effects of poverty on children.

“Going without breakfast has serious implications for education,” she says. “Undernourishment has implications for children’s academic achievement and behaviour, and brain function can be diminished by periodic hunger or malnutrition from skipping meals.”

She said contributions of small or large boxes of cereal are welcome: “Any amount can help.”