BREAKFAST FOR LEARNING AGREES THAT CANADA HAS THE CAPACITY TO ERADICATE HUNGER

TORONTO, ON - May 16, 2012 - Breakfast for Learning, Canada’s leading national child nutrition charity commends the UN Special Rappateur Olivier De Schutter for confirming that Canada does indeed have the capacity to eradicate hunger and supports his position that Canada is in need of a national right to food strategy.

At a press conference today in Ottawa Mr. De Schutter highlighted the importance of addressing barriers that keep Canadians from accessing nutritious food.   With poverty affecting some 3 million Canadians, of whom more than 600,000 are children and a staggering 1 in 4 children from Aboriginal families living in poverty, Breakfast for Learning agrees that steps need to be taken to address hunger and access to nutritious food for Canada’s most vulnerable citizens.

Breakfast for Learning attended several civil society meetings with the Special Rappateur in attendance and was highly encouraged by his approach and ability to synthesize the amount of information related to the issue of food insecurity in Canada.   We were also highly encouraged by his reference to “school breakfast and lunch programs [that operate in local communities] in the absence of a national policy in this regard.”

Breakfast for Learning has long held the position that organizations such as ours need to work together with government(s), and other non-governmental organizations, including the corporate sector, to develop collaborative solutions to eradicate childhood hunger in Canada.  We look forward to realizing our dream of a country where every child and youth receives the nutrition they need to thrive, and to continuing our collaboration with the federal, provincial and territorial governments in making this dream a reality.

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About Breakfast for Learning

Working to ensure every child in Canada attends school well-nourished and ready to learn, Breakfast for Learning helps to educate and empower communities to start and sustain school-affiliated child nutrition programs through the provision of: grants, equipment, child nutrition resources, and access to a team of registered dieticians. In the 2011-2012 school year, Breakfast for Learning provided funding to over 4,680 programs, helping to serve healthy meals and snacks to 459,458 children and youth. For more information, visit www.breakfastforlearning.ca.

For more information contact:
Katrina Cinelli - Manager, Marketing and Communications, Breakfast for Learning
Phone: 1.800.627.7922 ext. 231   Email: kcinelli@breakfastforlearning.ca

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