A record $566,000 was raised for hundreds of breakfast and lunch programs for students across the city during the pre-Halloween fundraising blitz by the Toronto Foundation for Student Success (TFSS).
"The results are phenomenal," stated Catherine Parsonage, executive director of the TFSS, the charitable arm of the Toronto District School Board. The money will provide funding for the TFSS's 600 nutrition programs, which serve 110,000 meals daily to students in need.Students raised about $25,000 by collecting coins at TTC subway stations, in schools, and buying Quiznos sandwiches at school - $1 from each sandwich went to the TFSS. Major donations included $375,000 from the Breakfast Clubs of Canada, which received a minimum of $100,000 in support from Minute Maid, Agropur, and Danone. Sprott Asset management gave $125,000 while CDI Computers chipped in $25,000.A unique school campaign encouraging personal sacrifice for the benefit of those less unfortunate also helped one Toronto elementary school raise more than $4,000 alone for the cause.For the second year in a row, John Ross Robertson Junior P.S., near Avenue Road and Lawrence Avenue, challenged its students to forgo some home privileges - such as weekend pizza dinners, allowances, movie nights - and instead donate the amount of money that would have been spent on those things to the TFSS. Organized by teacher Dan Galvin, the school posted flags in the school's colours in hallways representing each of the hundreds of privileges sacrificed by the students.