Did you know 1 in 6 kids go to school hungry?
My readers know I’m committed to promoting real food and home cooking, but the biggest food issue of all is simply children’s access to enough. For those of us who have all the food we need and want, whether real food made from scratch or highly processed convenience items, it’s easy to assume that everyone else does too. Sadly, that’s not the case even in a bountiful country like Canada.
It’s heartbreaking to realize that one in six Ontario children go to school hungry. We all know that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Yes, some of us choose to skip it anyway, but these children have no choice.
Fortunately, relief is available. It doesn’t always take a lot to make a difference. Did you know that only $2 will provide a hungry student with a nutritious breakfast?
Roughly 31 percent of Ontario students participate in Student Nutrition Programs. In the 2012/2013 school year, the Breakfast Clubs of Canada and Breakfast for Learning provided children and youth with over 40 million nourishing breakfasts in Ontario alone. For over 30 years, the Grocery Foundation, an industry-wide charitable foundation of manufacturers and retailers has helped make a difference by supporting school breakfast programs. Their fundraising campaign, TOONIES FOR TUMMIES, is on until February 20.
Please donate a toonie at participating grocery stores in Ontario and Atlantic Canada from now until February 20, or online at tooniesfortummies.ca. There’s a toonie tracker on the site that allows you to see where your donation is being used.
A toonie is all it takes to fill a hungry tummy and get a child’s school day off to a good start.
DISCLAIMER: I’ve written this post on my own initiative because I believe providing breakfasts to hungry schoolchildren who would otherwise go without is so important. I made my donation online. I contacted Toonies for Tummies to ask for graphics I could use, and they provided the image at the top of this post. The video I’ve included is a YouTube link. It goes without saying that I’m not being compensated for this post.
I didn’t realize that Ontario shared our problem of children going to be hungry. I hope this campaign is successful, raising funds and awareness of this problem.
Thank you, John. Sadly, hunger knows no boundaries, even in prosperous countries such as ours. I hope the campaign is very successful also.
A good cause Mar !!!!