Corporate partners help Breakfast Club feed children

March 20, 2020, Montreal, Que. – Backed by its network of corporate partners, Breakfast Club of Canada is setting up an emergency fund to support breakfast program enrollees and local community organizations that assist food-insecure families and children throughout Canada during the COVID-19 crisis.

Some 250,000 students usually depend on the Club and its partners for a healthy breakfast every school morning, but the total number of children and youth across the country affected by food insecurity is actually greater than one million. To help minimize the repercussions of this crisis on them, Breakfast Club of Canada is reallocating the funds normally earmarked for schools to high-risk regions and established partners that are already well equipped to serve them.

In order to be able to address the needs of children for as long as possible during the crisis, Breakfast Club of Canada is turning to its corporate partners and the general public for help.

A number of partners have already stepped forward and announced a contribution to the Club’s emergency fund: belairdirect and Intact insurance $500,000; Danone $200,000; Kellogg Canada $150,000; National Bank $50,000. Other partners such as Sodexo also have offered their support.

Anyone who wants to contribute to the emergency fund can do so by clicking here.

Breakfast Club of Canada invites community organizations that wish to apply for a special grant to fill out an online application.

The emergency fund will:

• Focus on food-insecure households with children across Canada, including those in Indigenous communities
• Target high-need neighbourhoods
• Be administered in collaboration with respected community organizations that are familiar with and rigorously apply hygiene and sanitation measures associated with handling food as well as the requirements developed by public health authorities to control the spread of COVID-19.

“Right now, we need to do everything we can to honour the pledge we made to children 25 years ago and make sure they get the nutrition they need to grow up healthy, Breakfast Club president and founder Daniel Germain, said in a press release. “We have built a strong network over time and we will be putting it to work now for their benefit.”

Breakfast Club of Canada helps feed more than 243,500 children and youth in 1,809 schools across the country.