A children’s charity is calling for volunteers to step up to the plate to help reduce staffing costs during the economic downturn.The Coalition for the Protection of Children (CPR) is hoping to recruit about 20 volunteers to prepare and serve breakfasts to children who would otherwise go hungry. Breakfast For Every Child currently pays for its own staff members to oversee the provision of the most important meal of the day at four schools.But the charity hopes to cut back on staffing levels if they can find a reliable and dedicated team to run the programme on a volunteer basis. The volunteer recruitment campaign has been launched with adverts in both newspapers asking; ‘Want to help give children a positive start to the day?’In the last academic year 35,000 free meals were served to children at Victor Scott Primary, Prospect Primary, Dellwood Middle and Paget Primary. And the breakfast programme will be rolled out to a fifth school, West Pembroke Primary School, in September.Sheelagh Cooper, chairperson of the CPR, said they hoped the newspaper adverts would catch the eye of a broader range of people.She said: “We’re trying to find more volunteers so we can cut back on staff we have to pay. We are looking for a really solid group of volunteers who we can count on. There’s no reason why the volunteers can’t be the ones who serve the breakfasts in the five schools. We’d really like to make this adjustment for the good of the charity. We’re trying to reduce our costs as these are not easy times. We have more children and higher food costs.”Breakfast For Every Child was started at Victor Scott School in 2007 as an extension of the charity’s food storehouse, which sees parents picking up breakfast foods. Ms Cooper is a firm believer that children cannot concentrate if they are hungry. The charity provides many children with the only fully balanced meal they receive each day.Essentials such as cereal, yoghurts, granola bars, fruit and orange juice are provided. The charity pays about $50 per child per month for the food.The programme relies on individual and corporate donations and has never received Government funding. The volunteer newspaper adverts, which first appeared in the Island’s newspapers last week, have already prompted several enquiries from interested members of the community.Volunteers need to be available from 7.30am to 8.45am one or two mornings a week. The advert states: “Volunteers need to be able to provide a positive and therapeutic experience for children while serving breakfast.”Breakfast is given to any child who wants it, regardless of their situation. There is always a notable increase in children towards the end of the pay period when there is no food at home.Ms Cooper said: “We wanted to give this a try to broaden our field of volunteers. We’ve done our finances and going forward we must do more with less Volunteers have to be reliable and dedicated, we can’t have people who don’t bother showing up.“But it’s about so much more than just putting food on a plate for children, we have to provide a nurturing environment for them. Volunteers take the time to speak to the children and ask them about their day. We want volunteers to be loving and nurturing and with about 50 kids sometimes showing up at the same time, they have to be pretty fast on their feet.”If you would like to become a volunteer, call the Coalition for the Protection of Children on 295-1150 or e-mail cpc[AT]ibl.bm. All volunteers will be screened.