Over 100,000 free lunches to be delivered to Canadian kids in need this summer

Celebrity Chef Michael Smith, national spokesperson, is passionate about the program.  “There are thousands of children in this country who don't look forward to summer, because it means they don't get their free breakfast or lunch at school.  Through Feeding Our Future®, the Sodexo Foundation and food programs around the country are ensuring that these kids will have at least one healthy meal a day.” 
 
In Toronto, Sodexo has partnered with Second Harvest.  For the next two months, each morning at the crack of dawn, Sodexo volunteers will gather at York University to make healthy lunches, which are then picked up by Second Harvest and delivered to 13 day camps in the Greater Toronto Area. 
 
Similar situations are taking place across Canada.  Feeding Our Future® is now in Vancouver, Calgary, Winnipeg, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Halifax, and Hamilton, and on July 17th, these cities will celebrate this innovative program by holding their own barbeque.  In Toronto, the barbeque will be held from noon until 1:30 at Riverdale Park.
 
Every day, Second Harvest picks up donated, high quality fresh food, which would otherwise have gone to waste, and delivers that food to 250 social service programs in Metro Toronto. Second Harvest currently provides food for about 14,000 meals a day to children in breakfast programs, seniors on fixed incomes, women fleeing domestic abuse, psychiatric patients, homeless people, and many others who have fallen on hard times.
 
The Sodexo Foundation has been very fortunate to work closely with hunger agencies, clients of Sodexo, manufacturer and supplier partners and many Sodexo employee and family volunteers. Feeding Our Future® has become a shining example of how communities and corporations can collaborate together to make a real difference.
 
Sodexo clients supporting the program include George Pearson Centre, Trinity Western University, Mount Royal College, Balmoral Hall School, York University, Department of Agriculture, Recreation Association, Collège Jean De Brebeuf, and Dalhousie Student Union.
 
Community agency partners include the Boys' and Girls'  Club of Greater Vancouver, Community Kitchens of Calgary, Winnipeg Harvest, Toronto's Second Harvest, Ottawa Food Bank, Moisson Montreal, Feed Nova Scotia and Mission Services
 
Manufacturers and Supplier partners include Canada Bread, Canbra Foods, Gordon Food Services, Hector Larivee, Kellogg's, Kraft, Lassonde Beverages, Maple Leaf, Olymel, Pathways, Parmalat, Quaker, and Shafer-Haggart.

Sodexo, Inc.
Sodexo, Inc. (www.sodexo.com), part of the international Sodexo Group, is the leading integrated food and facilities management services company in Canada, the US and Mexico, with $7.3 billion in annual revenue and 125,000 employees. Sodexo serves more than ten million customers daily in corporations, health care, long term care and retirement centers, schools, college campuses, government and remote sites. Sodexo Canada is a member of Sodexo Group, and funds the Sodexo Foundation an independent charitable organization that, since its founding in 2001, has donated more than 350,000 free meals to at risk youth in Canada.