When kids are hungry, they don’t do well at school.
That was the message delivered by Children’s Foundation of Guelph Wellington executive director Glenna Banda at the Live Free Celebration hosted at St. Mary Catholic School in Mount Forest on Feb. 26.
The event was part of the annual Help Kids Live Free from Hunger campaign to raise funds for student nutrition programs.
The Children’s Foundation Food and Friends program feeds 20,000 local students each year though 105 student nutrition programs in Guelph, Wellington and Dufferin.
“These programs are more than just food,” said Banda. “There’s a really important social element, great volunteerism, that happens where students are helping out and the programs wouldn’t happen without volunteers.”
Andrew Reimer, president of Ontario Student Nutrition Services, sponsored the breakfast. He said he experienced hunger when he was a child.
“There are children that are at a disadvantage, socially, economically and to compound things, they walk into school at a disadvantage because they’re not nourished enough to take advantage of what’s available to them at school,” he said.
“So that’s why on a personal level I’m very excited to participate in this because I know full well the impact of student nutrition and how it benefits the children.”
St. Mary’s currently has a breakfast club and snack program for all children.
“I’ve noticed with the children, when they are full … the data does prove that the children learn better when they are eating properly,” said principal Julie Vandenheuvel.
She added the breakfast club offers a sense of community for the children.
“I called it breaking bread within the school community,” she said.
“The feeling of sitting down as a community is huge.”
Allison Carson, a Grade 7 student at St. Mary’s, presented at the event.
“The breakfast club offers a place for kids to gather and laugh,” she said. “It takes a lot of volunteers and a lot of food, a lot of organizing and ton of smiles.”
Last week’s event raised $700 for the programs.
