Rogers family donates $20M to Food Banks Canada

June 17, 2020, Toronto, Ont. – Food Banks Canada (FBC) has announced the largest single donation in its history, a one-time gift of $20 million from the Rogers family.

The donation is part of $60 million that the family is donating to various charities to help Canadian families in need.

“I can’t even begin to stress how invaluable generous donations like this are for food banks,” says FBC CEO Chris Hatch. “I personally want to thank the Rogers family for this remarkable gift and their long-standing commitment to helping us improve food security in Canada.

“Their support is essential to keeping Canadians fed not only during the COVID-19 crisis but as we enter a future of uncertainty.”

The donation will be distributed and shared with food banks across Canada – in every province and territory – to continue to meet the need in their communities, at the local level. It will also be used to acquire and deliver essential food items while expanding upon critical relationships with independent farmers, agricultural associations, producers and manufacturers.

“Our family is honoured to be able to do a small part to help Canadians and Canadian families as they try to recover from the difficult financial challenges that COVID-19 has brought to so many people, especially people already under financial stress,” said Martha Rogers, chair of The Rogers Foundation. “All of the money will be donated in 2020 so we can make as immediate an impact as possible.”

In addition to the Rogers family donation, Rogers Communications and the Jays Care Foundation continue to expand upon their support for FBC.

Rogers Communications, which helped to kick-off FBC’s $150-million fundraising campaign via the creation of public service announcements and media support to share them across their channels, has already donated more than 1.77 million meals during the COVID-19 pandemic. The company was also one of the media partners behind the historic all-Canadian broadcast STRONGER TOGETHER, TOUS ENSEMBLE, which helped to raise more than $8 million for FBC.

The Jays Care Foundation has a 36-year relationship with FBC and has just completed its largest ever fundraising campaign with the community – raising more than $700,000 to support FBC’s COVID-19 Response Fund.