The Yukon's Breakfast for Learning board is breaking away from the national non-profit organization of the same name, in an effort to preserve the territorial board's autonomy.

Across the country, including the northern territories, the Breakfast for Learning program provides schools with grants and resources for in-school breakfast and snack programs.

But officials in the Yukon say the national Breakfast for Learning organization wants to consolidate its programs, operations and fundraising out of its Toronto head office, which would mean dissolving all its regional boards.

"We were very reluctant to give up our board status, because we know that every cent that's raised in the Yukon stays in the Yukon," Sheila Rose, a member of the Yukon's Breakfast for Learning board, told CBC News on Friday.

Rose said the new arrangement would have meant monies raised would have to go through head office.

"They had said that it would just flow through their office and back out to us, but we weren't that sure," she said.

According to the national Breakfast for Learning website, the Yukon board helped start and maintain 67 child nutrition programs in the territory in 2007-08, serving meals and snacks to a total 1,460 students.

As a result of leaving the national program, Rose said Breakfast for Learning Yukon will lose about one-third of their total funding.

"We're going to have to do more fundraising locally," she said. "That was a big decision, but we also couldn't let go of our local control."

Rose added that the Yukon board's decision does not mean it will lose support from Canadian Living magazine, which founded the national Breakfast for Learning program.