As the smell of bacon and pancakes wafted through the halls of J.A. Laird elementary school the morning of September 27, excited whispers started to pour out of classrooms.

Armed with trays of breakfast food, stacks of plates, juice boxes and bottles of syrup, members of the David Thompson Secondary School leadership class went from class to class, delivering a hot breakfast to more than 180 students to kick off their three-week-long Breakfast Club program.

“There’s a lot of kids at Laird who can’t afford breakfast, or who don’t get it, or don’t eat it,” said program chair and Grade 12 student Julia Halwa.

“This seems like a good way to make sure they do.”

This is the second year leadership students have run the club at Laird.

In addition to dishing out the morning meal, students also budgeted, grocery shopped and whipped up the dishes themselves.

“We were up at 7 this morning in the cooks’ training room at the high school making food,” said Halwa. They’ll do the same for the next two Tuesdays as well.

For the other 12 days of the program, leadership students packed the Laird staff room fridge with milk and dropped off boxes of cereal.

To pay for the groceries, the club has a $1,600 grant, which it was required to spend completely by the end of the program.

Halwa said organizing the Breakfast Club was a lot of work, but also rewarding.

“I really like it,” she said. “I like seeing all the kids’ faces when we come in with the food. It shows how excited they are.”