February 9th was “TDSB Day with the Marlies” and over 5,800 TDSB students and staff were on hand to help raise $21,100 for the Toronto Foundation for Student Success (TFSS). Chief Academic Officer Manon Gardner dropped the ceremonial puck and from that point on it was non-stop entertainment. The home team delivered a huge 9-2 victory for their fans while eight brave and fun-loving Superintendents kept everyone entertained during intermission with their on ice activities. As well, students from George R. Gauld, Joseph Brant and Willowdale MS participated in pre-game activities before the large and boisterous crowd.

The big win for our students included $16,500 raised from ticket sales to students and teachers and $4,600 donated by the Supervisory Officials Association. This represented the largest amount of money the event has raised to date.

The TFSS extends a huge thank you to everyone who helped organize and support the event. The money raised will benefit thousands of our students throughout the year.

Photos from the event can be found here: Marlies Photos

Written by Catherine Parsonage, Friday, 30 May 2008.

Jason, fourteen years of age, wakes up hungry. Not surprising as he went to bed hungry. With a younger brother and sister, his Mom's food budget has to last them all for the week. Jason is pulled from bed by his growling stomach. He goes to school because he knows there is a meal there for him. When you fill up Jason's stomach, you are really feeding his mind. Healthy food and a full stomach make learning possible and helps protect and build a future for Jason.

Sadly, Toronto has many teens like Jason.

We all must help alleviate student hunger and ensure teens like Jason are ready and able to learn. Evidence proves hungry kids are seven times as likely to have behavioural problems as well nourished youth. Only one in 16 teens receives free or subsidized food at school. The funding received to feed Toronto youth is only pennies a day. It is not enough.

In "A plea from Toronto's poorest schools: Feed our children", recently published in the Globe and Mail, well-known Toronto journalist Christie Blatchford wrote about the "critical role a full belly plays in helping children and youth succeed in school, and encouraged readers to remember the hungry children in our own city by making a donation to the Feeding Our Future program by donating to the Toronto Foundation for Student Success."

The Feeding Our Future program, launching September 2008, will serve approximately 6,000 students, attending three high schools and four middle schools, located in North York in the vicinity of Jane and Finch. This community experiences elevated rates of poverty, immigration, and violent incidents and also has the highest rate of diabetes and child obesity in all of Canada (the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences - November 2007)

• 68% of the students do not eat breakfast every day; 21% never do.
• 54% of the students do not eat lunch every day; 5% never do.

A teacher in one of the targeted Jane & Finch area schools sent a student to the office for disciplinary action. At the end of the day, it was explained that the student has only one meal per day, and only at about 8:00 p.m. every night. The food was locked up. The Vice Principal went on to say that the student's behaviour should be looked at in that context. The teacher was so moved that she brought lunch for this student every day.

Hunger is an all too familiar condition for these young people. Available grants only feed the ones in dire straits and even then, what proud teenager wants to have to beg for food. We need to be able to not only provide a sustainable food program for all of our students but also educate them about healthy food choices.

The students in these schools, ages from 10-16, struggle with issues that stem from poverty, life in a new country and all the other emotional and physical changes many of us remember well from adolescence. Many of the parents have already left for work before the students wake up. The students arise in the morning, get dressed and go to school on their own. Often, by the time they arrive at school the cafeteria has closed for the morning.

In addition, safety issues reported in the Jane & Finch area can't help but spill over into the local high schools in the community. This has been demonstrated by disruptive student behaviour at all the secondary schools in the area. Many of these issues can be directly linked to poverty in the area, inadequate housing, and hunger. When asked directly what supports were most needed, the principals of these schools unanimously agreed that they first needed to feed their students so that other supports could have an impact.

Although school-wide nutrition programs are common in Toronto’s elementary and middle schools, this will be our first secondary school nutrition program. A moderately active 17 year old boy needs as much as 2700 calories to maintain normal weight and growth. With this program every one of the 6,000 students will be able to start the day with healthy food from three food groups such as grain breads, hummus, cheese, fresh fruit, yogurt etc.

• The program costs approximately $600,000 to feed 6,000 students once per school day for the academic year.

Principals will provide daily nutrition to all students in their schools.

• Short term outcomes will include:
  1. Improved health
  2. Improved attention to school
  3. Improved behaviour
• Long term outcomes will include:
  1. Improved graduation rates
  2. Reduced incidence of violence in the school and community
  3. Reduced incidence of diabetes and hypertension
  4. Improved nutrition for entire families

The Need

In 2008, in our wealthy city of Toronto, more than 36% of children live in poverty. The most recent United Way report outlined that the average family income in our city is $10,000 below the provincial average. Ontario has been called the child poverty capital of Canada and regrettably Toronto is then the child poverty capital within Ontario. In our Toronto, one in three of our children still lives in poverty.

Many of these same children come to school hungry. A recent survey conducted by the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) revealed that 41% of our children come to school without having eaten breakfast. We know that we are not reaching all our hungry secondary students. We know many nutrition programs forgo milk to stretch their money. Although, the Toronto Foundation for Student Success (TFSS) supports over 490 breakfast, lunch and snack programs which feed over 83,000 children each school day, there is still much work to do.

Add to hunger, the other family stresses that poverty brings - many of these same families are new to Canada and are also struggling with the associated challenges of adapting to a new culture and often a new language. Compounding that in thousands of cases are children who cannot see the blackboard or who cannot hear their teacher.
Often, hunger, poverty and frustration lead to anti-social behaviour or hopelessness. Our support of mentoring programs such as the Student Success Mentoring Initiative Mentoring program has been making inroads with children who previously thought they were invisible.

Nutrition Programs

Nutrition programs are school community based, with a local advisory committee consisting of school administration, teachers, parents and other community volunteers. This group oversees the program operations from bookkeeping to menu planning. Student nutrition programs support learning readiness. Elementary and secondary schools are serving food as part of the regular school day so that students wanting to learn but too hungry to concentrate, can fully participate in the classroom. Well nourished students are ready and able to learn. School based nutrition programs serve 83,000 students from Kindergarten to Grade 12. The meals are nutritious and healthy and sustained by a strong partnership investment from the city of Toronto and the province of Ontario to ensure student success.

However, this is just not enough to cover the complete cost of a meal. Funding only subsidizes approximately 24 cents on the dollar for every meal served for elementary schools and approximately 46 cents for secondary schools. Programs cannot afford the cost of fresh fruits and vegetables which is a crucial component required to meet nutritional values of the meals served.

Poverty is a reality for these children. The income level of families in these neighbourhoods is limited and at times even below the minimum standards. Parents are finding themselves facing critical food shortages at home. After paying the rent and utilities very little is left for nutritious food which tends to be more expensive. One of our administrators, a principal at Elmbank Junior Middle Academy captures the crisis best and has told us that “many children have responsibilities far beyond their young years.”

Stories:

• Level the Playfield - An Argos/TFSS Invitiative
• Student Trustee Gorick Ng - Bringing the Student Voice to the Boardroom