Lisa Clowery, Director, Corporate Partnerships, Breakfast Club of Canada
It goes without saying, COVID-19 has impacted us all. When you take a deep dive into different organizations, you see some incredibly inspirational stories of how the crisis enabled us to be innovative, to focus on what is essential and sometimes to even change our business models.
This is exactly what Breakfast Club of Canada did. The 26-year-old organization provides breakfast to children in need at their schools. Up until COVID-19, they fed over 250,000 children per day. Then schools closed.
Lisa Clowery, Director, Corporate Partnerships, Breakfast Club of Canada says: “Up until COVID-19, we knew that one in four children in Canada was at risk of not eating breakfast and as a result, making it more difficult for them to perform well in school. Further to COVID-19, now one in three children are vulnerable. A lot of families are struggling.”
So, what did Breakfast Club of Canada do? They turned on a dime. They found alternative ways to deliver food but this time – to families. In the months during which schools were closed, the Club supported over 1,000 local charities and schools which reached over 626,000 children.
Clowery added: “We knew we needed to be where the children in need were. In March, we pivoted our operations and created an emergency fund to help schools and community partners with funding to allow them to tailor food access solutions to children in their families. For instance, funding was used to prepare food hampers and curb side pickups as well as sending grocery gift cards to families. Since September, we have been sending bins to schools with prepackaged meals. To respect health and safety measures, children now eat their meal in class. We have also seen a 30% increase in the number of children participating it the breakfast program Thanks to the generosity of our partners and our incredibly dedicated volunteers and staff our reach is far greater. We will continue to adapt to ensure that we are meeting the need.”
Learn more about Breakfast Club of Canada’s COVID-19 response.
AbbVie proudly supports Breakfast Club of Canada.