Blog Multi Author - Breakfast Club of Canada

A Great Start To The School Year For Breakfast Club Of Canada

The Add a Breakfast to Your Bill campaign in partnership with Costco Wholesale has been a resounding success, raising a total of $1,000,000 in just one week!

Costco Wholesale has been supporting Breakfast Club of Canada since 2007 by raising funds and increasing public awareness about school breakfast programs. The Club and Costco are both committed to helping more children and youth succeed in school and fulfill their potential. Costco’s contribution means the Club can offer breakfast to more than 243,000 students across the country to get their school mornings off to a healthy start.

The Club would like to congratulate all the employees in the 111 participating Costco warehouses for their amazing contributions to this initiative. Every year, they play a key role in making sure as many young Canadians as possible have access to a school breakfast program. Our heartfelt thanks go out to each and every one of them for their generosity and dedication.

As it currently stands, one out of four Canadian children starts their school day on an empty stomach. The Club leverages its network and its expertise to bring together a wide range of resources and stakeholders to counter this sobering statistic. The donations received are invested in 1,809 breakfast programs from coast to coast. These programs are important to promoting children’s well-being, not only by serving a wholesome breakfast every morning in a caring, nurturing environment but also by making sure they have the energy they need to do well academically. A recent Canada-wide poll conducted by the Club of 41 school administrations revealed that breakfast program enrollees double their attention span in class. Half of the schools who answered the survey also reported an improvement in attendance.

Be sure to join Breakfast Club of Canada and Costco Wholesale for next year’s back-to-school fundraiser!

Supporters

Two Lucky Student Volunteers Spend The Day Learning The Restaurant Business

In December 2019, Restaurants Normandin offered a unique opportunity to two BCC student volunteers as a reward for their involvement in their school breakfast program. This was one of “50 Good Deeds” undertaken by the Quebec chain which, like the Club, is celebrating a milestone anniversary this year.

Secondary 2 students Dorothée and Jasmine were the ones chosen for the experience, not only because of their commitment to Breakfast Club of Canada but also in recognition of their overall community engagement.

Upon their arrival at the Bouvier Street location in Quebec City, Dorothée and Jasmine were given a tour of the bustling kitchen, staffed by over 100 employees, and then invited to create their own pizza. They kneaded the dough and tossed it in the air, with some rather amusing results, picked their toppings from an almost endless selection and cooked it up in the massive pizza oven. They put a painstaking amount of effort into making the final result as close to perfect as they could. The pair were then put on hostessing duty, where they did an exceptional job showing patrons to their table and managing the various logistical considerations that come with the job. Customers were delighted to be part of the experience and had nothing but glowing comments about their performance. Last but certainly not least, Dorothée and Jasmine dug into their pizza while they chatted with members of the Normandin marketing team.

They left with a complimentary pizza pan and two frozen Normandin pizzas. Both said they enjoyed themselves immensely and were happy with everything they learned. They also had the satisfaction of applying some of their newfound knowledge to their breakfast program upon their return to school.

This marks the end of the back-to-school campaign at Normandin that ran throughout the month of September, after which a cheque for over $28,000 was presented to the Club. The team is eager to repeat the experience in 2020. Thank you to everyone at Normandin for your wonderful contributions over the past 13 years.

Supporters

An Effective Food Procurement Partnership!

The Food Depot Alimentaire (FDA), City of Moncton, and Breakfast Club of Canada are proud partners of the Moncton Student Nutrition Program, a food procurement operation that reaches over 2000 kids a day in 26 schools in Moncton and surrounding areas. The program launched in Spring 2017 and has been a great success ever since! For that we have to thank the experienced team at the FDA, who take care of day to day operations for the program and have a very effective process to ensure every school has the food it needs come breakfast time.

Every week, schools simply fill out an order form, selecting which items they would like for their breakfast program. When FDA staff receive the order, they fill it with donations and products purchased in bulk from other partners (=cost saving!) and shop locally to fill the rest of the order, if necessary. That’s what we call stretching every dollar to reach more and more students! The FDA then delivers all orders to the respective schools. What is the result? Schools get their breakfast food orders delivered and they save money!

In addition to this, the FDA also acts as a hub for products from our generous partners, including donations of yogurt from Danone and apple sauce from Motts, as well as grain products purchased at a low cost from General Mills.

This is a great example of a win-win-win partnership. Way to go Moncton Student Nutrition Program!