The wire leading to my single pole kitchen switch is not hot - How can I fix this?

My overhead kitchen light and dining room light share the same outlet box. Both lights are controled by the same breaker switch. The dining room light is hot (when tested with a neon tester). The kitchen is not. It appears that the hot wire leading to the kitchen switch is dead. The hot wires from both the dining room switch and kitchen switch just lead up into the wall with no splicing anywhere - the other wires (ground, etc...) are spliced leading to the switches. Short of calling an electrician is there a way to fix this with a trip to Home Depot?